The Use Of Instructional Humor In Senior High School English Teaching

Humor, a linguistic phenomenon as well as a cultural phenomenon, plays significant roles not only in social communication but also in classroom teaching because of its various functions. When used in social communication, it can arouse others’ interest, relieve pressure and promote cooperation. When used in classroom teaching, it may arouse students’ interest, maintain their attention, lower their anxiety and establish a better teacher-student relationship. Since humor is a pervasive phenomenon in our lives, it has been studied for nearly one thousand years. Most of the related research are on the field of psychology, sociology, literature and linguistics, etc, whereas the history of the humor study in the field of education, is not so long as the history of the above research. The study on instructional humor (IH) did not occur until the late1950s, and most of them were conducted in western countries, while most of the related research in China are the introduction or only extension of the research from western countries. Thus, the current research aims to enrich the theories of IH and to promote the formation of the theoretical system in our country by investigating the use of IH in senior high school English teaching.The frequency, types and effects are the main research questions discussed in the study. In order to make the research findings incisive and reliable, both quantitative and qualitative research methods are adopted in the study. Two versions of questionnaires are designed according to the related literature and the three research questions for investigating both students’ and teachers’ perceptions of IH in foreign language teaching. Then, classroom observation is also conducted to validate the data collected by questionnaire. Tens sessions given by four English teachers in Enan Senior High School are observed and all the IH used by the teachers are recorded. All the data from questionnaire and classroom observation are analyzed in EXCEL after the data collection. Afterwards, the three research questions, i.e. the frequency, types and effects of IH are discussed according to the data analysis. The research findings indicate that the average frequency of humor use per class by the English teachers in China is rather lower when compared with the frequency of humor use per class by teachers in western countries shown by previous study. The average number of humor use by the teachers per40-minute class is1.1in the study. Additionally, the research shows that different teachers use different numbers of humor, and even the same teacher uses humor differently in various classes. It seems that expert teachers tend to use more humor than others, especially some novice teachers lacking experience of classroom interaction. Teachers prefer to use humor more frequently in classes where the students are more active and eager to learn English. Furthermore, the study investigates the types of IH. The collected data indicate that students prefer verbal humor than non-verbal humor in English classes, which is perhaps the result that the verbal IH can help them improve learning effectiveness as well as arouse learning motivation. The results from both questionnaire and observation state that English teachers prefer to use verbal humor related to the teaching content and most of the IH are unplanned and students-targeted. Lastly, the study indicates that most teachers and students appreciate the positive effects of IH in English teaching. They believe that IH can be beneficial for English teaching in various aspects, such as lower the students’ anxiety, arouse their interest, establish a better teacher-students relationship and help them learn about English culture. However, some teachers and students concern about the negative effects of IH. They hold the view that some inappropriate humor may distract students and be harmful to the discipline. Some teachers declare that they do not know how to use humor effectively in English teaching. It seems that it is essential for the research to point out some practical ways to help English teachers use IH appropriately and effectively. Therefore, some suggestions for using IH effectively are listed in the conclusion part of the thesis based on related findings from the previous literature and the current study.All in all, IH can be beneficial in various aspects, like improve learning and teaching effectiveness, when it is used appropriately in senior high school English teaching. However, it is impossible to require all the teachers to use the same humor in English teaching because they are different in humor orientation, characteristics and teaching styles. Humor used in classroom is not just for entertainment, but a tool for promoting foreign language teaching and learning. What the research aims to do is to convince people that IH can be effectively used in senior high school English teaching and to some extent help the teachers to use IH appropriately.