WHAT CAN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS LEARN FROM MULTIDISCIPLINARY HUMOUR RESEARCH

Sanja R.  Josifović-Elezović

doi:10.21618/fil2124222j

Autor/innen

Sanja R. Josifović-Elezović University of Banja Luka Faculty of Philology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21618/fil2124222j

Schlagworte:

education, foreign language, humour, learners, teachers, teaching

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the advantages of the employment of humour in foreign language teaching for teachers and adult learners. How could teachers and learners in foreign language instruction benefit from improved humour awareness and developed humour competence? The paper reviews major definitions, theories, functions, and types of humour from multidisciplinary humour research, and examines the role of humour in foreign language instruction in view of important empirical findings and current requirements for foreign language speakers as stated in Common European Reference for Languages (2020). Conclusions suggest which kinds of humour should be incorporated into a contemporary foreign language classroom, and why. Further study recommendations are proposed that would allow for more eﬀective applications of humour in modern adult foreign language education.

Literaturhinweise

Askildson, Lance (2005), Eﬀects of humor in the language classroom: Humor as a pedagogical tool in theory and practice. Arizona Working Papers in SLAT, 12.

Attardo, Salvatore (1994), Linguistic Theories of Humour. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Attardo, Salvatore (2017), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor. Abingdon: Routledge.

Banas, John A., Norah Dunbar, Dariela Rodriguez, Shr-Jie Liu (2011), A Review of Humor in Educational Settings: Four Decades of Research. Communication Education, 60: 1, 115 -144. DOI: 10.1080/03634523.2010.496867

Bell, Nancy and Anne Pomerantz (2016), Humor in the Classroom: A Guide for Language Teachers and Educational Researchers. New York: Routledge.

Booth-Butterfield, Steven and Melanie Booth-Butterfield (1991), Individual diﬀerences in the communication of humorous message. Southern Communication Journal, 56, 205-217.

Booth-Butterfield, Melanie and Melissa Wanzer (2010), Humorous communication as goal-oriented communication. In D. Fassett & J. Warren (Eds.), SAGE Handbook of Communication and Instruction. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Bryant, Jennings, Paul Comisky, and Dolph Zillmann (1979), Teachers’ humor in the college classroom. Communication Education, 28, 110-118. DOI:10.1080/03634527909378339

Carrell, Amy (1997), Joke competence and humor competence. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Vol. 10:2. 173-185.

Council of Europe (2001), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Council of Europe (2020), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment – Companion volume. Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg. Available at www.coe.int/lang-cefr.

Deneire, Marc (1995), Humor and foreign language teaching. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 8(3), 285-298. DOI:10.1515/humr.1995.8.3.285

Eagleton, Terry (2019), Humour. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Fry, William F. (1994), The biology of humor. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 7 (2), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1994.7.2.111

Frymier, Ann B., Melissa B. Wanzer, & Ann M. Wojtaszczyk (2008), Assessing Students’ Perceptions of Inappropriate and Appropriate Teacher Humor, Communication Education 57, 266-288. DOI:10.1080/03634520701687183

Garner, Randy L. (2006), Humor in pedagogy: how ha-ha can lead to aha!. College Teaching, 54, 177-179. DOI:10.3200/CTCH.54.1.177-180

Gervais, Matthew & David S. Wilson (2005), The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: A synthetic approach. Quarterly Review of Biology, 80, 395-430. DOI: 10.1086/498281

Gorham, Joan and Diane M. Christophel (1990), The relationship of teachers’ use of humor in the classroom to immediacy and student learning. Communication Education, 39, 46-62. DOI:10.1080/03634529009378786

Hativa, Nira (2001), Teaching for eﬀective learning in higher education. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Hay, Jennifer (2000), Functions of humor in the conversations of men and women. Journal of Pragmatics, 32, 709-742. DOI:10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00069-7

Kaplan, Robert M., and Gregory C. Pascoe (1977), Humorous lectures and humorous examples: Some eﬀects upon comprehension and retention. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 61-65. DOI: 10.1037%2F0022-0663.69.1.61

Krashen, Stephen D. (1982), Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Krikmann, Arvo (2006), Contemporary linguistic theories of humour. In Folklore: Electronic journal of folklore 33, 27-58. DOI:10.7592/FEJF2006.33.KRIKU

Martin, Rod A., Patricia Puhlik-Doris, Gwen Larsen, Jeanette Gray, and Kelly Weir (2003), Individual diﬀerences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality 37 (1) 48–75. DOI:10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00534-2

Martin, Rod A. (2007), The psychology of humor: an integrative approach. Burlington: Elsevier Academic Press.

McGraw, Peter A., and Caleb Warren (2010), Benign violations: Making immoral behavior funny. Psychological Science, 21(8), 1141–1149. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0956797610376073

McGraw, Peter (2010, October). What makes things funny. [Video]. TEDxTalks. TEDxBoulder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysSgG5V-R3U&t=167s

Medgyes, Peter (2002), Laughing matters: Humour in the language classroom. Cambridge: CUP.

Morreall, John (2020), "Philosophy of Humor", Te Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2020/entries/humor/

Mulder, Martin P. and Antinus Nijholt (2002), Humour Research: State of the Art. CTIT technical report series, 02. University of Twente, The Netherlands.

Peterson, Christopher and Martin E. P. Seligman (2004), Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classifcation. American Psychological Association; Oxford University Press.

Raskin, Victor (1985), Semantic mechanisms of humor. Dordrecht and Boston, MA: Reidel.

Savage, Brandon M., Heidi L.Lujan, Raghavendar R. Tipparthi, and Stephen E. DiCarlo (2017), Humor, laughter, learning, and health! A brief review. Advances in physiology education, 41(3), 341–347. DOI: 10.1152/advan.00030.2017

Schmitz, John R. (2002), Humor as a pedagogical tool in foreign language and translation courses. Humor 15 (1), 89-113. DOI:10.1515/humor.2002.007

Teslow, James L. (1995), Humor me: A call for research. Educational Technology Research & Development, 43, 3, 6-28. DOI: 10.1007/bf02300453

Wanzer, Melissa B., Melanie Booth-Butterfield, and Steven Booth-Butterfield (1995). The funny people: A source orientation to the communication of humor. Communication Quarterly, 43, 142-154. DOI:10.1080/01463379509369965

Wanzer, Melissa B., and Ann B. Frymier (1999), The relationship between student perceptions of instructor humor and students’ reports of learning. Communication Education, 48, 48-61. DOI:10.1080/03634529909379152

Wanzer, Melissa B., Melanie Booth-Butterfield, and Steven Booth-Butterfield (2005), If we didn’t use humor, we’d die: Humorous coping in health care settings. Journal of Health Communication, 10, 105-125. DOI:10.1080/10810730590915092

Wanzer, Melissa B., Ann B. Frymier, Ann M. Wojtaszczyk, & Tony Smith (2006), Appropriate and Inappropriate Uses of Humor by Teachers. Communication Education, 55(2), 178–196. DOI:10.1080/03634520600566132

Wanzer, Melissa B., Ann B. Frymier, & Jeﬀrey Irwin (2010), An explanation of the relationship between instruction humor and student learning : Instructional humor processing theory. Communication Education, 59, 118. DOI:10.1080/03634520903367238

Ziv, Avner (1988), Teaching and Learning with Humor: Experiment and Replication. Journal of Experimental Education, 57 (1), 5–15.