Teachers' and students' perspectives about the use of humor to increase EFL learners willingness to participate in classroom discourse
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Date
2016
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university of Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
Humor is an essential part of any language and therefore has an impact on the way languages are acquired/learned. The use of humor in EFL across the world has been widely discussed as an effective way to create more comfortable, productive classroom environment of learning. However, there is a little body of research on the relationship between humor and participation in foreign language class. This paper investigates teachers' and students' perspectives about the use of humor to increase EFL learners' willingness to participate. Perceived causes of low participation were also examined in relation to students' and teachers' perceived importance of humor in learning / teaching process. A descriptive study was chosen to test the following hypothesis "The humorous use of language will improve EFL students' participation in classroom discourse" Targeting master one students linguistic and literature streams at L'arbi Ben M'Hidi university. The questionnaires revealed an expected positive effect of general humor usage, with a noticeable positive effect on willingness to participate. Recommendations about the appropriate use of humor along with the limitation of the study have been discussed.
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Keywords
Foreign language classroom, Teaching : english : EFL : humor