Abstract
Despite humor’s promise as an educational tool in language learning contexts, questions of appropriateness, cultural sensitivity, and student expectations cannot be ignored. This is especially the case in a culture such as Japan where the time and place for humor is often dictated by the social norms of “warai no ba” or “laughter places.” In order to better understand the role of humor from the Japanese language learner’s perspective, the researchers conducted a survey of 918 university students across Japan to elicit their views on such areas as the importance of humor for language learning and proficiency as well as its significance in understanding cultural differences. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results indicate that most participants strongly favored inclusion of humor as part of the classroom experience but that cultural differences must be carefully considered by instructors. Furthermore, while variables such as gender and academic discipline did not have a significant effect on the results, the English proficiency of the participants did, with more proficient learners indicating a greater degree of comfort and cultural understanding from use of in-class humor than those with lesser ability.
References
Aboudan, Rima. 2009. Laugh and learn: Humor and learning a second language. International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3(3). 90–99.Search in Google Scholar
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. 45–61.Search in Google Scholar
Attardo, Salvatore. 1994. Linguistic theories of humor. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Banas, John A., Norah Dunbar, Dariela Rodrigeuz & Shr-Jie Liu. 2011. A review of humor in educational settings: Four decades of research. Communication Education 60(1). 115–144.10.1080/03634523.2010.496867Search in Google Scholar
Bell, Nancy D. 2006. Interactional adjustments in humorous intercultural communication. Intercultural Pragmatics 3(1). 1–28.10.1515/IP.2006.001Search in Google Scholar
Bell, Nancy D. 2007. How native and non-native English speakers adapt to humor in intercultural interaction. Humor 20(1). 27–48.10.1515/HUMOR.2007.002Search in Google Scholar
Bell, Nancy D. 2009. Learning about and through humor in the second language classroom. Language Teaching Research 13(3). 241–258.10.1177/1362168809104697Search in Google Scholar
Bell, Nancy D. & Anne Pomerantz. 2014. Reconsidering language teaching through a focus on humor. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages 1(1). 31–47.10.21283/2376905X.1.15Search in Google Scholar
Bennett, Janet M. & Milton J. Bennett. 2004. Developing intercultural sensitivity: An integrative approach to global and domestic diversity. In D. Landis, J. Bennett & M. Bennett (eds.), Handbook of intercultural training (3rd ed.), 147–165. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing.10.4135/9781452231129.n6Search in Google Scholar
Boerman-Cornell, William. 1999. The five humors. The English Journal 84(4). 66–69.10.2307/822422Search in Google Scholar
Bryant, Jennings, Paul W. Comisky, Jon S. Crane & Dolf Zillman. 1980. Relationship between college teachers’ use of humor in the classroom and students’ evaluation of their teachers. Journal of Education Psychology 72. 511–519.10.1037/0022-0663.72.4.511Search in Google Scholar
Byram, Michael. 1997. Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.Search in Google Scholar
Byram, Michael & Karen Risager. 1999. Language teachers, politics, and cultures. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.Search in Google Scholar
Cates, Kip. 2004. Becoming a global teacher: Ten steps to an international classroom. The Language Teacher 28(7). 31–35.Search in Google Scholar
Cook, Guy. 2000. Language play, language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Cornett, Claudia. 1986. Learning through laughter: Humor in the classroom. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.Search in Google Scholar
Coskrey, Jason. 2012. Foreign players’ message sometimes lost in translation. The Japan Times. 18 June 2012. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Davies, Catherine E. 2003. How English-learners joke with native speakers: An interactional sociolinguistic perspective on humor as collaborative discourse across cultures. Journal of Pragmatics 35. 1361–1385.10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00181-9Search in Google Scholar
Deneire, Marc. 1995. Humor and foreign language teaching. Humor 8. 285–298.10.1515/humr.1995.8.3.285Search in Google Scholar
Forman, Ross. 2011. Humorous language play in a Thai EFL classroom. Applied Linguistics 32(5). 541–565.10.1093/applin/amr022Search in Google Scholar
Gardner, Scott. 2008. Three ways humor helps in the language classroom. The Language Teacher 32(6). 9–14.Search in Google Scholar
Glenn, Robert. 2002. Brain research: Practical applications for the classroom. Teaching for Excellence 21(6). 1–2.Search in Google Scholar
Gorham, Joan & Diane M. Christophel. 1990. The relationship of teachers’ use of humor in the classroom to immediacy and student learning. Communication Education 39. 46–62.10.1080/03634529009378786Search in Google Scholar
Hayati, A. Majid, Zohreh Gooniband Shooshtari & Nahid Shakeri. 2011. Using humorous texts in improving reading comprehension of EFL learners. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 1(6). 652–651.10.4304/tpls.1.6.652-661Search in Google Scholar
Hill, Deborah J. 1988. Humor in the classroom: A handbook for teachers (and other entertainers). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.Search in Google Scholar
Hodson, Richard. 2008a. Challenges for EFL learners in understanding English humour: A pilot study. Journal of the Faculty of Global Education, University of Nagasaki 9. 25–36.Search in Google Scholar
Hodson, Richard. 2008b. Media humour in the language classroom. Proceedings of CLaSIC 2008. 669–679.Search in Google Scholar
Iwabuchi, Koichi. 1994. Complicit exoticism: Japan and its other. Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media and Culture, 8(2). 49–82.10.1080/10304319409365669Search in Google Scholar
Kher, Neelam, Susan Molstad & Roberta Donahue. 1999. Using humor in the college classroom to enhance teaching effectiveness in “dread courses.” College Student Journal 33. 400–408.Search in Google Scholar
Kim, Jiyun. 2014. How Korean EFL learners understand sarcasm in L2 English. Journal of Pragmatics 60. 193–206.10.1016/j.pragma.2013.08.016Search in Google Scholar
Kramsch, Claire. 2008. Ecological perspectives on foreign language education. Language Teaching 41. 389–408.10.1017/S0261444808005065Search in Google Scholar
Kubota, Ryuko. 1999. Japanese culture constructed by discourses: Implications for applied linguistic research and English language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33 (1). 9–35.10.2307/3588189Search in Google Scholar
Lems, Kristin. 2013. Laughing all the way: Teaching English using puns. English Teaching Forum 51(1). 26–33.Search in Google Scholar
Linacre, J. M. 2009. Winsteps (Version 3.68.0). Chicago: Winsteps.com.Search in Google Scholar
Long, Deborah L. & Arthur C. Graesser. 1988. Wit and humor in discourse processing. Discourse Processes 11(1). 35–60.10.1080/01638538809544690Search in Google Scholar
Lin Angel MY & Jasmine Luk. 2005. Local creativity in the face of global domination: Insights of Bakhtin for teaching English for dialogic communication. In Joan Kelly Hall, Gergana Vitanova & Ludmila A. Marchenkova (eds.), Dialogue with Bakhtin on second and foreignlanguage learning: New perspectives, 77–98. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Search in Google Scholar
Mandler, Jean M. 1979. Categorical and schematic organization in memory. In Richard C. Puff (ed.), Memory, organization, and structure, 259–299. New York: Academic Press.Search in Google Scholar
Markee, Numa. 2004. Zones of interactional transition in ESL classes. The Modern Language Journal 88(4). 583–596.10.1111/j.0026-7902.2004.t01-20-.xSearch in Google Scholar
McGraw, Peter & Joel Warner. 2014. The humor code: A global search for what makes things funny. New York: Simon & Schuster.Search in Google Scholar
Milner Davis, Jessica. 2006. Introduction. In Jessica Milner Davis (ed.), Understanding humor in Japan, 1–14. Detroit: Wayne Street University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Minchew, Sue S. & Peggy F. Hopper. 2008. Techniques for using humor and fun in the language arts classroom. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas 81(5). 232–236.10.3200/TCHS.81.5.232-236Search in Google Scholar
Mori, Rie. 2002. Entrance examinations and remedial education in Japanese higher education. Higher Education 43. 27–42.10.1023/A:1012999527910Search in Google Scholar
Morrison, Mary Kay. 2008. Using humor to maximize learning: The links between positive emotions and education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.Search in Google Scholar
Nakata, Yoshiyuki. 2006. Motivation and experience in foreign language learning. Bern: Peter Lang.Search in Google Scholar
Neuliep, James. 1991. An examination of the content of high school teachers’ humor in the classroom and the development of an inductively derived taxonomy of classroom humor. Communication Education 40. 343–355.10.1080/03634529109378859Search in Google Scholar
Oda, Shōkichi. 2006. Laughter and the traditional Japanese smile. In Jessica Milner Davis (ed.), Understanding humor in Japan, 15–26. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Olojoke, Susan Akinkurolere. 2013. Students’ perception on the use of humor in the teaching of English as a second language in Nigeria. International Education Research 1(2). 65–73.10.12735/ier.v1i2p65Search in Google Scholar
Oshima, Kimie. 2013. An examination for styles of Japanese humor: Japan’s funniest story project 2010 to 2011. Intercultural Communication Studies 22(2). 91–109.Search in Google Scholar
Pomerantz, Anne & Nancy D. Bell. 2011. Humor as safe house in the foreign language classroom. The Modern Language Journal 95(1). 148–161.10.1111/j.1540-4781.2011.01274.xSearch in Google Scholar
Rafiee, Marzieh, Zohre Kassaian & Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi. 2010. The application of humorous song in EFL classrooms and its effects on listening comprehension. English Language Teaching 3(4). 100–108.10.5539/elt.v3n4p100Search in Google Scholar
Reimann, Andrew. 2010. Intercultural communication and the essence of humour. Utsunomiya University Journal of International Studies 29. 23–34.Search in Google Scholar
Ruggieri, Colleen A. 1999. Laugh and learn: Using humor to teach tragedy. English Journal 88(4). 53–59.10.2307/822419Search in Google Scholar
Schmitz, John Robert. 2002. Humor as a pedagogical tool in foreign language and translation courses. Humor 15(1). 89–114.10.1515/humr.2002.007Search in Google Scholar
Stanley, Phiona. 2008. ‘The foreign teacher is an idiot’: Symbolic interactionism, and assumptions About language and language teaching in China. Linguistics & The Human Sciences 4(1). 67–89.10.1558/lhs.v4i1.67Search in Google Scholar
Sullivan, Patricia. 2000. Playfulness as mediation in a Vietnamese classroom. In J.P. Lantolf (ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning, 115–130. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Swanson, Peter B. 2013. Spanish teachers’ sense of humor and student performance on the national Spanish exams. Foreign Language Annals 46(2). 146–166.10.1111/flan.12031Search in Google Scholar
Takekuro, Makiko. 2006. Conversational jokes in Japanese and English. In Jessica Milner Davis, (ed.), Understanding humor in Japan, 85–98. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Torok, Sarah E., Robert F. McMorris & Wen-Chi Lin. 2004. Is humor an appreciated teaching tool? Perceptions of professors’ teaching styles and use of humor. College Teaching 52(1). 14–20.10.3200/CTCH.52.1.14-20Search in Google Scholar
Van Dam, Jet. 2002. Ritual, face, and play in a first English lesson: Bootstrapping a classroom culture. In Claire Kramsch (ed.), Language acquisition and language socialization: Ecological perspectives, 237–265. London: Continuum.Search in Google Scholar
Wang, Yu. 2014. Humor in British academic lectures and Chinese students’ perceptions of it. Journal of Pragmatics 68. 80–93.10.1016/j.pragma.2014.05.003Search in Google Scholar
Wanzer, Melissa B., Ann B. Frymier & Jeffrey Irwin. 2010. An explanation of the relationship between instructor humor and student learning: Instructional humor processing theory. Communication Education 59(1). 1–18.10.1080/03634520903367238Search in Google Scholar
Wiseman, Richard. 2002. Website “LaughLab.” http://www.laughlab.co.uk/ (accessed 10 March 2016).Search in Google Scholar
Wulf, Douglas. 2010. A humor competence curriculum. TESOL Quarterly 44(1). 155–169.10.5054/tq.2010.215250Search in Google Scholar
Yoshino, Kosaku. 1992. Cultural nationalism in contemporary Japan. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Zhang, Qin. 2005. Immediacy, humor, power distance, and classroom communication apprehension in Chinese college classrooms. Communication Quarterly 53. 109–124.10.1080/01463370500056150Search in Google Scholar
Ziv, Avern. 1988. Teaching and learning with humor: Experiment and replication. Journal of Experimental Education 57. 5–15.10.1080/00220973.1988.10806492Search in Google Scholar
Ziyaeemehr, Ali & Vijay Kumar. 2014. The relationship between instructor humor orientation and students’ report on second language learning. International Journal of Instruction 7(1). 91–106.Search in Google Scholar
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston