A substantial body of research emphasizes the importance of humor in teaching/learning processes; however, research on the reasons for non-use of humor in academic contexts has enjoyed scant attention. Addressing this gap, this study examines the reasons for instructors' humor avoidance taking into account student perceived benefits of using humor in academic ESL classrooms. Data were collected through an open-response questionnaire. Participants in a university in Malaysia were asked to provide their views on: (a) the reasons some instructors avoid using humor, and (b) the benefits of using humor in L2 classes. Responses were grouped into relating categories and content analyzed. "Humor is not in their personality," "they lack competence to create humor in L2," and "they are more syllabus-oriented" were the most frequently cited reasons for the non-use of instructor humor. Perceived benefits of instructor humor were placed into three major categories: psychological, social and instructional. Implications of these findings are explored within the content of second language education.

Instructor humor serves a wide range of functions in educational contexts. This paper reports on a study that investigated the functions of instructors' humorous verbalizations in academic classrooms at a university where English is used as a second language. Data were collected through audio-recordings and classroom observations. The results of an inductive analysis led to the development of three major categories, namely "foregrounding form", "reinforcing meaning" and "highlighting cultural dissimilarities". These categories represented the strategies that served as instructional functions of humor in the context of L2 (second language) education. Findings indicate that using verbal humor in L2 classrooms offers opportunities to facilitate access to L2 linguistic and cultural knowledge resources that are embedded in humorous exchanges. Additionally, the findings suggest that L2 instructors must have specific (socio) linguistic and sociocultural humor competence to use humor to engage learners and communicate finer aspects of the L2. The implications of the findings are explored within the context of second language learning and teaching.