Laugh and Learn: Evaluating from Students’ Perspective of Humor Used in English Class

Abstract

Laughter is an easily reachable way that can be used to erase barriers of communication for educational purposes. The purpose of this paper is to seek out students’ perception of humor added in teaching English and how that humor influenced students’ engagement in English classroom activity. This study employs research instrument of questionnaire and observation concepts through qualitative design. There are 78 students of multi-background: gender, level of intelligence and social background as research participants. These backgroundsareintended to obtain objective perception of the students. The findings revealed that the majority of students believed the teacher’s humor could prevent them from feeling stress of learning English, develop a better relationship between teacher and students, help them remember and understand the lesson, encourage them to be more active in the classroom and ease them in learning English. However there are some obstacles to overcome during humor application that apparently the English teachers need to build a good relationship and mutual trust with students and understand students’ interests, likes and dislikes prior to applying humor, so that the humor would be more likely to be welcomed and it would not cause emotional and psychological impact such as bullying and etc for the students.

Insights from Students’ Perspective of 9GAG Humorous Memes Used in EFL Classroom

“…This research is included as qualitative research which tries to add insights in innovative teaching method. In this type of research, the researcher obtains elaboration of peculiar phenomena and is prohibited to manipulate the results (Fata et al, 2018). As for the instrument, the researcher employed questionnaire, and also conducted an observation during the process.…”

“…In this case, appropriate humor does not only transform EFL classroom setting into a fun one but also motivates and encourages students to be more active during learning session (Fata, Komariah, & Irfandy, 2018). Humor as part of pedagogical tool implemented in EFL classroom is not a new thing for educators (Askildson, 2005;Azizinezhad & Hashemi, 2011;Davis, 2014;Farahani & Abdollahi, 2018;Syafiq, 2012).…”

“…Recent research by Farahani and Abdollahi (2018) stated that humor incorporated in English classroom improves EFL learners speaking ability and their willingness to communicate. Meanwhile Rima (2009), Mary (2008), Hoang (2014), and Antonio (2001 in (Fata et al, 2018) stated that humor added to English class would help students to possess higher understanding in mastering new language, because it is believed that the laughter resulted from humor is the crucial aspect to tackle barriers of communication for educational purposes. Glenn (2003) also added that these barriers include the absence of information retention, lack of attention to the topic discussed, and an unpleasant learning setting.…”

“…Also, they believe that humor positively. Marlon (2008) in (Fata et al, 2018) claimed that the utilization of humor in EFL setting resonates many positive outcomes. It makes the students feeling relax, reduces tension and makes them less stressful which results to the effectiveness of learning second language (Hibatullah & Ardlillah, 2019).…”

Incorporating 9GAG Memes to Develop EFL Learners’ Speaking Ability and Willingness to Communicate

“…Using humour in the classroom is impactful in escalating class' atmosphere into a relaxing, comforting, and tension-reducing setting. Furthermore, it is not only maintain/increase learners' interest and mood, the teacher image is also humanely maintained (Al-Duleimi & Aziz, 2016;Fata, Komariah, & Irfandy, 2018;Phakiti, 2006;Algafar, 2017;Wagner & Urios-Aparisi, 2011). Unfortunately, teachers are scared of using humour in the class because they believe they may be losing their authority; therefore, it needs to be put away (Azizinezhad & Hashemi, 2011).…”