The Effect of Teacher's Use of Humor on EFL Learners' Information Retention: The Case Study of Fourth Year Pupils at Bellafdhal Bayazid & Nouioui Touhami Middle Schools
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Date
2020
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Publisher
UNIVERSITY OF ABBES LAGHROUR-KHENCHELA
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The present study aims at investigating the status of humor in the Algerian program of teaching English in the middle school and emphasizes the importance of humor in the language teaching/learning processes. First, it examines the teacher’s views and awareness regarding the significance of humor integration as an instructional strategy in the ELT process, however, research on the reasons for non-use of humor in academic contexts has joined. Second, it examines the learner’s attitude towards humor as a teaching strategy and how it can influence EFL learners’ information retention. In order to obtain a deeper understanding about the topic a concurrent mixed methods design was used .The researchers utilized the three data collection methods, four teacher interviews , seventy pupil questionnaires , and classroom observation. Findings indicated that the majority of the teachers considered that the lesson was effective when they embodied humor based on pupils’ laughter, attention and engagement in terms of pupils getting the key points of the lesson easier. A great majority of the students (85%) strongly agreed that humor helped them retain information easily. Overall, the findings revealed that the two hypotheses are confirmed; the effective use of humor in classroom increases and sustains EFL pupils’ information retention and leads to a classroom atmosphere conducive to learning. Teachers must be careful not to use inappropriate humor that could be offensive or at the expense of the leaner because it sometimes leads to discipline problems and this requires knowledge of what, when, and how to use it. Accordingly, this work ends with some suggestions and recommendations that are likely to improve the learning environment and the instruction in the Algerian Middle School.