An investigation into the use of humor in first year english speaking classes at hue university college of foreign languages

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - LE THI PHUONG CHI AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF HUMOR IN FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT HUE UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN EDUCATION HUE, 2012 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - LE THI PHUONG CHI AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF HUMOR IN FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT HUE UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.10 MA THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: DR TRUONG BACH LE HUE, 2012 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ - LÊ THỊ PHƯƠNG CHI ĐIỀU TRA VỀ VIỆC ỨNG DỤNG CÁC LOẠI HÌNH HÀI HƯỚC VÀO CÁC LỚP HỌC KỸ NĂNG NĨI TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ NHẤT TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ CHUYÊN NGÀNH: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY - HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SỸ GIÁO DỤC HỌC NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS TRƯƠNG BẠCH LÊ HUẾ, 2012 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that the information reported in this paper is the result of my own work, except where due reference is made The data and findings are true and with permission from associates The thesis has not been submitted for any other degree or diploma or appeared in any other media Author Le Thi Phuong Chi Acknowledgements I would never have been able to finish this thesis without the guidance of my supervisor, help from my friends, and support from my family I would like to begin by offering my gratitude to my advisor, Dr Truong Bach Le, for his enthusiastic guidance and insightful supervision throughout the research He both guided me to orientate the study and allowed this research to grow into what it has become His knowledge and commitment to the highest of standards inspired and motivated me Most importantly, he has spent time correcting and giving advice to my every piece of work I owe him a thank you for his patience and tolerance of all my downsides as well as an apology for my shortcomings as a toddler going through life I would like to thank my lovely respectful colleague, Hoang Thi Khanh Tam, for blowing up my courage and determination throughout this process We never stopped laughing all along the way She has spent time on giving comments to my pieces of work and substituted for me to go to school during the days I was busy with this thesis and had problems with my health I am grateful to my buddy, Ngo Thi Hong Tham, my good friend, Nguyen Nu Anh Hong, and my junior colleagues for their available help and warm support when my time budget ran out I am indebted to my families for their boundless support and love, for all encouragement, and sacrifice they have been making for me I keep here a thank you and an apology to my mother for what she gave me A special thank to my husband, my eternal cheerleader, my flame holder, for his presence in my life to love me and never lose faith in me These days when I had health problems and was not able to move or get out of home, his burden of workload seemed to multiply on his shoulder His dedicated sleepless nights to formatting my thesis before the due day after continuously sleepless nights working at the hospital made me moved when I suddenly woke up at midnight and saw him ceaselessly clicking and typing on the keyboard ABSTRACT English humor is an instrument with great potential benefits for teachers and learners as it is a rich source of authentic and cultural input It can be considered as a catalyst, a stimulus to motivate students, enliven the classroom atmosphere, build up the teacher-student rapport, and cognitively help students‟ learning procedure This study is an attempt to make an investigation into the use of humor in first-year English speaking classes at Hue University - College of Foreign Languages It has been constructed to obtain the aims of examining the students‟ favorite humor types during the teacher-researcher‟s use as well as the students‟ challenges in comprehending humor Most importantly, the extent to which humor has beneficial effects on second language learning in speaking classes at HUCFL, the researcher‟s local context, would be definitely illuminated The data collection tools consisted of sets of questionnaire, evaluation forms, interviews, and teacher‟s diaries Data collected from quantitative instruments were transferred into tabulation in form of statistical frequency and percentage Transcripts of the interviews and the diaries were also cited for interpretation The analysis showed that humor noticeably benefited learning in first-year English speaking classes at HUCFL in many perspectives Plus, the results from both qualitative data and quantitative data indicated that the appropriateness of humor types to students was different from type to type in the researcher‟s oral skill teaching context The challenges causing the students‟ difficulty in humor comprehension were also explored and ranked as follows: vocabulary, background knowledge, and grammar By the way, the limitations of the study were examined, and a number of potential avenues for future research were suggested M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………… .iv ABSTRACT Error! Bookmark not defined TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Background to the study .1 1.2 Research aims .3 1.3 Research questions .4 1.4 Research topic 1.5 Research scope 1.6 Research significance 1.7 Organization of the research .5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Definition of humor 2.3 Theories of humor 10 2.3.1 Psychological Humor Theories .10 2.3.2 Linguistic Humor Theory 13 2.4 The Value of Humor in Language Class 16 2.4.1 Psychological benefits 17 2.4.2 Instructional/ Communication benefits 18 2.4.3 Cognitive benefits 19 2.4.4 Socio-linguistic and cultural benefits 20 2.5 Types of humor .21 2.6 Appropriate and Inappropriate use of Humor in education 25 2.7 Situation of teaching oral skill in Viet Nam .38 Lê Thị Phương Chi vi M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 2.8 Research gaps 39 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 40 3.1 Introduction 40 3.2 The Research Site .40 3.3 Research Approaches .41 3.4 Research Participants 42 3.4.1 Student participants .42 3.4.2 Teacher-researcher 43 3.5 Data collection 43 3.5.1 Questionnaire .45 3.5.2 Evaluation 46 3.5.3 Diary 46 3.5.4 Interview 47 3.6 Data analysis methods 47 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 49 4.1 Introduction 49 4.2 The appropriate types of humor for the first-year students in English speaking classes at HUCFL .49 4.3 The extent to which the use of humor benefits learning in first-year English speaking classes at HUCFL .57 4.3.1 Humor and speaking classroom atmosphere 57 4.3.2 Humor and teacher-student rapport .60 4.3.3 Humor and students‟ interest in learning speaking English 62 4.3.4 Humor and students‟ speaking learning 63 4.3.5 Students‟ generation of funny English communication in each speaking class session .66 4.3.6 The students‟ desired amount of humor for a typical class session ………………………………………………………………… 67 4.3.7 The importance of humor to language learning in the classroom 69 4.3.8 Students‟ overall evaluation of the humor effectiveness in speaking classes 70 Lê Thị Phương Chi vii M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 4.4 First-year students‟ challenges in understanding humor in English speaking classes at HUCFL .71 4.5 Summary 73 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 74 5.1 Introduction 74 5.2 Restatement of the Study Purposes 74 5.3 Summary of the Findings 74 5.4 Implications of the Study 76 5.5 Limitations of the Study 78 5.6 Recommendations for Further Research 78 References Error! 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Bookmark not defined Lê Thị Phương Chi viii M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.5.a: Types of Humor 22 Table 2.5.b: Types of humor (Hay, 1995) 23 Table 2.6.a: Twenty-item Taxonomy of High School Teacher Humor 25 Table 2.6.b: Categories and Subcategories of Appropriate Teacher Humor 28 Table 2.6.c: Categories and Subcategories of Inappropriate Teacher Humor 33 Table 3.5: Description of data collection instruments 43 Table 4.4: Challenges of using humor in first year English speaking classes at HUCFL 71 Lê Thị Phương Chi ix M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Do you find the humor applied in class today easy to understand? (very (difficult) (normal) (easy) (very easy) difficult) What are some difficulties you encounter when dealing with the type of humor today? Put a tick () into the appropriate blank, and clarify if you have other ideas Difficulty Tick () Vocabulary Grammar Background knowledge (target culture, values, ethics) Others: ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Lê Thị Phương Chi xiv M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 How would you rate the effectiveness of the type of humor applied in your class today? (totally (slightly ineffective) ineffectiv (moderately (effective) effective) (extremely effective) e) Please specify the reason(s) for your answer: ……………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your time and cooperation! Lê Thị Phương Chi xv M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 APPENDIX Ngày: … / … / 2012 PHIẾU ĐÁNH GIÁ (Dành cho sinh viên) Thông tin cá nhân Lớp ………………………………………………………………………………… Tuổi………………………………………………………………………………… Bạn học tiếng Anh bao lâu? Giới Nam Nữ Ví dụ: Khoanh trịn số mà bọn chọn trả lời cho câu hỏi Bạn có thích loại hình hài hước ứng dụng lớp học hôm không? Hồn khơng tồn Rất Một Đáng kể Cực kỳ Vui lịng nêu rõ lý cho câu trả lời trên: ………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Lê Thị Phương Chi xvi M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 Bạn cảm thấy loại hình hài hước ứng dụng hơm dễ hiểu khơng? Rất khó hiểu Khó hiểu Bình thường Dễ hiểu Rất dễ hiểu Một số khó khăn bạn gặp phải tiếp cận với loại hình hài hước ứng dụng hơm gi? Đánh dấu () vào khoảng trống thích hợp làm rõ bạn có ý kiến khác Khía cạnh Đánh dấu() Từ vựng Ngữ pháp Kiến thức (Văn hóa đích, giá trị sống, đạo đức) Khác: ……………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Bạn đánh giá hiệu loại hình hài hước ứng dụng ngày hơm mức độ nào? Hồn tồn khơng hiệu Ít hiệu Hiệu vừa Hiệu phải Lê Thị Phương Chi xvii Cực kỳ hiệu M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 Vui lòng làm rõ lý bạn chọn câu trả lời trên: …………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Cám ơn bạn dành thời gian hợp tác hoàn thành phiếu điều tra này! Lê Thị Phương Chi xviii M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 APPENDIX INTERVIEW FORM (For students) What type(s) of humor you like? Why? What is your least favorite type of humor? Why? What you think about your speaking classroom atmosphere under the humor application? What you think about the teacher-student rapport in speaking class under the humor application? How does humor increase your interest in learning speaking? In what aspect does humor help you to learn speaking? Do you create funny communication with your friends in English? How? Why you think the types of humor applied in speaking classes are effective? What is the most difficulty you have to encounter when working with the types of humor? 10 What are some disadvantages of the humor application into the speaking classroom? Lê Thị Phương Chi xix M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 APPENDIX PHIẾU PHỎNG VẤN (Dành cho sinh viên) Bạn thích loại hình hài hước nào? Tại sao? Bạn không hứng thú với loại hình hài hước nhât? Tại sao? Bạn nghĩ khơng khí lớp học có sử dụng loại hình hài hước? Bạn nghĩ mối quan hệ giáo viên học sinh lớp học nói có sử dụng loại hình hài hước? Các loại hình hài hước làm tăng niềm u thích học nói Tiếng Anh bạn nào? Các loại hình hài hước giúp bạn học nói tiếng Anh khía cạnh nào? Bạn có tạo giao tiếp hài hước với bạn bè tiếng Anh không? Bằng cách nào? Tại bạn nghĩ loại hình hài hước áp dụng lớp học nói vừa qua hiệu quả? Bạn thường gặp phải khó khăn đối mặt với loại hình hài hước? 10 Bạn cho biết hạn chế việc áp dụng loại hình hài hước lớp học nói tiếng Anh? Lê Thị Phương Chi xx M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 APPENDIX HUMOR LESSON PLAN Lesson overview Week Thursday, Feb 9, 2012 Humor types Humorous activity Stage + aims Introduction Unit description Grouping Introductio n to the Speaking Course Week Thursday, Feb 16, 2012 Getting acquainted Delivering the Pre-questionnaire Cartoon Work in groups; look at the cartoons and discuss what you can see in the picture and why you find it funny Unit 1: Fashion Trends Lê Thị Phương Chi xxi Whilespeaking M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 Lê Thị Phương Chi xxii M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Week Thursday – March 1, 2012 Unit 3: Courtesy Joke Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 Work in groups, discuss and fill in the blanks with suitable statements A man is talking to God The man: "God, how long is a million years?" God: "To me, it's about a minute." The man: "God, how much is a million dollars?" God: "To me it's a penny." The man: "God, may I have a penny?" God: “………………………………” A: I have the perfect son B: Does he smoke? A: No, he doesn't B: Does he drink whiskey? A: No, he doesn't B: Does he ever come home late? A: No, he doesn't B: I guess you really have the perfect son How old is he? A: ………………………………… Once there were three turtles One day they decided to go on a picnic When they got there, they realized they had forgotten the soda The youngest turtle said he would go home and get it if they wouldn't eat the sandwiches until he got back A week went by, then a month, finally a year, when the two turtles said, "oh, come on, let's eat the sandwiches." Suddenly the little turtle appeared from behind a rock and said, “……………….……… ” Lê Thị Phương Chi xxiii Postspeaking M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 A man walks into a shop and sees a cute little dog He asks the shopkeeper "Does your dog bite?" The shopkeeper says, "No, my dog does not bite." The man tries to pet the dog and the dog bites him "Ouch!" He says, "I thought you said your dog does not bite!" The shopkeeper replies, "…………………………… …" Answer key: Wait a minute He will be six months old next Wednesday If you do, I won‟t go That is not my dog (Source: http://iteslj.org/c/jokesshort.html) Week Thursday, March 8, 2012 Unit 5: Family Ties Comic verse Learn to recite the verse MUM'S THE WORD The flowing robes, the candle light, The crystal ball, the second sight Behold her now, my mystic mum, She claims to be a medium, But everyone can clearly tell She is in fact an XXL (Source: http://www.funnypoems.co.uk/kids/family- Lê Thị Phương Chi xxiv Prespeaking  Teaching intonation M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 poetry/f99-mum.asp) Week Thursday, March 15, 2012 Unit 4: Games Lê Thị Phương Chi Riddle The teacher gives Riddles and asks for answers Violet, indigo, blue and green, yellow, orange and red; these are the colors you have seen after the storm has fled What am I?  Rainbow A father‟s child, a mother‟s child, yet no one‟s son Who am I?  Daughter Why are 1990 dollar bills worth more than 1989 dollar bills?  Because there is one more Only one color, but not one size; stuck to the ground, yet easily flies Present in sun, but not in rain; doing no harm, and feeling no pain What is it?  A Shadow What is the difference between a lawyer and a liar?  Pronunciation If you have it, you want to share it If you share it, you don‟t have it What is it?  A secret/ sorrow/ stress The more you have of it, the less you see  Darkness/ mist What gets whiter, the dirtier that it gets?  A chalkboard xxv Warm-up  Break the ice M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 What has to be broken before it can be used?  Egg 10 What grows when it eats, but dies when it drinks?  A candle/ a fire/ torch 11 What goes up and never comes down?  Your age 12 What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps?  A river 13 There is an ancient invention still used in some parts of the world today that allows people to see through walls What is it? A window Week Thursday – March 22, 2012 Unit 6: SelfReliance Funny film Watch and discuss the questions below in pairs - What you think about Mr Bean? - What does he in the film? - How does he manage things? - What are the advantages and disadvantages of “do it yourself”? Lê Thị Phương Chi xxvi Whilespeaking M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9 GfgY7eXAaY Week Thursday, March 29, 2012 Role-play Postspeaking Role-play a contest in which waste types such as: plastic water bottle, paper, glass and metal jar, food waste compete each other about their beauty in the past and their future dream Unit 7: Use and Reuse Week Thursday, April 5, 2012 Work in groups of four students and make a role-play: Anecdote Unit 8: Storytelling The teacher tells a story: THE CRYING CHILD One Sunday a young father was Teach Simple walking through the park He was Past pushing a pram There was a very young baby in the pram and it was Tense and crying loudly The young father said how to tell a story softly, “Take it easy, Martin Keep calm, Martin Control yourself, Martin.” The young father walked on but the child cried louder The father stopped and took a teddy bear out a bag He gave it to the child He said softly, Lê Thị Phương Chi Set the scene xxvii M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Academic Years: 2010 - 2012 Take it easy, Martin Keep calm, Martin Control yourself, Martin.” The young father started to push the pram again After a few minutes the child began cry It cried louder and louder The father put his hand into his pocket and took out some chocolate He gave a piece to the child and said softly, Take it easy, Martin Keep calm, Martin Control yourself, Martin.” The young father walked on Three minutes later the child started to cry It cried louder and louder The father took the baby out of the pram and held it in his arms He said softly, Take it easy, Martin Keep calm, Martin Control yourself, Martin.” The child did not stop crying It cried louder and louder An old woman was watching the father She walked across to the young father and she smiled She said, “You are doing very well, young man You talk to the child with a calm and quiet voice.” The old woman looked at the child and said, “What‟s wrong, Martin? Why are you crying?,” The father said quickly, “I‟m Martin The baby‟s name is Paul ” (Source: Lessons with laughter (George Woolard, 1999) LTP Language.) Lê Thị Phương Chi xxviii