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HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF FIGURE & TABLES ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rational for the study 1.2 Aims of the Study 12 1.3 Significance of the Study 12 1.4 Structure of the Study 13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 14 2.1 Defining Humor 14 2.1.1 Difficulties in defining humor 14 2.1.2 Definitions of humor 15 2.2 Theories of humor 18 2.2.1 Superiority Theory 19 2.2.2 Incongruity Theory 20 2.2.3 Release Theory 20 2.3 Functions of Humor 22 2.4 Types of Humor 25 2.5 Humor in Education: Appropriate and Inappropriate Uses of Humor by Teachers 28 2.6 Humor in the Vietnamese EFL Class 40 2.6.1 Educational Background 40 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION 2.6.2 Prospects of The Use of Humor in The Vietnamese EFL Class 41 2.6.3 Reality of The Use of Humor in The Vietnamese EFL class 41 2.7 Summary 42 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 43 3.1 Participants of the study 43 3.1.1 Questionnaire participants 43 3.1.2 In-depth interview participants 44 3.2 Data Collection 45 2.1 Questionnaires 45 2.2 In-depth interview 49 3.3 Data analysis 50 3.4 Summary 51 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 52 4.1 The extent to which classroom humor is supported by teachers and students 52 4.1.1 Humor and students’ interest in learning English 52 4.1.2 Humor and students’ English language learning 53 4.1.3 Humor and teacher-student rapports 54 4.1.4 Humor and its psychological effects on students 55 4.1.5 Humor and its place in the English language classroom 56 4.2 Use of humor in the English class 57 4.3 Use of 13 types of humor by teachers in the English class in the teachers and students’ perspectives 60 4.3.1 Use of 13 types of humor by teachers 60 4.3.2 Use of 13 types of humor by teachers in the students’ perspectives 62 4.3.3 Teachers and students’ likes and dislikes about 13 types of humor 64 4.4 Reasons for using/not using humor in the English class 67 4.5 Summary 69 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 71 5.1 Restatement of the Study Purposes 71 5.2 Summary of the Findings 71 5.3 Contributions of the Study 72 5.4 Implications of the Study 73 5.5 Limitations of the Study 75 5.6 Recommendations for Further Research 75 REFERENCES 76 APPENDICES i Appendix 1A: Letter of transmittal to teacher participants (English version) i Appendix 1B: Teachers’ questionnaire (English version) ii Appendix 1C: Letter of transmittal to teacher participants (Vietnamese version) vi Appendix 1D: Teachers’ questionnaire (Vietnamese version) vii Appendix 2A: Letter of transmittal to student participants (English version) xii Appendix 2B: Students’ questionnaire (English version) xiii Appendix 2C: Letter of transmittal to student participants (Vietnamese version) xvii Appendix 2D: Students’ questionnaire (Vietnamese version) xviii Appendix 3A: Questions for teacher interviews (English version) xxiii Appendix 3B: Questions for teacher interviews (Vietnamese version) xxiv Appendix 3C: Questions for student interviews (English version) xxv Appendix 3D: Questions for student interviews (Vietnamese version) xxvi HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BRVT Ba Ria-Vung Tau CLT Communicative Language Teaching CT Communicative Approach TVQ Tran Van Quan VT Vung Tau HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION LIST OF FIGURE & TABLES Figure/Tables Names Pages Figure 2.3 Functions of Humor 24 Table 2.3 List of 24 documented functions 23 Table 2.4a Types of Humor 26 Table 2.4b Types of Humor According to Hay (1995) 27 Table 2.5a Humor Categories 29 Table 2.5b Twenty Item Taxonomy of High School Teacher 31 Humor Table 2.5c Categories and Subcategories of Appropriate Teacher 32 Humor According to Wanzer, Frymier, Wojtaszczyk, & Smith (2006) Table 2.5d Categories and Subcategories of Inappropriate Teacher 35 Humor According to Wanzer, Frymier, Wojtaszczyk, & Smith (2006) Table 5e Thirteen Item Taxonomy of Teacher Humor 39 Table 3.1 Participants taking part in the study 43 Table 3.1.1a The number of the questionnaires returned by the 44 participants Table 3.1.1b Background Information on questionnaire 45 participants Table 3.1.2 In-depth interview participants 45 Table 4.1.1 Humor and students’ interest in learning English 52 Table 4.1.2 Humor and students’ English language learning 53 Table 4.1.3 Humor and teacher-student rapports 54 Table 4.1.4 Humor and its psychological effects on students 55 Table 4.1.5 Humor in the English language classroom 56 Table 4.2a The reality and the frequent use of humor by teachers 58 in the English class HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Table 4.2b Factors affecting the frequency of teachers’ humor in 59 the English class Table 4.3.1a Use of 13 types of humor by teachers in the English 60 class Table 4.3.1b Further ways of using classroom humor suggested by 62 teachers Table 4.3.2 Use of 13 types of humor by teachers 63 in the students’ perspectives Table 4.3.3 Teachers and students’ likes and dislikes about 13 65 types of humor Table 4.4 Necessity and reasons for using humor in the English class 68 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate high school teachers and students’ perceptions of teachers’ use of humor in the English language class Setting its context at some high schools in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province, the study looks at (1) the extent to which high school teachers and students support the use of humor by teachers in the English class, (2) the frequency of teachers’ humor in the English class, (3) types of humor used by high school teachers, and (4) teachers’ reasons for their use of/not using humor in the English class Multiple data-collection methods, namely questionnaires and in-depth interviews, were adopted in the study Findings show that both teachers and students strongly support teachers’ use of humor In addition, the study indicates that humor was actually used by teachers but only occasionally, not on a daily basis As also found in the study, jokes, humorous stories, humorous examples, and using external objects were of more frequent use while teacher performance, making fun of abilities, making fun of mistakes, and teasing were of little use The study also indicates that among teachers’ reasons for using humor in class, putting students at ease was reported the choice of a majority of both teachers and students The paper suggests relevant implications and ends with some suggestions for further research HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rational for the study BỜM Bờm is an old village man One day he went to the City This was the very first time he was there, so he was very surprised with everything around him, especially tall buildings Therefore, whenever seeing a tall building, he stopped and counted how many floors the building had and he felt happy with this so much Unluckily, while Bờm was counting the floors of one of the buildings, a woman appeared in front of him She asked Bờm, “What are you doing?” Bờm gave a look to the woman and replied, “I am counting the number of the floors of this building.” Hearing his answer, the woman got angry She said, “This is my house It wasn’t built to be counted So, because you have counted the floors of the building, you have to pay me money How many floors have you counted?” “Ten”, replied Bờm “One floor _ 10, 000 VND You have counted 10 floors, so you must pay me 100,000 VND Bờm quickly took a note of 100,000 VND out of his pocket and gave it to the woman, and then walked away Walking for a while, he looked back, smiled happily and said to himself, “City people are said to be intelligent, but I think that they are so stupid I have counted 15 floors, but I just said 10 only, but she believed it.” HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION With the above story as a means of instruction while teaching the writing lesson on how to write a Narrative (Tieng Anh 10, Unit 1, Writing a Narrative), I left my students behind in great excitement as the bell went for the end of the lesson The class was much more successful than I had expected Such happy faces of my students have always been very clear in my mind The success of the class evoked an idea in my mind that humor could make my classroom a richer place because it not only gave my students a lesson of what a narrative was but also helped to capture my students’ attention and make them laugh However, it was not until I familiarized myself with research in the field of humor in the English language class that I discovered a much more important role that humor can play in the classroom in general and in English language classroom in particular Humor together with its significance in the classroom has become the discussion of a proliferation of works and writers in the field Click (1952) states that humor makes the classroom a warmer place to be Gilliland & Mauritsen (1971) compare the role of a teacher with a cook and consider humor a necessary spice for teachers to keep their hungry customers coming, expecting to be nourished from an exciting menu Kryston, Smith, Collins, and Hamilton, (1986) emphasize the importance of humor in binding the classroom in community Gorham and Christophel (1990), argue for classroom humor because they believe that it can reduce tension, disarm aggression, alleviate boredom, and stimulate interest In a study related to the content of high school teachers’ humor in the classroom, Neuliep (1991) acknowledges that humor is used ‘as a way of putting students at ease, as an attention-getter, as a way of showing that the teacher is human, as a way to keep the class less formal, and to make the learning more fun and…as a strategy that renders the classroom environment more conducive to learning’ (p 354) Berwald (1992) considers ‘humor to be important for obvious reasons _ to enliven our classes, to establish and maintain rapport, to create the appropriate ambience for learning, and to enhance student acquisition and retention’ (p 189) Berk’s study (2000) concludes that humor in course tests helps to reduce anxiety and improve performance MacAulay (2009) states that ‘humor in the classroom can establish a HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION less strain environment and encourage very important teacher-student relationships Furthermore, it has the potential to help alleviate stress, placate antagonism, and create a more relaxed and open learning environment Humor can help set the classroom mood that will encourage learning’ (p 67) The ideas discussed above help to show that there seems to be a general agreement between the scholars on the significant role of classroom humor: Humor in the classroom is believed to create a less strain learning environment, foster mutual openness and respect, and thus contribute to effective learning In addition to the employment of such general humor for the creation of a conducive learning environment, in the English language classroom, especially in the classroom where English is taught as a foreign language ( EFL class), humor can be used as a specific pedagogical tool to illustrate and teach both linguistics and culture as well as pragmatic components of language Trachtenberg (1979) contends that humor is uniquely and ideally suited to serve as a vehicle for classroom illustration and instruction of specific linguistic, cultural, and discoursal phenomenon in the target language Ruggieri’s article (1999) reports on her success in using humor to teach tragedy She reveals in her article (ibid.) that using humor in her classroom has enabled her, as well as her students, to laugh and to learn much more about the curriculum Schmitz (2002) argues in favor of the use of humor in the English class because it contributes to improve students’ proficiency, especially developing students’ listening comprehension and reading Bell (2009) affirms that ‘humor has been touted as an excellent way for students to learn the vocabulary, syntax, semantics, and discourse conventions of the language, as well as to gain insight into the culture of those who speak that language’ (p 241) Besides, humor in the EFL classroom plays a very important role in creating a more relaxed and comfortable atmosphere conducive to better teaching and learning In terms of learning, as Schmitz (2002) puts it, learning another language is indeed hard work and requires a great deal of effort on the part of the learners Thus, he contends that humor can add variety to the class and can contribute to reducing tension that many learners feel during the learning process Deneire (1995, 10 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION students find these ways of evoking humor interesting They also help me to establish a close rapport with the students as well as increase my students’ interest in learning.’ In the students’ responses similar results were found, where 66.4% of the students recommended jokes for use in class, 72% funny stories, 57.6% humorous examples, and 52% using external objects The students also took great interest in creative language usage, with 40.8% of the responses recommending this type of humor for use in class Table 4.3.3 also shows that such types of humor as teacher performance, making fun of abilities, making fun of mistakes in class, teasing, humorous facial expressions, and physical bodily humor seemed not to be the teacher and student participants’ favorites Particularly, none of the teachers responded most favorably to teacher performance, making fun of abilities, making fun of mistakes in class while a considerable percentage of the teacher participants responded least positively towards these three types of humor, with 25.0%, 45.8% and 20.8%, respectively One teacher reasoned in the questionnaire, ‘I almost never use teacher performance, making fun of abilities, making fun of mistakes, humorous facial expressions, physical bodily humor because they waste time and are not very affective’ Another teacher explained, ‘I never use making fun of abilities, and making fun of mistakes because these types of humor may make my students have a misunderstanding about the true image of their teacher My students may think that I am not serious and formal enough They may also think that I look down on them or insult them’ Another added, ‘I not like using making fun of abilities, and making fun of mistakes because they may cause misunderstanding or bad effects’ Some teacher respondents also seemed not to take great interest in physical bodily humor, where 29.2% of them showed their negative responses to this type of humor One teacher wrote in his questionnaire that, ‘I not like using humorous facial expressions, physical bodily humor because it is difficult for me to perform these types of humor Moreover, I not want my students to think of me as a comedian rather than a teacher’ In the students’ perspectives, similarly, very few students 66 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION recommended teacher performance, making fun of abilities, making fun of mistakes in class for use in class, with 5.6%, 2.4%, and 1.6%, respectively One student noted in the questionnaire, ‘I not want my teacher to refer himself/herself as stupid because teachers shouldn’t lower themselves before their students’ Another student left a comment in her questionnaire, ‘Teachers shouldn’t refer themselves as stupid or make fun of mistakes they made because they may lose the respect of their students’ As interestingly shown in Tables 4.3.1a, 4.3.1b, 4.3.2, and 4.3.3, there was a correlation between teachers’ likes and dislikes about types of humor and the actuality of using those types in the language class Such types of humor as jokes, stories, humorous examples, and using external objects were used more frequently by the teachers These types of humor, not surprisingly, were also the teachers’ favorites On the contrary, teacher performance, making fun of abilities, making fun of mistakes, and teasing, which were teachers’ unfavourite types, were used rarely in class 4.4 Reasons for using/not using humor in the English class Table 4.4 presents participants’ opinions towards the necessity of as well as reasons for using humor in the language classroom Surprisingly, as the table indicates, none of the teachers and students advised against the use of humor in class That is, 100% of the teachers and students perceived that humor should be employed in the English language classroom This can be understood that both the teachers and students considered classroom humor very important and necessary The finding is in line with Bell (2009) who argues that ‘the classroom can be an appropriate place to address L2 humor because many learners voice a desire for this; (… ), and because recent work in second language acquisition suggests that playful uses of language may facilitate second language learning (SLL)’ (p 243) As can also be seen from the table that ‘putting students at ease’ were ranked the highest, where 75% of the teachers responded positively The result is similar to Neuliep’s (1990) study in which the reason of ‘puts students at ease, relaxes them or loosens them up’ (p.349) comes first on the list of the most cited reasons for 67 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION using humor in the classroom reported by the teacher participants Such reasons as ‘putting students at ease’, and ‘facilitating teacher and student rapport’ also received a high percentage of favorable responses (84.8%, and 82.4%) from the student participants Item Table 4.4 Necessity and reasons for using humor in the English class Answers Teachers (T) and students’ (S) responses T S Whether humor should be used No % No % Yes 24 100 125 100 No 0 0 ●Putting students at ease ●Being a necessary spice for teachers to keep their hungry ‘customers’ coming ●Facilitating teacher and student rapport ●Making the classroom a warmer place ●Being a tool for classroom illustration and instruction ●Increasing learning ●Binding the classroom in community 18 14 75.0 58.3 106 103 84.8 82.4 13 54.2 76 60.8 12 50.0 33.3 63 68 50.4 54.4 6 25.0 25.0 63 27 54.4 21.6 in the classroom Reasons for using humor in the English class As also indicated in Table 4.4, while ‘being a necessary spice for teachers to keep their hungry ‘customers’ coming’, and ‘facilitating teacher and student rapport’, and ‘making the classroom a warmer place’ reached an above average of the positive responses (58.3%, 54.2%, and 50%) from the teachers, such reasons as ‘being a tool for classroom illustration and instruction’, ‘increasing learning’, and ‘binding the classroom in community’ got a below average of the teachers’ support with 33%, 25% and 25%, respectively It is worth noting that there was a big difference between the teacher and student’s responses towards the role of humor in increasing learning This difference then was brought to the student and teacher interviews In the interviews, 68 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION when asked to address the question ‘Do you understand your lesson better or worse in a humorous environment?’, most of the student interviewees (86.7 %) responded that they could understand the lesson better if the teacher made the class amusing One student made his comment in the interview, ‘I can learn a lesson better in a humorous environment because humor helps me feel less stressed, so I can pay more attention to the lesson’ Another student reflected, ‘I am not good at English, so I usually feel worried in my English classes Thus, learning in a humorous environment created by my teacher helps me feel more confident and learn the lessons better.’ Only students (13.3%) indicated that they learnt better if the teacher presented the lesson in a serious way Similar results were found in the teachers’ responses, where three quarters of the interviewees (75%) accepted that teaching with humor bettered their students’ learning Just one teacher (12.5%) had no idea, and another teacher (12.5%) indicated that it was more effective if she delivered the lesson to her students in a formal and serious way In comparison with the results found in the questionnaire data regarding the role of humor in ‘increasing learning’, those that were found in the in-depth interviews were a lot higher Other reasons for using humor were also reported by the teachers in the questionnaire, as presented as follows: ‘Classroom humor helps teachers escape from stress as well as pressure during class.’ ‘Humor helps students overcome tiredness caused by the classroom’s hot condition or the sleepy feeling to better pay attention to the lesson.’ ‘Humor helps to build teachers’ confidence in teaching and making the contents of the lesson simpler, clearer and easier for students to understand.’ These reasons again help to assert the necessity of using humor in the classroom for the sake of both the teachers and students in their language teaching and learning 4.5 Summary This chapter has analyzed and discussed the data collected from the teacher 69 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION and student questionnaires and interviews regarding the teachers and students’ perceptions of teachers’ use of humor in the English language class The findings have shed light on such issues as the extent that high school teachers and students support the use of humor by teachers in class, the frequency that high school teachers use humor, types of humor high school teachers use, and reasons for teachers’ use of humor in the English class Types of humor which were supported by teachers and recommended for use by students have also been under discussion in the chapter Factors affecting high school teachers’ attempts at using humor in the classroom were also heard and discussed The results of the data analysis lay foundations from which the researcher draws conclusions as well as implications for the issue under investigation, which are introduced in the last chapter 70 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION CHAPTER CONCLUSION 5.1 Restatement of the Study Purposes This study is to investigate teachers and students’ perceptions of teachers’ use of humor at high schools in BRVT The study has been designed to obtain the dual aims of investigating the teachers and students’ perceptions of teachers’ use of humor in class and the actual use of humor by teachers from both the teachers’ and students’ perspectives as well Multiple data collection methods, namely questionnaires, and in-depth interviews were adopted to explore the issues under investigation 5.2 Summary of the Findings Strongly supportive attitudes towards the use of humor in the classroom were heard from both the teachers and students A large majority of the teacher and student participants responded favorably to the roles of classroom humor in increasing students’ learning motivation, facilitating student’ English language learning, building teacher-student rapports, and creating positive psychological effects on students A high percentage of the participants also agreed on the importance as well as the presence of humor in the language classroom It is also found that humor was actually employed by the high school teachers in their language classroom; however, humor attempts were just made at the frequency of ‘only occasionally, not on a daily basis’ Reasons causing low attempts at humor were revealed to be time limit, material shortage, students’ English proficiency, teachers’ sense-of-humor-free personality, and noise, among which time limit was documented the biggest difficulty of almost all of the teachers One attempt in this study was discovering types of humor that high school teachers actually used in class As found in the findings, of 13 types of humor included in the modified checklist, jokes, humorous stories, humorous examples, and using external objects were more often used by the teachers Teacher performance, 71 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION making fun of abilities, making fun of mistakes, and teasing, meanwhile, were rarely used by the teachers The data also suggested that there was a correlation between the frequent use of some types of humor with those that the teachers liked using in the language classroom Besides, it is found that the types of humor the teachers liked using in class were also recommended for use by the students In addition, the students took much interest in creative language usage with a view to helping them remember new concepts more easily Another attempt in the study was documenting the participants’ opinions towards the necessity of using humor in the language classroom It is found that all the teacher and student participants affirmed that humor should be employed in the English language classroom There was no response against the use of humor in class Reasons for using humor in class were also recorded in the study Regarding this, in the teachers’ reason part, putting students at ease came first on the list identified Being a necessary spice for teachers to keep their hungry ‘customers’ coming reached the second Facilitating teacher and student rapport came third Next was making the classroom a warmer place, being a tool for classroom illustration and instruction, binding the classroom in community, and increasing learning There found few differences in the students’ part about the concerning reasons 5.3 Contributions of the Study The findings discussed so far have revealed the reality as well as the prospect of classroom humor in English language teaching in Vietnam Generally speaking, although attempts at humor were made at the frequency of ‘occasionally, not on a daily basis’, a positive response to the undeniable roles of humor in the English language teaching was heard among the teachers and students Hence, the results of the present study are hoped to raise teachers’ awareness of the importance as well as the necessity of humor in the language classroom, which makes it necessary for high-school teachers to incorporate humor into their classes In addition, the study 72 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION results are expected to awaken textbook designers’ attention and interest in the roles and benefits of humor in the language classroom, which urges them to include this element into their syllabus designing 5.4 Implications of the Study The findings found in the study suggest some pedagogical implications as follows: The overall findings show that both the teachers and learners supported the presence of humor in class This suggests that both the teachers and learners appreciate the roles and benefits of humor in English language teaching and learning Therefore, teachers are expected to incorporate humor in their classes for the sake of both the teachers and the students However, in spite of the fact that humor received a strong support from both the teachers and the students, a low frequency of humor use were reported by the teachers and students Time limit, lack of materials, students’ English proficiency, teachers’ sense-of-humor-free personality, and noise were admitted the barriers for the use of humor in the language class This reality suggests that to pave the way for humor, it is necessary for teachers to deal with these obstacles In terms of time, in order for classroom humor not to take teachers’ time away, related humor should be employed to the fullest That is to say, teachers should combine their humor attempts into classroom activities, which make lessons of grammar, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, or writing much more fun but effective However, it is much easier for teachers if textbooks are available with activities incorporated with humor Thus, it is the dual efforts of both the teachers and the textbook designers that help to deal with the problem of time limit In addition, the difficulty of a lack of material could be partially overcome if teachers made all efforts to search for pieces or activities of humor in various channels like the internet, newspaper, magazine and if a network of teachers in the field of humor is built to exchange and share with each other experience in 73 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION classroom humor use and samples of suitable humor in language class Besides, as students’ level is a problem, due attention should be paid to selecting or adapting the levels of humor that best suits students’ proficiency In addition, teachers should be aware that students’ level does not always decide students’ understanding of a piece of humor Cultural differences in some cases can be a hindrance to students in having a good grasp of humor Moreover, it is suggested that code switching should sometimes be employed in the classroom to ease the way for students in understanding their lessons with humor Furthermore, in dealing with teachers’ sense-of-humor-free personality, much needs to be done to help teachers be aware that there are abundant types of humor free from teachers’ sense of humor as cartoons, funny movies or humorous examples for teachers to exploit and put into use in the language class Besides, students should be given chances in preparing and presenting pieces of related humor to the class under the mentoring of the teacher Finally, noise caused by laughters of humor seems not serious because it is part of learning Therefore, in order to get sympathy of students and teachers of neighboring classes, on the one hand, teachers should make efforts to reduce it to the minimum by closing the doors and windows, for example On the other hand, awareness should be raised to other colleague teachers that an environment with laughters is something of authenticity, especially in a communicative English classroom, so it should be sympathized and recognized As jokes, humorous stories, humorous examples, and using external objects are more favored by teachers and students than those like teacher performance, making fun of abilities, making fun of mistakes, and teasing, teachers and students should make full advantage of that common taste In class, teachers should put more focus on the use of their common favorites Besides, great care should be taken when teachers use such type as making fun of abilities As Vietnamese culture values the picture of a respectful teacher who sets a bright example to students, teachers should be careful when considering themselves as stupid, silly or the like 74 HUMOR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS _ M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION 5.5 Limitations of the Study Due to the constraint on implementation time, the study was conducted on a relatively small scale Although the study participants came from different parts of Ba Ria-Vung Tau like Vung Tau High School, Vung Tau City, Chau Thanh High School, Ba Ria Town, Tran Van Quan, Long Dien District, they still not represent the whole picture of some other schools in far-away places in the mountainous areas, coastal areas and on the islands Furthermore, the number of 125 students and 24 teachers is still not large enough in comparison with the total number of students and teachers in the province However, the adoption of both the quantitative and qualitative methods helps overcome this limitation of the study to a certain extent It is hoped that subsequent research will be carried out with a larger sample to ensure more reliability and validity of the data gathered 5.6 Recommendations for Further Research This study aims to offer insights into the extent to which teachers and students support the use of humor by teachers, the frequency of humor, types 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