The questionnaire about difficulties was handed out before (Test 1 – T1) and after (Test 2 – T2) the intervention. It is clear that there has been a significant reduction in the level of difficulties: ambiguity, meaning of words, structure, word pronunciation, culture, length and context of the jokes in the tests (T1) and (T2). As for the difficulty in interpreting the ambiguities (Figure 3.10), over 90% of participants found linguistic jokes difficult or very difficult initially but this has been reduced to 40% after the intervention. The figures for cultural humor show a similar pattern.Reality based jokes were problematic at first with 90% finding them difficult. After the intervention, 25% had no difficulty understanding them.
Although there has been improvement in all three areas of humor, reality based jokes were the easiest to understand both at the beginning and at the end of the intervention.
Figure 3.10. Difficulty in identifying the ambiguities
When it comes to the meaning of words, we see a recognizable pattern, with linguistic humor proving the most difficult before the intervention (Figure 3.11).
25% found this very difficult with a further 50% choosing difficult at the beginning.
This total of 75% was reduced to 45% after training, with 10% now classifying
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d
Very difficult Difficult Little difficult Not difficult
Ambiguity (T1) Ambiguity (T2)
linguistic humor as not difficult. Cultural humor was not quite as difficult to understand originally but there has been a similar positive change in levels of understanding. Again, reality based humor was easier to understand at the beginning, but still 70% found this difficult or very difficult to understand. This figure dropped to 25% at the end of the study. Around 3% of participants found thus type of humor not difficult initially, a figure that increased to 20% at the end. Both other types of joke showed between 10% and 15% in this category, whereas there were no results here at first.
Figure 3.11. Difficulty in finding meaning of words
There is a slightly different pattern here, with the structure of jokes being harder for the participants to understand in cultural humor (Figure 3.12). Although the combined percentages for very difficult and difficult are around 80% in all three categories, the figure of 30% for cultural in the very difficult column shows more problems in this area. There is also a smaller change in this category after the intervention. It is interesting to note that there were no answers in the not difficult column for any of the categories initially, but after the intervention, figures ranged from 10% not difficult for cultural jokes to 20% for reality based humor.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re ality -b as ed Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re ality -b as ed
Very difficult
Difficult Little difficult
Not difficult
Word meaning (T1) Word meaning (T2)
Figure 3.12. Difficulty in clarifying joke structure
The results for pronunciation are more evenly spread with some answers in all four categories of levels of difficulty (Figure 3.13). There are high scores from 55% to 75% in the difficulty range at the beginning and a shift to little difficult, from 55% to 60% at the end. There have been increases in the not difficult column of between 15% for linguistic to 25% for reality based humor. Overall, the shift from very difficult and difficult to little difficult and not difficult has been greatest here, with a change from 85% in the first two to 90% in the second pair of categories for reality based jokes.
Figure 3.13. Difficulty in word pronunciation
10 0 20 30 40 50 60 70
Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d
Very difficult Difficult Little difficult
Not difficult
Structure (T1) Structure (T2)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic C u ltu ral Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d
Very difficult difficult Little difficult Not difficult
Pronunciation (T1) Pronunciation (T2)
There is an even more striking change in the responses for length of joke (Figure 3.14). All of the three categories received a response of at least 25% very difficult and from 60-70% difficult originally. There was also a similar pattern of 10-15%
scored for little difficult for all joke types and no responses at all for not difficult.
After the intervention, only cultural and reality based jokes obtained scores for difficult, at 15% each, while there were no responses in the very difficult section for any type of humor. There has been a very significant shift to the lower levels of difficulty with very different responses. The answers range from 75% for linguistic to 45% for reality based jokes in the not difficult columns.
Figure 3.14. Length of jokes causes difficulty for comprehension
The culture of humor has proven to be difficult to change as much as other aspects and this is understandable given the lack of contact with native English speakers (Figure 3.15). Scores were high for very difficult (between 25% and 40% initially) and difficult (from 45% to 70%) with all types of joke having difficult cultural elements to understand. No category of humor received any positive responses for not difficult initially. The reduction in very difficult answers is 30% for linguistic jokes, 15% for reality based humor and just 10% for cultural jokes, but the overall shift can be seen in the scores for not difficult ranging from 15% to 20%.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic C u ltu ral Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d
Very difficult Difficult Little difficult Not difficult
Length (T1) Length (T2)
Figure 3.15. Difficulty in being aware of culture
Once again, there has been a complete change in responses to define the context of the joke before and after the intervention (figure 3.16), with no responses in not difficult at the beginning and just a few scores at 10% in linguistic and cultural areas initially. The main change has been from difficult (60% for linguistic and cultural and 70% reality based) to little difficult (55%, 40% and 50% respectively).
The scores of between 5% and 20% in the not difficult columns at the end of the study are very encouraging.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re ality -b as ed Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re ality -b as ed Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re ality -b as ed Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d
Very difficult Difficult Little difficult Not difficult
Cuture (T1) Culture (T2)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d Lin gu is tic Cult u ra l Re alit y- b ase d
Very difficult Difficult Little difficult Not difficult
Context (T1) Context (T2)
Figure 3.16. Difficulty in defining the joke context