1.1. Humour and its importance in tourism
1.1.6. ELT tour guide students‘s ability to make sense of humour in English jokes
1.1.6.3. Obstacles for EFL tour guide students to make sense of humour in English
(1) Failure to process language at the locutionary level
(2) Failure to understand the meaning of words (including connotations) (3) Failure to understand pragmatic force of utterances
(4) Failure to recognize the humorous frame
(5) Failure to understand the incongruity of the joke (6) Failure to appreciate the joke
(7) Failure to join in the joking
These failures hope to take place with EFL Vietnamese tour guide students who have few chances to establish their identity in the English-speaking community.
Thus, some main obstacles to prevent EFL learners to make sense of humour are clarified namely sense of humour, linguistic knowledge, socio-cultural knowledge and humourphobia.
Sense of humour
The hearer/reader's sense of humour plays a part in constraining the humour appreciation, but even people with a well-developed sense of humour go through different moods on a daily basis that may also play a part in the successful outcome of humorous communication. People often complain that they are not in the mood for humour, meaning that the person is not ready to response to humour or react to it accordingly. Ruch (2008: 32, cited in Yus, 2016) proposes to differentiate between traits, which are relatively stable over time and consistent across situations and states, with a short duration, fluctuation in intensity and variations due to certain conditions. Personal taste of humour is a crucial factor influencing hearer/reader's
reaction to humour. Some people find puns very entertaining while others enjoy a cast of irony. Some laugh at slapstick comedy which is based on simple "falling and bumping" whereas others prefer sophisticated and subtle satirical which requires some "mind gymnastics." As La Fave et all (1973: 83) claim, ―Humour lies neither in laughter nor in jokes but only in the minds of men.‖
Linguistic knowledge
Linguistic interpretation is essential in interpreting humour in jokes because in the humorous language use, extended meanings are created by specific linguistic features which are symbolic and unique of the English language. That is because humorous language is not viewed as one type of language teaching in the English language classrooms. Rather, it is often used as a learning stimulus and language teaching orthodoxy still excessively focuses on language for work rather than play.
Reality shows that classroom language typically concerns ―information rather than linguistic parallels and repetitions, exact rather than indeterminate meanings . . . actual rather than alternative reality, … [and] usefulness rather than pleasure‖
(Cook, 2000). English jokes are rich in puns and far-reaching in socio-linguitics.
Hence, this is a difficulty for EFL learners to appreciate the humour as Bell (2007) says even advanced L2 learners cannot laugh at English jokes.
Socio-cultural knowledge
Interpretation of humour in English jokes requires socio-cultural background since the use of figurative language also relates to the extended meaning of cultural knowledge (Raju, 1991). According to Raju (1991), people place their individuality and identify themselves in social groups. It is the social factors of the groups that influence people‘s ability to appreciate humour.
It is important to recognize the audience of the joke. In fact, jokes carry culture and joking occurs in cultural groups (Fine and Sourcey, 2005). Ermida (1968: 21) claims that ―when a joke falls flat, causing discomfort and even rage, the reason for failure may reside in the recipient‘s identification with, or support for, the butt. In
such situations, the ethical differences between the speaker and the hearer make the latter reject the former and the values s/he stands for. Hostile humor can thus be understood as an instrument to exercise power through humiliation.‖ That is explained by the fact that telling joke is affected by ―small group culture‖ or
―idioculture‖ which is created by the interaction of group members (Fine and Soucey, 2005). In group ―members recognize that they share experiences, and these experiences can be referred to with the expectation they will be understood by other members, thus being used to construct a reality for the participants‖ (Fine, 1987:
125, cited in Gunawarderna et al, 2009).
Sharifian (2011: 21) points out that ―Members of a cultural group may share some but not every aspect of their cultural cognition with other members, and the patterns are not exactly the same for all individuals across the cultural group.‖ With this idea, Sharifian (2011) gives green light for EFL learners who prefer to tell English jokes in EFL classroom, and use jokes as humorous episodes at workplace. EFL learners who attain the target language skills, socio-cultural knowledge and awareness of group interest can communicate with jokes in the target cultural group.
However, Fantini (2006: 12) points out that these are ―a complex of abilities to perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself.‖ Thus it is necessary for EFL learners to develop humour cognition through jokes in English as Biesenbach-Lucas (2003, cited in Gunawardena and Jayatilleke, 2014) says ―Cognitive development requires that individuals encounter others who contradict their own intuitively derived ideas.‖
In all, it is sure to agree with Bell (2007)‘s remark that humour is culturally and linguistically complex and sophisticated. Reading and understanding jokes in a foreign language is clearly different from reading a normal text and requires linguistic as well cultural knowledge. Actually, Hsin (2006) cites in a report that non-native speakers of English often have difficulty in understanding whether a
misinterpret the jokes due to linguistic ambiguity inherent in jokes. Thus, to be able to comprehend English jokes, L2/FL learners must have a certain level of English proficiency and an awareness of the culture associated with the language.
Humourphobia
Not all people have confidence to use humour. There is a term called humourphobia, an alternative of the fear of fun, laughter, and humor. Most people are passionate about creating a happy atmosphere, yet are hampered by the humourphobia. They are frightened of not having suitable time and place for humor, of being perceived as silly, unproductive, an airhead, and unprofessional, of inadequacy or inability to tell a joke with good language of humour, of punishment or retaliation in an environment that is hostile or unaccustomed to humor and of being made fun of or being the brunt (Morrison, 2008). Humourphobia makes EFL learners hesitate to English humour in authentic English jokes.