Abstract
Is it funny? A Case Study of Chinese College Students' Humor Appreciation on English Jokes
Highlights
Over the past few decades, the use of humor in the EFL classroom has been a powerful pedagogical tool for building rapport in the language classroom, and its function in EFL teaching is steadily earning recognition (Bell & Pomerantz, 2016; Berk, 2000, 2001; Decker, Yao, & Calo, 2011; Martin, 1998; Wilkins & Eisenbraun, 2009)
This study proved Schmitz’s proposal that universal jokes are the funniest and cultural jokes are the least funny, which implicated that universal or reality-based humor is easier to be appreciated than the other two types
Chinese male college students score higher than female college students in the there types of humor, there are no significant differences based on English proficiency, living time abroad, and educational background
Summary
Over the past few decades, the use of humor in the EFL classroom has been a powerful pedagogical tool for building rapport in the language classroom, and its function in EFL teaching is steadily earning recognition (Bell & Pomerantz, 2016; Berk, 2000, 2001; Decker, Yao, & Calo, 2011; Martin, 1998; Wilkins & Eisenbraun, 2009). Humor has its specific traits in different cultures, it is a universal phenomenon. The attitudes and understanding of English humor and its usage of English humor may vary in EFL classrooms in different countries. Jiang, Yue, and Lu (2011) found that Chinese students, compared with American students, held a more negative implicit attitude towards humor. Yue (2011) proposed that Chinese people have traditionally been ambivalent about humor. Chinese tend to value humor but consider themselves to be lacked of humor. Martin and Chen (2007) conducted a study to compare Chinese and Canadian participants by using the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and Coping Humor Scale (CHS). Their study found that the Chinese have lower uses of all the four humor styles and coping humor than the Canadians, on aggressive humor
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