INVESTIGATING INSTRUCTORS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF HUMOUR IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Abstract
In psychology, humour refers to ‘a specific positive emotion that is elicited by the perception of playful incongruity, usually occurs in an interpersonal context, and is typically expressed by laughter’ (Martin, 2007). Existing literature has shown that it is a useful tool in teaching various subjects especially in primary and secondary education. Our study was designed to scrutinize the perceptions of EFL instructors on the use of humour in higher education to reveal whether this is also true for higher education. 42 EFL instructors working at school of foreign languages at three state universities in Turkey participated in this study. A questionnaire consisting of multiple choice and open-ended items was prepared and administered to the participants administered to elicit their opinions on the significance of humour in language education offered to undergraduate students who would attend various programmes in the following academic year. The overall qualitative and quantitative analysis of the findings demonstrated that the EFL instructors tend to have positive perceptions about the use of humour in language classes; however, they have slight hesitations with its use. The study ends with a couple of pedagogical implications on related findings, and a few suggestions for further research.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.487
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