Whatever the outcome, no apostrophes are needed for the 60s, 70s or 2000s.

Education, now, is becoming more serious. I personally feel that 'humor' should be injected into the language syllabus. It should serve as a good teaching tool.

Thank you Aj,I corrected it.But I think I need an apostrophe before the 60, since it is not a full number. Still, I would like to know why humor is being neglected since its role in cognition is said to be so 'serious'.

Before the 60, yes ( it's still there for 2000's though..)

Anyway, do you have access to the ERIC database? A search of "humor in education" returned 2,733 results...

Yes Dorothy..... there is humour in education....... but I don't think it is used as much as it was when we were less "politically correct". Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the new order correctness is a bad thing, its just that it does cause everyone to rethink a humorous approach to ensure offence is avoided. Of couse the humour has to be appropriate to the learning aspect which can be difficult in an ESL environment. What may be "funny" to the teacher may fall completely flat on the learner and even has the potential to offend. ESL teachers do have to be cautious and it does require a good understanding of the culture before cracking out the jokes.

Hi Aj:

I wish I could send my papers to you for proofreading !!" ! I am famous for my typos..Having said that, yes, I have access to ERIC, and most of the articles I found were from that source, although many are from past decades. I also asked a similar question including neuroscience and psychology fields, Let's see. Thank you for your help.

Hi Lindsay,

I have been persistently injecting humor into my teaching, although my Ss are from various backgrounds, including reilgiously conservative cultures. So far, my style has been well received.Also,I have been observing the positive effects on my Ss. Especially while approaching complex grammatical issues and tackling academic reading ( I am teaching IELTS) it helps a lot.However,you are right, Especially in North America, "political correctness" is written in capital letters. One should be careful.Having been a political satirist/humorist/comedian in a politicially and religiously 'delicate' country and for more than 20 years, I don't have a problem with usage of humor in any environment. Therefore, I am not questioning "what kind of humor should be used". I am rather interested in psychological and pedagogical effects on humor on memory, language acquisition , performance etc.Thank you for your input.

I do use humor in my class. I'm currently teaching college students. Personally, for me, it depends on the situation itself. I mean, for language class,it is easy to crack some funny jokes with higher level students, but it is not the same for low level students(in my case,teaching in a Malaysian institute). Their ability to actually comprehend the jokes are somewhat limited. Then again,youngsters now are more attracted to relationship (my students are 19-20 y.olds). Usually, i use jokes that are related to the students,making funny examples that they will remember better. I do feel that somehow 'teaching fatigue' among senior (older) teachers making them to be more rigid and hard to be approaced in class. But then again, it is just my opinion,never did I dare to question their method.

Hi Nur:

Thank you very much for your input. Actually, I am never telling jokes, I just make fun out of the situations or give "funny" examples from my own learning process etc.. When, for instance, teaching the fact that stative verbs should not have -ing ending, playing/acting slow motion while saying"I am understandiiiiinnng" makes them literally 'crack up". That creates a picture they might never forget.Or explaining the different functions ot he verb "have" could be easily drawn to the board as three guys with different 'hats' in different colors. Personifiying phonemic sounds, telling them that "schwa" is an unemployed poor guy, has no significance like other sounds, or giving examples from animals' world while explaining the word "polygamy", in a funny way (lionesses go shopping and do the cooking while the male lion protects the pride etc.). Just creating funny and interesting parallels, images, metaphores, and so forth. I don't think that kind of humor has nationality or culture, I think humor and its effetcs are quite serious. Not surprisingly I found some research about teaching medicine students with humor, or philosophy with humor. I even further explore whether animals, mammals use humor for survival or other purposes. As you see I take it very serious. Thank you for your sharing.

Dear Lindsay;

This "politically correctness" is being so exaggerated, it kills not only a great deal of sense of humor, but also certain 'intelligent' thinking. I am a Eurasian who lived in Turkey and Europe for decades. We don't have that kind of concerns in the old continent and the linguistic humor has more chances to improve.It is very difficult to develop humor in multicultural immigrant countries since everyone is almost"paranoid" and afraid of talking about contrasts.making analogies and accentuating differences, which are a huge part of humoristic approach. However, I even find a way through this society. As you know, humor thrives in environments full of 'cencorprships and retrictions.

By the way, that exaggerated sense of 'political correctness" gives me another opportunity to focus on puns etc, specially when I tell my Ss that we may have started to call our "pets" "companion animals" in order not to insult them !!! Political correctness is a huge humor material for someone who was not born or raised in the new continent.

Why don't you try to reach papers reffering to comics as an enhashment tool of social skills and communication? There is plenty of research in Autisism and commucication disorders which deals with the semantic and the pragmatistic level of language, and the language teaching using this teaching apparatus.

Thank you for the tip Anastasia. I did not dare to look at them since I have been told to "narrow down" my research question. Still, you are right, there may be some answers to my questions.

Humor is also an element of science education. Check out here

http://www.math.utah.edu/~cherk/mathjokes.html

and the Pacman solution below, which has been shared by Scientist-Online on Google+.

The power of a teacher's enthusiasm is infectious, so i share with my students my genuine enthusiasm and unembarrassed passion for the English language and its literature. My sense of humor and the ability to laugh at myself i can sense, has touched my students. I always tell my students that a sense of humor is first being able to laugh at yourself.

Hi Leyla,

Have you got this article 'Humorous Language Play in a Thai EFL Classroom' by Ross Forman (Applied Linguistics 2011: 32/5: 541–565)?

I found humor helpful to make students interested. I teach literature to EFL university students in Thailand and sometimes I use humor to introduce and discuss some taboo or controversial discussion topics. Maybe it's cultural things that we tend to make light of the serious situations.

I teach EAP courses and my students are scientist and engineers. So the material of our texts and discussions is rather dry. I find humor extremely useful in class. I use it when I introduce grammar items, to show ambiguities and cultural differences. The student feedback at the end of each course is very positive. It breaks the ice and helps relieve stress.

I think humour is really important in all kinds of teaching. I am an ESL teacher too, and have done some research around the use of humour in teaching. I'm still trying to get my article published, but I'd be happy to share a draft with you if you like, Leyla.

Julia, have you seen articles by Nancy Bell? She connects language teaching to humor and play.

Thanks Maria. No, I haven't seen those. I'll have a look.

Children laugh a lot more than adults do. I think that this means that adults should try to retain some of their child-like qualities. If we do, I think we will smile and laugh a lot more. Here is a PowerPoint about "Humor and Education":

No! I believe humor is still very relevant in the classroom provided it is in good taste. It helps in building affective connections with students.

Humor is extremely important. It is probably more needed in Academia now than ever. During the current COVID-19 times, humor is proven quite essential to confront the feeling of strain, anxiety, and fear the Pandemic is spreading! Humor diffuses every tension!

Great topic on the point. Best wishes !

I guess it is neglected at the level of university. This is because science of education does not make part of the training of scholars at university.

The most important international organization for dealing with humor in academia is the International Society for Humor Studies. Here is their web site:

http://www.humorstudies.org/

Please check the attached article:

Ziv, Avner. “Teaching and Learning with Humor: Experiment and Replication.” The Journal of Experimental Education, vol. 57, no. 1, 1988, pp. 5–15.

Here is a PowerPoint about "Creativity." Enjoy.

Over the past couple of years, Dr Kishor Vaidya has been editing a long list of volumes about teaching all sorts of academic subjects humorously. The latest one being on Philosophy: https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Philosophy-Sense-Humor-Effective-ebook/dp/B099PQKNM2/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&qid=1628265029&refinements=p_27%3AKishor+Vaidya&s=books&sr=1-4

Willibald Ruch has much to say about this topic. Here is a PowerPoint about "Humor and Psychology.

International Society for Humor Studies: http://www.humorstudies.org/ .

Alleen and Don Nilsen’s The Language of Humor (Cambridge University Press, 2019) is now available. We have developed a PowerPoint to accompany each of the twenty-five chapters of the book as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction & Humor Theories Chapter 2: Humor in Anthropology & Ethnic Studies Chapter 3: Humor in Art Chapter 4: Humor in Business Chapter 5: Humor in Computer Science Chapter 6: Humor in Education Chapter 7: Humor in Gender Studies Chapter 8a: Humor in Geography I (International Humor: Books, Conferences and Organizations) Chapter 8b: Humor in Geography II (International Humor: Examples and Discussion) Chapter 9: Humor in Gerontology Chapter 10: Humor in History Chapter 11: Humor in Journalism Chapter 12: Humor in Law Chapter 13: Humor in Linguistics Chapter 14: Humor in Literature Chapter 15: Humor in Medicine and Health Chapter 16: Humor in Music Chapter 17: Humor in Names and Naming Chapter 18: Humor in the Performing Arts Chapter 19: Humor in Philosophy Chapter 20: Humor in Physical Education Chapter 21: Humor in Politics Chapter 22: Humor in Psychology Chapter 23: Humor in Religion Chapter 24: Humor in Rhetoric and Composition Chapter 25: Humor in Sociology We’re sending you a PowerPoint indicating how humor is important to your particular discipline. Please let us know if you would like to receive any of our other humor-related PowerPoints (see above). Thanks. Don and Alleen Nilsen [email protected] [email protected] .

A useful source!

In order to understand the importance of humor in education, please look at this PowerPoint entitled: "The Humor Sanction: Ukrainian Satire, Parody, Irony, and Wit." Thanks.

I wanted to choose this topic for my thesis, but I hesitated because of the lack of published papers and research, and I do not have enough time to collect data and a lengthy study for this topic.