Using Humor in Language Classrooms: Greasing the Wheels or Putting a Spanner in the Works? A Study on Humor Styles of Turkish EFL Instructors

Abstract

Humor has often been seen as an important element in the learning process, facilitating both teachingand learning. Nevertheless, the utilization of humor in the educational setting has had its opponents. Inrecent years, many attempts have been made to conceptualize the various forms of humor implementedin the practice of education. Despite a myriad of studies aimed at linking humor with personality traits,there seem a dearth number of research studies addressing the multifaceted humor styles of EFLinstructors while interacting with the students in the classroom. There have been a number of scalesthought-up in order to best assess the humor styles of the individual. However, the one identified byMartin et al. (2003) attempts to deal with the functions of humor, rather than particular personalities itmay or may not represent. The four specific humor styles identified in this scale encompass two benign(affiliative and self-enhancing), and two injurious (aggressive and self-defeating) humor styles. Thepresent study seeks to examine the humor styles adopted by English language instructors in Turkey byinvestigating (1) whether there is a difference between male and female instructors with regard toemploying humor, (2) whether the educational level of the participants influences their tendency to usehumor while interacting with the students in the classroom, and (3) whether the age of the instructors isan influential factor in adopting various styles of humor. A total of 64 English language instructorsworking at private and state universities in Turkey completed a standardized form of the Humor StylesQuestionnaire (HSQ) online. Results indicated no significant difference between male and femaleinstructors with regard to adopting humor styles in the classroom. Nor were there any differencesbetween instructors of varying educational level in terms of the use of humor styles. In addition, nodifferences were seen according to age.© 2019 EJAL & the Authors. Published by Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics (EJAL). This is an open-accessarticle distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-NC-ND)(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).