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Article published In:
Applied Pragmatics
Vol. 1:2 (2019) ► pp.93–118

“Put a little bit of humor into it”

Teachers’ humor in the beginning-level Spanish classroom

| Illinois State University
| Illinois State University

This study examines the use of teacher humor in whole-group interactions in beginning-level Spanish foreign language (FL) classes. Previous research has focused primarily on student humor and on humor in intermediate- and advanced-level FL courses. Hence, the goals of the research were, first, to determine whether teachers use spontaneous verbal humor in beginning-level courses and, if so, in what ways. Second, we considered whether the amount of teacher humor was related to the amount of student humor. The findings indicate that many of the instructors in the study did, indeed, joke around with their students. Most teacher humor was affiliative or rapport-enhancing, delivered in the target language, and designed with students’ L2 abilities in mind. Finally, in classes in which teachers joked more often, there was a tendency for students to joke more often as well, suggesting that teacher humor may encourage student humor.

Keywords: humor, rapport-management theory, Spanish, classroom discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Theoretical framework: Rapport management theory
    • 2.2Research questions
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Data collection
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Research question 1: Humor frequency and teachers’ perceptions
    • 4.2Research question 2: Characteristics of teachers’ humor
      • 4.2.1Pedagogical contexts for humor
      • 4.2.2Language of humor
    • 4.3Research question 3: Frequency of student humor
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 12 November 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ap.19003.shi
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