The use of humour as a pedagogical strategy to reduce learners' boredom and increase their motivation:The case of third year students of english at Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia University,Jijel

Abstract

This dissertation investigates one of the most important subjects in teaching English as a foreign language. It is the effect of using humour as a pedagogical strategy on learners and teachers as well. Humour is assumed to help learners feel relaxed in the classroom and makes them attend all sessions in a regular way, providing a wonderful opportunity to communicate, and makes them feel enlivened and excited. It also, makes teachers feel satisfied and happy whenever they succeed to transmit their messages to their learners and make them feel amused. For many educators, humour can encourage an atmosphere where both teachers and learners feel at ease, share ideas, and express learners' needs. So, in order to gain deeper understanding, we put this theory into practice in an attempt to investigate this hypothesis; the data were gathered through two main tools. Two questionnaires, the first was administered to (50) EFL learners of third years at Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia University. The second was handed to (11) teachers. The second tool was classroom observation. All participants responded positively and showed interest. The results of the current study showed that both teachers and learners support the insertion of humour in their foreign language classes