THE ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS TOWARDS THE USE OF HUMOUR IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Jana Bérešová & Dominika Madalová, Trnava University in Trnava, Slovakia

Abstract

The present study examines the attitudes of students towards the use of humour in their English classes, and the results serve as preliminary research for a doctoral thesis. Furthermore, the study compares the attitudes of secondary school and university students, with 57 respondents from the former and 28 from the latter. In order to obtain the requisite data, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed online. The findings indicate that students express a greater desire to encounter humour in the English language learning environment. This is particularly evident in the desire for humour to be employed by the teacher and in the use of materials containing humour. In addition, the students perceive humour to have two further benefits: firstly, it improves the atmosphere and enhances the memorability of the subject matter; secondly, it fosters more positive relationships between students and teachers. It is therefore recommended that English teachers make use of humour in their teaching. It is important to acknowledge that the study is constrained by the limited number of respondents and the narrow focus on two specific schools and one subject. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to utilise the analysed data presented in the article as a basis for further research.

Keywords: ELT, the role of humour, questionnaire, attitudes, analysis of data