LAUGHTER IN THE CLASSROOM

Transcription

1 1 LAUGHTER IN THE CLASSROOM Lélia Silveira Melo Souza Resumo: O objetivo deste artigo é mostrar os resultados do uso de piadas em aulas de inglês como Língua Estrangeira em um Centro de Línguas da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo. Centralizamos nosso estudo de piadas sob seis aspectos: interpretação, estrutura, ferramenta de aprendizagem, questões culturais, diferenças individuais e motivação. Cada um desses aspectos contribui para uma compreensão melhor do fenômeno do humor. Ao que se refere às questões culturais, por exemplo, notamos que muitas vezes as piadas representam uma transgressão cultural e os alunos precisam entender isso para compreenderem uma piada. Este artigo é o resultado da observação de sete grupos durante sete semestres. Foram divididos em grupos de controle e experimental. Nos últimos grupos piadas foram lidas em sala de aula. Observamos a reação dos alunos e se eles gostaram da atividade ou não. Não mostraremos os grupos de controle, mas analisaremos a reação que os alunos tiveram em relação a duas piadas que foram lidas na classe. Palavras-chave: Humor. Piada. Observação. Grupo experimental. Abstract: The goal of this article is to show the results of using jokes in classes of English as a foreign language in a Language Center at the School of Education of the University of São Paulo. We focused our study of jokes on six aspects: interpretation, structure, learning tool, cultural issues, individual differences and motivation. Each of those aspects contributed to a better view of the humor phenomenon. Regarding cultural issues, for example, we noticed that many times jokes represent a cultural transgression and students need to understand this to understand the joke better. This article is the result of the observation of seven groups during three terms. They were divided in: control and experimental groups. On the last groups jokes were used in the classroom. We observed the reaction of the students and whether they liked the activity or not. Here, we are not going to show the control groups but are going to analyze the reaction the students had to two jokes that were used in the classroom. Keywords: Humor. Joke. Observation. Experimental Group. INTRODUCTION In this article, we are going to discuss how jokes can be used in the classroom as a tool for students to improve their proficiency in English and, at the same time, to acquire the humorous competence as first put forward by Vega (1989). The comments we are going to make are based on classroom observations during three semesters in three different groups of intermediate levels in which a teacher at Inco-Cepel the language center at the School of Education of the University of São Paulo used jokes in her classroom. This article is divided into seven parts. In the first part, we are going to discuss the interpretation of jokes, to what extent the reader/listener is able to create an interpretation of a joke at his/her own wish. In the second part, we are going to present the structure of jokes according to the theory of scripts. In Doutora em Linguagem e Educação pela Faculdade de Educação da USP. Professora Educadora da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo.

2 2 the third part, we are going to discuss if it is possible to learn with jokes. In the fourth part, we are going to present some cultural issues concerning the use of jokes in the classroom. In the fifth part, we are going to present individual differences among learners and as well as differences in their motivation. In the sixth part, we are going to present two jokes which were used in Amparo 1 s classes at Inco-Cepel. This will be followed by the final remarks and the bibliography. INTERPRETATION OF JOKES According to Barzotto (2001) there are some limits within which you can interpret a text. The reader is not totally free. Thus, the reader is linked to the way the text is structured. In the case of humorous texts such view is important in order to measure the extent to which the reader is free to interpret a joke. When we face a joke: we laugh, we do not like it or we do not understand it. Possenti (2001) says that a person does not understand a joke for lack of either linguistic or world knowledge. This often happens with nonnative speakers. Thus, teachers need to supply this knowledge so that students can make sense of a joke. We assume that there are no cultures without a sense of humor, but there are cultures with different types of humor and it needs to be understood by students. According to Possenti, there is just one interpretation for the jokes and it has to be understood at once. In case we have to explain a joke its comic feature disappears altogether and the text will not make sense to the hearer/listener. Thus, we leave a lot of information in the unsaid and that is where the comic feature lies (Dolitsky 1983:47): what is funny is the mutual knowledge that can be found in the text. Humor is not neutral. A humorist tries for an emotional effect. Going against the pragmatic conventions of a linguistic community, i.e. stating the normally unsaid, or omitting the normally said, is the strategy most commonly used in humor. Let s analyze the joke below: What has four wheels and flies? A garbage truck. 1 Amparo was the teacher we observed during six terms. We attended her classes in the control group as well as in the experimental group. In this article, as it was mentioned previously, we are only going to show the experimental groups, that is, the three groups that jokes were read.

3 3 Wheels and truck belong to the semantic field of transportation, the answer makes us reinterpret flies as insects. The reader necessarily has to know both meanings of flies in order to understand the joke. Delia Chiaro (1992) emphasizes that if a joke is too much linked to a specific characteristic of a country, it will not be understood in another culture. Thus, it is necessary to select jokes that are going to be used in a classroom. Furthermore, the narrator of the joke wants the reader/listener to understand it within a context. The implicit is incorporated in the discourse. Humor lies on the unsaid and on inference. According to Célia Maria Carcagnolo Gil (1991:123): As all the texts, the joke is not composed by the mere add or juxtaposition of words and phrases at random, but it is a whole with coherence, logical structure and thematic development related to information that has been accumulating by all the process of socialization of the speaker of a natural language. 2 As we can see, a joke is not a simple text and it requires some background knowledge in order to be understood to make the listener/reader laugh or at least to smile. 2. The structure of jokes Theory of scripts The theory of scripts was the first semantic theory to explain humorous texts. It was proposed by Victor Raskin (1985:81). But, what s a script? The script is a large chunk of semantic information surrounding the word or evoked by it. The script is a cognitive structure internalized by the native speaker and it represents the native speaker s knowledge of a small part of the world. In order for a text to be funny, there is an opposition of scripts. To better understand what we mean, let us analyze the following example: Speaker A : My wife is an angel! Speaker B: You re lucky! Mine is still alive. 2 Como todo texto, a piada não é formada pela simples soma ou justaposição de palavras e frases aleatórias, mas é um todo com coerência, estruturação lógica e desenvolvimento temático intimamente relacionado às informações que se vão acumulando por todo o processo de socialização do falante de uma língua natural.

4 4 The word angel triggers a different meaning thus forming the opposition: my wife is good x my wife is not good. Besides the script, Raskin (1985:81) proposes another two components: the trigger the word which introduces the opposition and the combinatorial rules how the words will be connected in order to form the oppositions. The author proposes two hypotheses: A text can be characterized as a single-joke-carrying text if both of the conditions are satisfied: (i) The text is compatible, fully or in part, with two different scripts (ii) The two scripts with which the text is compatible are opposite in a special sense. Let us analyze the joke below: Speaker A: How can you survive in the desert? Speaker B : By eating the sand-which is there. In the joke above we have the opposition of the following scripts sandwich x sand which. Needless to say, that the reader or listener has to perceive such oppositions. LEARNING WITH JOKES Humor can be considered as one aspect of socialization of our students. According to Vega (1989) the humorous competence has to be fostered in the classes of English as a foreign language since we enjoy being surrounded by people who have a good sense of humor. Lately there have been many publications using humorous texts and it really helps in the learning process. Thus, humor can be used as a tool to make the learning process easier and help students to perceive that learning English is not something impossible to achieve. Yet to develop humorous competence is not something easy for humor is a complex phenomenon and students have to have some scripts internalized in order to understand a humorous text. According to Canale and Swain (1980) communicative competence entails four components: grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic and discursive competence. Grammatical competence knowledge of vocabulary, rules of morphology, phonology, spelling, syntax and semantic. Sociolinguistic competence knowledge of social rules and usage of language.

5 5 Strategic competence verbal and non-verbal knowledge to compensate lack of linguistic knowledge. Discursive competence ability to interpret a text. Vega (1989) proposes another competence: the ability a student has to understand the oppositions of a humorous text according to Victor Raskin (1985). However, she does not explain how students can develop this ability. Therefore, we propose a task-based language teaching approach to be used in the classroom. Peter Skehan (1998) proposes three phases. In the first one, the teacher activates the students previous knowledge. In the second phase, it is the activity with the text itself and the development of the interlanguage. In the third phase, the teacher develops activities based on the theme of the text. When we prepared material for the students to read humorous texts in the classroom we used the following terminology: prereading activity, while-reading activity, after-reading activity. Moreover, Yan Zhao (1988) emphasizes that jokes are not only to have fun, but we can also learn with them; for example, we can learn about people s habits and values of a society different from our own. CULTURAL ISSUES According to Zarate (2003) the classroom of a foreign language is the place where two cultures get into contact and students compare them, yet some cultural barriers can also take place due to the differences faced by students. Furthermore, the cultural contact will depend on the national environment which the foreign language is taught. Concerning learning English in Brazil, students have already got in contact with the English culture by songs, food, films etc; but they still need the confrontation in the classroom. In the globalization process, American culture is superposing other cultures specially in underdeveloped countries. Thus, the description of a foreign culture may go against certain things students might consider essential: the concept of family for American people differs from that of Brazilian people and the teacher needs to show this difference. Zarate (2003) emphasizes that it is possible to expose the foreign culture and, at the same time, value the national culture. However, there are many cultures in Brazil, the same way that American culture is not composed of one culture, but it is important to know which culture will be presented in the classroom. We can say that most of the time, the culture dealt with in

6 6 the classroom is seen through the didactic book and that it has many stereotypes so the teacher needs to be aware of them. Kramsch (2003:51) says that culture cannot be seen as some type of ability for it is spread throughout society. All the time we are surrounded by culture and that is why it is difficult to have it classified as ability. We can assume that the teaching of a language is connected to an immersion in another culture that is formed by multicultural aspects. The teacher selects what part of the culture he is going to privilege in the classroom. Thus, a person who belongs to a certain cultural group his/her view may change once in contact with a foreign culture. Therefore, we may say that he/she is going to form a third culture. Culture puts its imprint on the conversational and narrative styles of the members of a social group. These styles are generally considered to form part of people s cultural identities. When we study a foreign language, we do not forget that we belong to a certain culture and speak another language different from the one being taught. As a consequence, cultural barriers will always be present in our classes when we teach English. Thus, the learning of a foreign language implies learning a different culture too. In order to overcome cultural barriers, the teacher needs to take into consideration the students previous knowledge. In the case of humor, the teacher needs to know the language and the culture to deal with it. Students react to cultural aspects in a different way, so when they get in contact with a different culture their behavior will vary from one class to the next where a teacher works. We can view humor as a transgression within a certain culture, but if the student is not familiarized with the culture he is not going to understand the joke. Thus, we emphasize the importance for the teacher to prepare students to read/listen to the joke. Previous knowledge plays an essential role to perceive humorous texts. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES We are only going to point out here the individual differences which influence the understanding of jokes: cognitive style, emotional states and personalities, learning strategies. Peter Skehan (1989) distinguishes some styles that good students use. First of all, good learners are involved in their tasks. Secondly, they develop the knowledge of language as a system and make inferences. Thirdly, good students perceive language as a means to make inferences and interact with other people. Fourthly, good students feel more secure about what

7 7 they know and their feelings towards a foreign language. Finally, they review constantly the system of the foreign language they are studying whenever certain expressions occur and the relationship between them. Furthermore, we need also to be aware of the fact that in a classroom there are four types of learners according to David Nunan (1989:52): Type one: Concrete learners These learners tend to like games, pictures, films, video, using cassettes, talking in pairs and practicing English outside the class. Type two: Analytical learners These learners like studying grammar, studying English books and reading newspapers studying alone, finding their own mistakes and working on problems set by the teacher. Type 3: Communicative learner These students like to learn by watching, listening to native speakers, talking to friends in English and watching television in English, using English out of class in shops, trains, etc., learning new words by hearing them, and learning by conversation. Type 4: Authoritative-oriented learners These learners prefer the teacher to explain everything, like to have their own textbooks, to write everything in notebook, to study grammar, learn by reading, and learn new words by seeing them. In our experience we can see that only the last type of learner is not prone to like jokes in the classroom. Peter Skehan (1989) points out that extroverted students are inclined to use more English outside the classroom and as a consequence advance more quickly in their language learning. They like having more interaction with other people. We can say that extroverted students are more inclined to tell a joke in the classroom whenever the opportunity comes up. Moreover, students who are more risk-taking have a better performance in the classroom. Larsen-Freeman and Long (1992) say that anxiety is a component of language learning; yet it needs to be in the exact measure. If a student is too anxious, it blocks the learning process, but a bit of anxiety makes students learn more.

8 8 When we talk about learning strategies, we have first of all to define what we mean by this term. According to Rod Ellis (1994:531) a strategy consisted of a mental or behavioural activity related to some specific stage in the overall process of language acquisition or language use. According to O Malley a good learner makes connections to what he/she has previously learnt since our knowledge is organized in blocks, we need to link them in order to build a sound knowledge. We can infer that students who can make this connection will understand joke faster for humor relies on inference. MOTIVATION What is motivation? In our concept it occurs whenever we are involved in an activity and this makes us feel pleasure. A motivated person tends to influence positively people who surround him/her. The learning process only takes place when a person is motivated. Ellis (1994: 508) points out that language teachers readily acknowledge the importance of learners motivation, not infrequently explaining their own sense of failure with reference to their students lack of motivation. We can have two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. The former is derived from students interests whereas the latter is constituted of external sources. Thus, teachers need to promote students awareness and curiosity throughout the course trying to maintain their motivation. Learning a foreign language means that you are also going to make use of social skills and not merely learn grammar rules. Gardner and Ellis (1994) also show us two types of motivation: integrative and instrumental. The first one occurs when the student wants to belong to the group and the culture. Humor can be a means to make it happen. The second occurs when students foresee some advantages that he is going to have in case he/she learns a certain language. Ellis (1994) points out that the ideal motivation is the first one, it is more efficient. However, in our experience teaching English for Brazilian students we can say that the second one is easier to find among students. Thus, we teachers have to face a problem: how to motivate our students in the course and keep this motivation. We believe that humor can be a means to do that. After this general theoretical view, we are now going to show two jokes which were used in Amparo s classes at Inco-Cepel at the School of Education USP which are part of the corpus of my PhD thesis. Joke # 1

9 9 I Pre-Reading Activity 1) Do you know what blind means? Check in the dictionary. 2) You are going to read a joke called blind man. What are your predictions? A) B) II) While Reading Activity Read the joke and see if your predictions were correct. The Blind Man A young woman has just undressed to step into the shower when the doorbell rings. She goes to the door and says, Who is it? Blind man, comes the reply. So instead of going to the bathroom for her robe, she opens the door. Hummmmmmmmmm.. nice body, lady. Where do you want the blinds? 1) What does the woman understand? 2) What does the man understand? III) After Reading Activity This joke is about a misunderstanding. The man means one thing and the woman understands another. Tell your friend about a misunderstanding that happened in your life. Amparo used this joke in three different classes: 6A, 6B and 6C and in all of them she asked the students to check for the two meanings of blind: cego x persiana. Students checked for these meanings in groups. Students in group 6C came up with the following predictions: Predictions 1. It s a story of a man who wakes up at night and can t see. 2. it s a story about a blind man at the bus stop chewing gum. 3. It s a story about a salesman who sells blinds.

10 10 The second prediction was given by Euclides based on a short story by Clarice Lispector. Amparo immediately recognized the similarity. Students read the joke and most of them could understand and laughed a lot. In all the groups, Amparo read the joke aloud and explained the humor in it: homen cego x homem das persianas. Thus, the unsaid was revealed and the teacher needed to explain the joke. According to Dolistky (1983) this would ruin the humorous effect, but this did not happen. Students were eager to listen to the teacher s explanation of the joke and those who did not understand the joke at once wanted to share their laughter with the other students in the class. A cultural barrier occurred in group 6B when one student said it was impossible for it to happen: the lady in the joke could not misunderstand: homem das persianas x homem cego. Joke # 4 I Pre Reading Activity Ask this question to a friend in class. Don t read the joke yet! 1) When you were a child, did you think your parents were the best in the world? Why? Why not? II While-Reading Activity 1) Read the joke and see how the boys feel about their parents. My father is the greatest Three boys are in the schoolyard bragging (1) of how great their fathers are. The first one says: Well my father runs the fastest. He can fire an arrow (2), and start to run, I tell you, he gets there before the arrow. The second one says: Ha! You think that s fast! My father is a hunter(3). He can shoot his gun and be there before the bullet (4) The third one listens to the two and shakes his head. He then says: You know nothing about fast. My father is a civil servant (5) He stops work at 4.30 and he s home by 3.45! 2) Read the joke again and try to guess the meaning of the words in italics

11 II After Reading Activity 1) Discuss the questions below Can you think of any professions that people make jokes? Are they funny? Do you like them? In the joke above, students get to know about the stereotype concerning a profession: civil servant. This is also shared by our students making the joke easy to understand. There is the following opposition of scripts: hard worker x lazy. Amparo also read the joke aloud and explained it. Students mentioned several professions about which it is common to make jokes: lawyers, architects, engineers, clowns, teachers, salesmen, nurses, football players, doctors and priests. The class laughed at the joke and apparently enjoyed it. Yet, in another class Laurinda and Rocilda said they never understood the jokes despite seeing everybody laughing. We presume that they may not have understood the jokes for a cultural barrier, i.e. an inability to understand the implicit in the text. In group 6C José mentioned that he loved jokes, even though he was always the last one to get the joke or sometimes did not understand them at all. We assume that what the student liked was the atmosphere of laughter and joy that was spread around the class once the teacher announced that it was joke time. In this class, Amparo asked them if anybody knew a joke about a profession and that could be even in Portuguese. Oswaldo immediately volunteered and told the joke below: Oswaldo I ll try to tell a joke in English. There was an engineer who went to Heaven and God asked him to build some things. So the engineer started building a lot of things in Heaven. Then the devil asked God if he could lend the engineer to build things in Hell. So the engineer built many things in hell. A long time passes and the engineer was still in Hell. God got irritated and said I ll sue you. The devil answered: I ll see if you have lawyers in Heaven.

12 12 This is just an example of how students feel and react once they are exposed to humor and jokes. It is an important means of interaction with other students and also to give students extra motivation. FINAL REMARKS In this article we defined some aspects of jokes and some characteristics which might influence students motivation whenever exposed to this kind of text. Dolitsky (1983) emphasized that humor relies on the unsaid, however once used in the classroom for didactic purposes, we observed that, most of the times, the unsaid has to be revealed, otherwise some students will not understand the comic effect. Yet, after the teacher explains the humor students laugh a lot and they are happy to participate with other students in the joy of the class. We have to say that even though the use of jokes was successful in the classes we observed, teachers have to be careful in the selection of jokes, use only the ones you believe your students will understand and prepare exercises for them. After all, students need to feel they are learning with jokes as well as with any other text used in the classroom. Laughter in the classroom always promotes a good atmosphere and a wish to learn more. REFERENCES BARZOTTO, Valdir. Olhares Oblíquos sobre sentidos não muito Dissimulados. In: Análise do discurso: as materialidades do sentido, Maria do Rosário Gregolin e Roberno Baronas (organizadores) São Carlos, S.P.: Claraluz, p , CANALE, M. & Swain. Theoretical Bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. In: Journal of Applied Linguistics. v , CHIARO, Delia. The language of jokes analyzing verbal play. London and New York: Routledge, Interface Series DOLISKY, Marlene. Humor and the Unsaid. In: Journal of Pragmatics, p , ELLIS, Rod. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1994. FREEMAN-LARSEN, Diane & Michael H. Long. An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. London e New York, Longman, GARDNER, R.C. Social Psychology and Second Language Learning. London Edward Arnold, 1985.

13 13 GIL, Célia Maria Carcagnolo. A linguagem da surpresa. Tese Doutorado. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, KRAMSCH, Claire. Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford. Oxford University Press, NUNAN, David. Understanding Language Classrooms. New York: Prentice Hall, POSSENTI, Sírio. Os humores na língua. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, RASKIN, Victor. Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Boston, Lancaster: De Reidel Publishing Company, SKEHAN, Peter. A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, SOUZA, Lélia. O humor em aulas de Lingua Inglesa: motivação, atitude e questões culturais. Tese de Doutorado Universidade de São Paulo: São Paulo, VEGA, Gladys Martha. Humor Competence: the fifth component. A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University. Master of Arts, ZARATE, Genevière. Representatons de l etranger et didactique dês langues. Essais collection Credif dirigée par Françoise Lapeyre, Didier, Paris, ZHAO, Yan. The information-conveying aspect of jokes. In: International Journal of Humor Research. v.1-3, p , Recebido em: 15/10/2016 Aprovado em: 17/01/2017