RESEARCH ON CLASSROOM HUMOR IN CHINESE CLASSES FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS LEARNING CHINESE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE TAKING SILPAKORN UNIVERSITY OF THAILAND AS AN EXAMPLE

Abstract

  Humor is an effective method used in a variety of educational settings, but its use in university contexts where Chinese is taught as a second language has not been adequately studied. The purpose of this study is to find out how humor is used in Thai university classrooms of spoken Chinese, to explore what types of humor are used in Thai classrooms of spoken Chinese, and to analyze the mechanisms by which it is generated, and on this basis to identify effective humor strategies that can be used to increase student engagement, motivation, willingness to communicate, and learning outcomes.

      The author used a qualitative research design to collect data through classroom observations and questionnaires and used thematic analysis to analyze the data using a sampling of spoken Chinese classrooms at the University of the Arts in Thailand. The results show that the types of humor in the classroom of college students of Chinese as a second language are mainly verbal humor, body language, and humorous props. The characteristics of the above humor are: 1) mostly related to the course learning content; 2) mostly episodic; 3) context specific; 4) related to the students' language ability level. The mechanisms of classroom humor include the humor of the course content, the teacher's own sense of humor, the creation of classroom atmosphere, the bridge effect, and the students' personal characteristics. The functions of classroom humor are mainly manifested in enlivening the classroom atmosphere, triggering pleasant emotions, reducing learning anxiety and willingness to express it, stimulating the willingness to communicate in class, and contributing to the establishment of good teacher-student relationships. The study also found that humor may be culturally and contextually specific and that teachers need to consider students' cultural backgrounds and language proficiency levels when using humor in the classroom.

       In conclusion, this study contributes to the understanding of the role of humor in second language acquisition and teaching and provides practical guidelines for language teachers to use humor effectively when teaching Chinese as a second language in universities. The findings will also provide information about students' and teachers' attitudes toward humor use, help language teachers and researchers develop more effective methods of teaching Chinese as a second language, and provide guidance for the development of language teaching theories that integrate humor as an effective teaching tool.