Humour in EFL Classes: Effects on Academic Engagement, Anxiety, and Language Learning

Abstract

This research examined the impact of humour on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learner’s educational engagement, their language skills, and their feelings of anxiety. To do this, the researchers created a quasi-experimental study. Thirty-six students studying in an English institute were asked to participate in this experimental study and completed two questionnaires. For assessing the participation behaviour of students, the engagement questionnaire designed by Golestani and Ghanizadeh (forthc.) was used to evaluate the three elements of engagement. It includes 24 items: The behavioural (9 items, Questions 1-9), emotional (3 items, Questions 10-12), and cognitive engagement (12 items, Questions 13-24) (Appendix A). To measure the anxiety of cross-cultural communication, six components from Dörnyei's L2 motivational self-system (2005), which were translated into Persian and validated in the Iranian context by Papi (2010), were used (Appendix B). Humour instructions were carried out in the experimental group through a number of techniques. The findings estimated via an independent samples t-test indicated that humour can influence anxiety negatively and language achievement positively. The results of Multi Variance Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) demonstrated that Humour can boost emotional engagement by up to 55 percent; it is less effective for cognitive engagement, predicting about 37 percent, and even weaker for behavioural engagement, with just 27 percent. When teachers become aware of the contributions of humour to engagement, language achievement, and anxiety, they pay more attention to learners’ emotions and use homer-based instruction in their classes more frequently.