The Role of Humour in Teaching for ESP Students

Abstract

In the course of history, humour has been more explored in literature, but little emphasis has been laid on it in teaching for higher education students. Intended or spontaneous, humour can play an important role in teaching and can facilitate teacher-student communication. It is a good pedagogical method whose main aim is to enhance students’ learning. The teaching-learning process can acquire special valences through humour. Humour enlivens the atmosphere in the classroom, helps students overcome learning difficulties and creates social bonds between participants in the act of communication. The present work aims to highlight humour complexity in the educational process. It also focuses on approaching humour from such perspectives as: definition, semantic richness,and pedagogical implications.

Keywords

• humour
• social bonds
• semantic richness