幽默在中学英语教学中的应用---毕业论文.doc

【标题】幽默在中学英语教学中的应用 【作者】陈 林 【关键词】幽默；幽默应用；英语教学 【指导老师】郑丽君 【专业】英语 【正文】. introductionwith the fast progressing of science and research, more and more studies on humor from different angels have been carried out and great success have been achieved. as a result, many theories came into being. western people, especially the british and the american, have already applied humor for their pedagogy. so humor in their teaching plays an important role, and has a great reflection on the class effect and efficiency. therefore, we believe that it is a great method to enhance the learners english study by using humor in classroom in some efficient ways. but in the english teaching practice, chinese teachers and students are always neglecting the effect of humor in daily english study. however, for a long time in english teaching and testing in china, humor language is, at the most, on the level of language sense enhancement just for fun, partly due to the difficulties in humor comprehension, and partly due to the lack of humor studies and analyses in teaching. what is the most suitable way to use humor in english teaching then? different people may have different answers. i think combining linguistic theories with some special teaching methods would be the best, because it provides us the basic theories to interpret humor in english study and makes us create humor on purpose in class.at the same time, the significance of this study is to analyze the function of humorous teaching. its chief task of english class teaching is to trigger the students interests, to let students study voluntarily and to experience the joy of learning english. besides, teachers should try their best to develop students intelligence and enrich their imagination. the author tries to find a good way to better the english teacher by using humor in order to inspire students to think, to imitate and to be creative.based on what is mentioned above, i am determined to write my dissertation entitled the application of humor in english teaching in junior school, in which the different theories eliciting humor will be analyzed in details, so that in the teaching process teacher can help the students to comprehend the humorous material and use humor to enrich the class. and this thesis intends to call for a good understanding of the importance of humorous teaching. meanwhile, the author hopes it will bring some enlightenment to english teachers and heartedly hopes more researchers will join in the research of humor teaching to improve the effect of english teaching. brief description of humora. the definition of humorwhat is humor? there are two definitions in longman contemporary dictionary: one is the ability to be amused, and the other is the quality of causing amusement.“humor is a pervasive human phenomenon.”1 it is observable in many spheres and aspects of life and in various human interactions. humanity is the only species with a sense of humor. but it is not an easy thing to give humor an exact definition. for many centuries, the researchers including philosophers, psychologists, sociologists have been trying their best to define it. however, there is not one definition that can meet with everybodys satisfaction. even so, people have not stopped their step in finding out what the nature of humor is and there are different ways of defining humor.raskin( 1985)2claimed that many people have tried to define humor and have generated a great number of loose, incomplete, unrestricted or circular definitions of humor.b. the classification of humorthere has been widespread disagreement through the centuries about how many kinds of humor exist3 47.some humors serve for pleasure, some for satire and some for disclosing philosophy truths. according to bergson s classification of the comic, humor can be classified into situational humor and language humor468-70.situational humor is the humor whose amusement must depend on the situation. it is always put in a certain context. the humorous meaning must rely on the context to a large degree. situational humor has different forms, such as pantomime, farce, cartoon, etc.language humor is the humor expressed by language, which includes humor expressed in language and humor created by language. in situational humor, language is just a linguistic symbol used as a tool to take down the amusing situation. the language itself isnt funny at all. while in language humor, the language is not a pure tool to take down the amusing things but a source to create humor. the material of this thesis is limited to language humor that means spoken or verbal humors literally recorded for telling important function of language in verbal humors. thus, in this thesis language humor is equivalent to verbal humor. the objective of the research is humor-carrying text, in which the humor production and interpretation can be conducted by utterances. moreover, it is easier to introduce a new theory by humor-carrying text, so this thesis is to emphasize on a large number of verbal humors chosen from textbooks. in this thesis, the language humor or humorous language is concerned. relatively speaking, the humorous language in verbal humors will be analyzed. the present situation of english teaching in junior schoolfor a time, the english teaching in junior school is lingering around the examination-oriented education system. english is regard as a tool for further study. the purpose, content, process, method and appraisal of english teaching are designed for further study, which pay attention to the imparting of knowledge and ignore the cultivation of integrated ability.then, at present, many english teachers still introduce traditional teaching methods. making grammar become the main part, the teacher pay little attention to the culture background of the english and ask students practice sentence patterns mechanically. thus students lost the interest in english, even give up learning english. under the present circumstances, all of the english teachers should pay much attention to the teaching process. because the classroom is the main battlefield of english teaching. we must make the classroom become a happy land for students to learn english. we must let students realize the interest of learning english, while the introduction of humor just meets the need of english teaching. theoretical basis and related literature in english teachinga. theoretical basis of the application of humor in english teachingmorreall(1983) 5 has summarized previous theories of humor and laughter into three types:(1)where humor is derived from a sensation of superiority over what is laughed at;(2)where humor derives from a sensation of psychological relief.(3)where humor derives from the perception of incongruity in what is laughed at; here the three traditional theories about humor arise: superiority, incongruity, and relief from restraint.superiority theoryhumor related to feelings of superiority has existed since ancient times. this theory, otherwise known as the degradation, disparagement, and derision theories, derives from aristotles view that comedy is based on“an imitation of men worse than the average”, of people who are“ridiculous”, accounts for the pleasure one feels when the less fortunate and less desirable figures are laughed at.hobbes(2003) i6l regards laughter as the result of a sudden access of self-esteem or vain glory when one realizes that ones own situation compares favorably with the misfortunes or infirmities of others. the other researchers criticism about this view centers on two points:(1) his theory is too narrow-minded to cover all types of humor;(2)his theory seems to have neglected an essential feature of humor.plato(2003)7suggested that all humor could be explained in this way. people laugh whenever something or someone is degraded, thus making them superior. most often, the feelings of superiority and degradation work hand in hand. examples of verbal humor involve derision and include ethnic jokes. these give people the opportunity to assert their superiority over others. sometimes even when the caricature makes him or her look comical or ugly, a derisive form of physical humor can be found, for example, when a person in a slapstick comedy slips on a banana peel, or is otherwise hurt, people laugh because they identify with their superiority over the situation. sometimes, a joke describes a situation in which some character acts folly, incompetently, etc. it may be that this allows the audience to feel superior to the character.incongruity theoryaristotle(1991)8should be regarded as the first to mention something approaching a theory of incongruity. in the book rhetoric he indicates that an effective device resulting laughter is to set up a particular expectation in the audience, and then to contradictor subvert it. kant and schopenhauer refer incongruity as the contradiction of expectations in the generation of laughter. suls defines incongruity as“the discrepancy between two mental representations, one of which is an expectation(presumably derived from, for example, the main body of a joke preceding the punch line) and the other is some idea or percept(for example, as contained in the punch line)”(suls, 2003)9.norman n.holland(holland,2003)10once classifies incongruity into 3 groups: one is cognitive incongruity, that is, people laugh when they realize something confirms and at the same time negates a proposition. another group is ethical incongruity, such as noble and humble, high and low, good and bad, which he thinks comes from plato. the other group is formal incongruity, which refers to the contradiction between form and content. he puts all aristotle s theories about fun into this framework.apter and smith( apter,1982)11develop the theory of incongruity. they postulate that humor is the product of the combination of a series of psychological states. the first of these they call synergy, that situation where any phenomenon is perceived as having two contradictory identities; and this is closely related to the notion of incongruity.relief theoryrelief theory takes laughter as a relief from ones anxiety and depression. it regards humor as an outlet for mental, nervous, and psychic energy after a strain, struggle or tension as well as a rebellion against the moral, ethical, and logical constraints of everyday life. freud is the representative of this theory. his idea can be found in his work jokes and their relation to the unconscious. freud(1980)12 claims that jokes are not distinguished from other verbal phenomena by their linguistic structure, but by their relation to the unconscious. he talks about sense and nonsense and their role in the production of joke pleasure. he shows that other forms of funniness-the comic, jests and humor-all share something in common with jokes, but do not share their ecological relationship to the unconscious.b. the significance of humor in teaching“for a teacher, humor is a tactic, a subject, and a vision. humor commands attention, encourages rapport, and invites complicity which indicates that this speaker, despite his curious obsession with words and ideas, is no boring pedant but a kind red spirit. a good guy, tolerant and inclusive.1236-40undoubtedly, a teacher with some sense of humor will be largely acknowledged and win the popularity of them. and barriers will be broken down between the teacher and students with a positive environment created. humor can help students concentrate on the lecture, especially on the teaching material. humor helps to gain students attention and keep their interest in the material presented. many researchers claim that humor facilitates learning through its impact on attention and memory. glenn has found that participants who were exposed to a series of lectures containing coursespecific humor demonstrated increased retention of the same material without the infusion of humor. furthermore, it is physically impossible to laugh and snore at the same time.1. creating active class atmospheregood class atmosphere is not only one nonrational element which affects education, but also key element that forms class education art. wonderful humor art of education has the power of evading and affecting, which can greatly activate class atmosphere. long term education experience tells us that laugh can create active atmosphere and make teaching and learning light and effective. practice shows that only in active class can students actively take part in creative thinking activities, cooperate with teachers, and create fine education art effects. once when i talked about the use of“must”. i said abruptly“ someone must be sleeping now.” students looked at each other and found that no one was sleeping. then i said“ someone must have slept”. the same thing happened. i added：“someone cant be in our class”. students all laughed. in english class, there are some interesting examples which can make students sleepless, gain knowledge in delight atmosphere and nurture ability. 2. developing a harmonious teacher-student relationshipthe research result of anthropologist shows that the function of humor can release the tension between humans, solve misunderstanding, dismiss crisis and soften tense atmosphere, and reduce conflict and anxiety. famous russian linguist sohomsky believes a misunderstanding high wall will be build up between teachers and students if teachers lack humor. they dont understand each other. education research shows that when teachers and students hold opposite stands.students reject all requirements from teachers and real understanding of rightful requirement. that is so called meaning barrier. education humor is the solution of teacher-student relationship and meaning barrier. so, heta believed that humor is one of the best qualities of a good teacher. humor has multiple functions. the most outstanding function is making students active and attracting their attention. in teaching, the real purpose is to make humor deeper and more valuable, which joins teachers and students together. education humor can make students feel the beauty and advantage of humanity and shorten psychologist distance. for example, i once examined reciting text and asked students what you would do if you had forgotten it.“peep!”“good answer!”(all laugh)“if you can recite the text with a glance, isnt it fast reading ability. attention. no peeping in exam(loud laughing). humor is the grease of teacher-student relationship, because it harms neither dignity of teachers nor self- resections of students. and“laugh can produce balancing effect laugh, even the laugh exists a few seconds and also fills the gap between people s positions and attitudes.” sometimes, teacher can escape from embarrass situation with the help of“humor to oneself. once when the class was over, a student asked me：“teacher, have you got hair cut?” i did not answer directly but said：“thank you”. the student got a pause, then laugh heartily.3. inspiring students desire of learning america educationist harman said：“the education without students interest islike hammering a piece of cold iron. but education humor art can effectively inspire students desire of learning and is helpful for understanding. the research shows that if one example is provided after projecting a concept and then the concept is explained again, the students marks get higher. someone have design such test：285 primary school students are given a series of video-audio material, and asked to recite it. the result shows that students have deep impression to the parts which contain humor. just like someone said：“witty remark is as tasteful as raisins in toast.” for example, one male english teacher wore a big golden necklace and walked into classroom when“the necklace” was taught. looking at this. the students got a big surprise. this teacher said：“you must feel surprise that 1 wear a necklace today.who can tell me what can necklace bring us.” some students said fortune. some said bliss, some said 1augh. the teacher said：“you are all right, but it has other function. it can change our future and cause great changes to our life. now, please read the famous passagethe necklace written by french writer maupassant and see what the necklace will bring to rangna.” hearing teachers word, students read the text with interest. it can see from this case that humorous language call greatly inspire students desire of learning. the possible application forms of teaching humora. recomposition of the examplereference books for teaching supplied many examples for teachers, which is convenient for teacher to prepare a new lesson. if we change them in humorous words or take a joke as an example, we can make students pay more attention to the knowledge points and make them remember them for ever. for example, when we teach the word“promise”, there is a joke as follows:father: didnt you promise to be a good boy?ben: yes, father.fat her: and didnt i promise you can not spend money if you were bad?ben:yes, father. but since i have broken my promise, you can broke yours13(晓林英语笑话迷语集,1997)this example not only make students master the phase“promise to be, promise sb. sth”, but also understand the phrase“break ones promise”. another example for teaching the word“charge”dentist:“i m sorry. madame, but ill have to charge you 25 dollar pulling your son s teeth.”mother:“25dollars!but you said you only charged five dollars for an extraction.”dentist:“i usually do. but your son yelled so loud, he scared four other patients out of the office.”this example makes students understand the usage of the phrases“charge sb some money” and“charge some money for sth”. it is better than teachin