Teaching and learning English with humour - Carmen Popescu

Teaching and learning English with humour: transcription, categorisaton and analysis Sumarry: - Review of Literature on Humour; - Methodological and Theoretical Approaches Drawn On; - Data collection: the pilot and the main study; - The Transcribing System; - Analytical Framework: Developing the Analytical Framework: -- the scheme and coding sheet. - Categories of Humour: Findings and Discussion; - Humour and the IRF. This book has been written on the assumption that a view of life based on the humorous acceptance of a plurality of meanings is more comprehensive and rewarding than one which "takes for granted the existence of one real world" (Mulkay 1988: 22-26) and which separates humour from the realm of the serious. This view can constitute the source of an interest in the examination of humour in a social setting traditionally associated with solemnity, i.e. the classroom. The present study is about the role of humour in teaching and learning English in the Romanian context. The aim of this study is therefore to identify categories of humour occurring in the foreign language classroom, to look at the changes that teaching with humour brings to the structure of the discourse in this classroom and to consider the implications that designing lessons around humorous materials has for teachers, textbook writers and teacher educators.