The Role of Humour Competency Training in English Language Teaching

Using humour in English language teaching (ELT) has multiple benefits, including improving classroom atmosphere, reducing student anxiety, and increasing learner participation. One area, however, that deserves more attention is the impact of target culture humour competence in L2 communication. The ability to engage in humour in the L2 can help learners communicate and bond with target language speakers, while a lack of understanding can result in embarrassment or even conflict. This chapter gives an overview of incorporating humour competency training into ELT. Humour competency training involves providing learners with microskills instruction to help them deepen their awareness of respective forms of humour they may encounter in the target culture(s). Learners in the cultural context of Japan, for example, may struggle to detect and understand forms of humour that are relatively infrequent in their own culture, including satirical news and verbal irony. Research has shown that humour competency training can help learners make significant gains in their understanding of target language humour. To achieve this, however, instructors and researchers need to ensure that the humour instruction, among other features, has a clear objective, provides a thorough overview of the functions of humour, and includes numerous authentic and modified examples. The authors outline the key principles of their humour competency training framework, summarize past research results, and provide guidance for implementing humour competency training in different cultural contexts.