The Use of Humor as a Teaching Method

This ethnography examines the relationship between students and their professor in a linguistics course. The importance of this study is to show how engagement within classrooms is affected by the use of different teaching methods. Understanding the method used to teach based on the relationship being built, can help increase the engagement of students in the future. Ethnographic data collected includes interviews, questionnaires, participant observation, and audio and visual recordings. The main focus that emerged from this data, is that humor was utilized to create a safe and engaging learning atmosphere. This atmosphere was able to help maintain the good rapport that was being built between the students and the professor. From these observations, it became clear that the function of humor was being used to help the comprehension of complex linguistic concepts. Thus, in this setting, humor is being used as a strategic tool to encourage participation from students and keep a collaborative environment. The effect of the humor in the classroom setting, brings light to how it can balance the understanding of teaching and learning within an introductory linguistics course with complex concepts.