Научная работа по теме " Роль шуток в обучении английскому языку"
методическая разработка (8 класс)

School 2, Voskresensk

Research work on the theme:

«English humor as a means of language learning»

Done by the 8th form student:

Maria Denisovna Kipko

Supervisor: Alena Vladislavovna Bakhtina

Voskresensk 2022

Contest

Part 1

Introduction……………………………………………………………………...3

Humor as a part of the English culture………………………………………….5

Using humor in the education……………………………………………………...8

Part 2

Practical part…………………………………………………………………10

Introduction

Learning a new language is an easy thing for children. They memorize the information quickly, that's why it’s better to begin studying from an early age. There is one theory to explain that: God has given young children a magical ability to learn new languages. This ability slowly disappears, and is completely gone by the time an adult begins the task of learning a new language.

That theory is absolutely true because it’s really hard for adults to study even very simple topics and rules. Their brain doesn’t work as well as it did when they were younger. They forget things more often. Therefore, they should make much more effort to achieve at least a small result.

In both situations people need motivation. If you don’t have enough desire to study, you won’t do that. That’s why teachers should make lessons more interesting. One of the ways to do that is to add different funny jokes. It does not only make lessons fun, but also make it easier to remember the rules  and learn the culture of the country. It also helps to make a comfortable atmosphere in the lesson and  to keep stress levels to a minimum. By doing more practical exercises with interesting and unusual topics, games and jokes, the teacher gets closer to the students and they feel more confident.

The topic of our research work is : “English humor as a means of language learning”

Relevance of the topic: the need to learn English humor as a part of the language

Well, our work aims:

1. To study the influence of using humor in teaching on the success of students,

2. To learn how to use and understand English humor

The tasks of our work are:

•  To analyze English humor,
• To find difficulty in understanding English humor and the way to use humor in the English lessons,
• To consider the types of English humor,
• To make the survey of English humor,
• To conduct an experiment in different classes,
• To make a “Teacher Cartoon-A-Day Calendar”,
• To analyze the student’s book “Rainbow English 5”

The object of our research is : the English humor.

The subject of our research is understanding English humor and learning the language using jokes

The methods of our research work are: the  study  of  works of the greatest scholars, analysis of modern vocabulary

1.Humor as a part of the English culture

Features and types of English humor

Humor is one of the most important parts of learning foreign culture because it can tell us about people’s life, their customs, traditions. Humor reveals the most hidden parts of a nation’s culture. These details will make the idea of English humor.

But even this fact will not make some people understand English humor. Because we will be able to fully understand the culture only by seeing it with our own eyes.

It is believed that an Englishman can be recognized by three signs: prudery, arrogance and a sense of humor that will never be understood by foreigners who do not speak English well. So that means that knowing the language is also a very important thing in understanding English humor.

First of all, you should have a big vocabulary, because one of the favorite things of Englishmеn is wordplay. English has a lot of words with ambiguous meanings or words with similar sounding.

There are a lot of types   оf  English humor. First   type is word games or puns. They can be divided into:

1. Visual pun is using a picture that visually convey the play on words
2. Homographic Pun is the way that founded on words with the same writing but different meaning. For example: «You can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass.»
3. Homophonic Pun. same sounding but different meanings.

For example: «Why is it so wet in England? Because many kings and queens have reigned there.»

4. Homonymic Pun   consists of the two types listed above. For example:

«War does not determine who is right − only who is left.»

5. Recursive Pun where the second part of the pun depends on understanding the first part. For example: “A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother” (your mother refers to the Oedipus complex)
6. Compound Pun consists of a chain of words that makes a new word, creating a comic effect. For example: «Why can a man never starve in the Great Desert? Because he can eat the sand which is there.»

So, English humor is based on wordplay. It is often found in literature. Englishman like to play with their native language, they can provide everything in a positive way. They show their worldview, their picture of the world.

Second type is a black humor. It makes fun of death, illness, physical disabilities and not everybody understands that. This humor is popular in our country too. Most of people don’t like it, but connoisseurs of such humor are becoming more common. Some people say that it means having high intelligence. Such humor is a controversial topic, because, on the one hand, sometimes you want less negativity in life, but on the other hand, it is the real life in which you live and those topics that black humor touches are a part of our life. Anyway, it’s only up to you to decide - do you like such things or not. If you don’t understand such jokes it doesn’t mean that you have a bad sense of humor.

English humor also includes some stupid and illogical jokes, such as elephant jokes:

• How can you tell that an elephant has been in your refrigerator?
• By the footprints in the butter

Or «Banana skin sense of humor» when someone slips on a banana peel, and everyone laughs.

Or Shaggy-dog stories:

Teacher: Before we begin the examination, are there any questions?

Student: What’s the name of this course?

And, of course, the third type is classic English humor is the one that includes irony and sarcasm.

The main thing while telling a joke is to make a straight face, Bеcause there will be a feeling like your joke wasn’t prepared in advance. And it will work in our country too.

So, that means that you should laugh enough before telling a joke and not to die of laughter while nobody understands what you want to say.

Englishman like to laugh at themselves and their mistakes. Sometimes we also  do it, but more often we just insult ourselves. Of course, it’s bad. But Englishmen do it kindly and it really helps to motivate yourself and not to worry about mistakes. It will greatly help in learning too.

To sum up: humor is closely related to the culture and lifestyle of people. It also plays a big role in language learning as it introduces us to the culture of the country, as well as expands the vocabulary and introduces new interesting rules and phraseological units. This is especially important if you want to live in foreign-speaking countries.

2. Using humor in the education

Humor not only activates motivation and directs attention, but it can also be used in other events as well, from stimulating recall to eliciting performance and providing feedback.  Telling jokes is a special skill and not everybody needs that but it still can be important in other ways of communication.  Teachers can use this topic to practice student’s skills in listening, reading and speaking. Some teachers see good results in student’s skills at the end of the school year. Many of the researchers came to the conclusion that anxiety has a negative effect on students' ability to learn. That’s why humor can defuse the situation, relax students and make them more receptive to learning. Laught brings people closer together and therefore affects teachers and students in the same way. It’s also important to help students who are afraid of mistakes. Make them laugh at them. Because we learn from our mistakes. That’s one of the most meaningful things that students should know. You don’t need to prepare a lot of jokes. It’s more interesting when you use a freshly made joke, because it's easier than choosing a joke suitable for the situation from those that you have prepared.

While telling jokes students also can practice their   listening and translating skills. If they laugh after somebody’s joke, they understand it. Watching some popular comedy programmers is a great idea, because students will see the actions, emotions of characters and understand the main thought of the joke and the episode as a whole better. A lot of humor on TV is very rich in cultural references and this too can be an interesting, though very challenging area to explore.

Translating different jokes and idioms from Russian into English and vice versa make a lot of fun too, because sometimes it looks very strange. Students revise their vocabulary and remember previous lessons too.

There is a way to make boring and difficult tasks easier too. As a basis, you can take some funny poems or songs. For example, teacher can turn on a funny song and students should fill in the gaps after listening. It can be words, prepositions or articles. Students can also just listen to the verse and then tell what happened. Various exclusion words can be taught through fun easy-to-remember sentences or poems (as Russian: the gypsy was sitting on tiptoe and clucking at the chickens). Such way can be also used with commas that will change the meaning of the sentence (execution cannot be pardoned)

For example: Some people enjoy cooking their families and their dogs (Some people enjoy cooking, their families, and their dogs)

Let’s eat grandma (Let’s eat, grandma)

We invited the dogs, William, and Harry (“We invited the dogs, William and Harry)

With interesting phrases or words with multiple meanings, students can compose new sentences or even jokes. ambiguous words can be taken from jokes with wordplay. Or vice versa, after studying such words, give the task to the students to make knock- knock jokes with these words.

For example:

Hurry up (means to be faster)

The word “Hurry” looks like a name, so student can use it for the beginning of a joke:

• Knock-knock!
• Who’s there?
• Harry!
• Harry who?
• Harry up and answer the door.

                         Forms of working with humorous materials

Using humor in the lessons introduces students to such phenomena of foreign culture and realizes other goals.

Humor based on phonetic phenomena is suitable for phonetic charging, which is present in every lesson.

Examples:

1. Theophilius Thistle, thistle sifter, sifted a sieve of unsifted thistles. If Theophilius Thistle, the thistle sifter, sifted the sieve of unsifted thistles where is the sieve of unsifted thistles Theophilius  Thistle, the thistle sifter, sifted?  
2. The rate collector correctly collected the late rates at a great rate.
3. A flea and a fly in a flue

Were imprisoned, so what could they do?

Said the fly, “Let us flee!”

“Let us fly!” said the flea,

And they flew through a flow in the flue.

Using short jokes in the beginning of the lesson can help students to guess the topic of the lesson and formulate goals and objectives.

Example: when  a young lady, filling her application for overseas duty with the Red Cross, came to the question asking if she were prepared for the journey, she wrote: “I can say ‘No’ in 12 languages”. This joke is connected with the topic “Learning of foreign languages”   and leads to the problem of polyglot

Teacher can ask some questions about this topic:

Can we say that this young lady is a polyglot? Why?/Why not?

When can we say that we know a foreign language?

Is it difficult to learn 2 or more foreign languages?

1. A visual pun illustrates topics such as “Health”, ”Keeping feet”
2. The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

This quote belongs to the British economist and political philosopher . W. Badgett. It can be used to get acquainted with this topic as “How to be a successful person”.

Working with phraseological units also makes lessons very interesting. Example: translate the words below and draw them in the table. Before giving a task, the teacher should talk about such a kind of humor as word playing. This task will help students to develop their creative abilities, remember the meanings of phrases   and increase interest in learning.

Conclusions on the theoretical part:

Taking into the consideration humor in life, culture and education of people, the types of English humor and the complexity of understanding humor, we came to the following conclusions:

- Humor is a multifaceted concept, including the ability to express it, a special way of thinking.

- There are different kinds of humor

- Humor is often found in the speech of an Englishman, that’s why it’s important to form a number of competencies in this field.

- English humor is based on wordplay

- The use of humor in the classroom allows students to assimilate the material better

Part 2

Practical part

The first meeting with English humor students happens in 5th class, because English humor has difficult forms for understanding. That’s why it’s logical to start at an older age.We’ve analyzed the textbook of Yu.U.Vaulina and her co-authors for 5th class. All UMCS of this line are included in the Federal List of teaching materials recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for use in the educational process in general education organizations

        Here are concussions we came to:

• The notebook has an exercise “Game” which is held in an entertaining form.
• There are a lot of different colorful and funny pictures to each material.
• In each section of the "Progress check" there are jokes under the heading "Enjoy yourself", relieving tension during the verification work.

At the end, it should be noted that there isn’t enough material for understanding English humor, that’s why teachers need to expand the ways of using humor during the education.

To make sure that the use of humor in teaching is effective, we need to put it into practice. There are many ways to do it.

First, we’ll make a little experiment to compare results.

In the first lesson we are going just to tell a rule to the students. And in another one we’ll do the same but add some jokes and make the lesson fun. Students will write a small test in each lesson and then the teacher compares the results that will show us the effectiveness of using humor.

We see a big difference between the results from these two lessons. The conclusion suggests itself. It is much easier for students to assimilate information with the help of humor, which means that teachers need to include it in the program.

Also, we have made an   еvent in the fifth grades «Funny Quiz».

We are going to:

1. Make students interested in studying English
2. Repeat the studied material in game form

Tasks for preparation are:

1. Students need to make a name of their team, emblem and motto, then fans have to make a poster with this logo.
2. Teacher should prepare material, audio for third task and diplomas for winners

The plan of the event:

1. Opening words
2.  Task 1. Warming-up.
3. Task 2. Reading
4. Task 3. Listening
5. Task 4. Funny quiz
6. Results, awarding

1. Opening words:

Teacher: - Hello, boys and girls! I am glad to see you. Today we will have

a very funny competition «English is fun!». Let’s greet each team. The team“…. ”

Teacher names each team in turn, then they say their motto and show emblem.

Teacher: - Thank you pupils. Let’s start our competition. I wish you good

luck. The first task is to guess the riddles.

2. Task 1.

Warming up.

Teams finish the poem using English word.

Teacher: - I will read 3 little poems for each team and you must end it with

the English word. You can get 1 point for each right answer.

Утром каждым в школе птичьей,

Всех птенцов петь учит ..

(teacher - учитель)

Готов обед у миссис Эйбл,

Гостям накрыт уж круглый ...

(table)

Не проспать чтоб на урок,

Мы заводим на ночь ...

(clock)

В летнем саду для детей наберут

Сладких и вкусных, полезных всем ...

(fruit - фрукты)

Нужен всем нам на обед

Пышный, вкусный, свежий ...

(bread)

В клетке лев рычит, шумит,

Чтоб на ужин дали ...

(meat)

От жары сейчас сгорим!

Ох, подайте нам ...

(ice-cream)

Я его хоть банку съем -

Из клубники вкусен ...

(jam)

Кисло-сладкий он на вкус,

Витаминный пейте ...

(juice)

3. Task 2

Reading.

Find the right headlines for each funny story and put your answers in the table using the example below.

A B C D E

1 2 3 4 5

1. Unreal dream

2. Modest guest

3. Nice message

4. Wrong example

5. Very smart boy

A. Bessie is a little girl. She is only five. She does not go to school and, of course, she does not know how to read and to write. But her sister Mary is a schoolgirl. She is ten. One day Mary sees her little sister at the table with a pen in her hand and some paper in front of her. “What are you doing, Bessie?” she says.

Bessie answers: “I am writing a letter to my friend Kitty.” But you don’t know

how to write,” says her sister. “Well,” says Bessie, “it doesn’t matter, because

Kitty does not know how to read.”

B. Teacher: When it is cold, all things shrink and when it is warm, they

expand. Who can give me an example?

Student: I can. The days in winter are short and the days in summer are

long!

C. The class is having a gym lesson. The students are doing “the bike-riding”

exercise. Only Tom is not moving his legs. “Why aren’t you moving your legs?”

the sports master asks. “I don’t need to. Right now I am riding down the mountain

side.”

D. Buyer: I would like to have the book entitled “How to become a polyglot

in 10 days”.

Bookseller: Science fiction is in the next department, please.

E. Willie is at the party. There are a lot of things on the table. “Do you want

something more, Willie?” asks the host. “No, thank you,” answers Willie. “I am

full.” “Well then,” smiles the host, “put some fruit and cakes in your pockets to eat

on the way home.” “No, thank you,” answers Willie, “they are full too”. [31]

Ответ:

A B C D E

4. Task 3

Listening.

Teacher: - Listen and fill in the gaps.

Who says nothing is impossible? I have been doing nothing for … (years).

People say you cannot live without love, but I think … (oxygen) is more

important.

I am not … (lazy), I am just very relaxed.

The future is shaped by your dreams, so stop … (wasting time) and go to

sleep!

I always dream of being a millionaire like my uncle!... He's … (dreaming)

too.

Never test how deep the water is with both … (feet).

5. Task 4

“Funny text: Sense of Humor”

        There are 7 questions in this test. You need to continue phrases choosing one variant of the answer. You’ll get the point from 0 to 2.

1. Always borrow money from a pessimist…

1. if you are an optimist (0 point)
2. He won’t lie that he is glad to lend it (1 point)
3. He won’t expect it back (2 points)

2. Life is a nightmare…

1. for people who don’t suffer from insomnia (1 point)\
2. that lasts always (0 point)
3. that prevents you from sleeping (2 points)

3. Be yourself…

1. everyone else already taken (2 points)
2. otherwise yourself will be somebody else (1 point)
3. it is very important (0 point)

4. There is no half-singing in the shower, …

1. you are either a rock star or an opera diva (2 points)
2. because you have to outvoice the noise of water (1 point)
3. it is just possible (0 point)

5. Watermelon - it’s a good fruit…

1. because it’s very tasty (0 point)
2. You eat, you drink, you wash your face (2 points)
3. if it would not be a berry (1 point)

6. It’s awfully hard work…

1. doing “algebra” and “geometry” in the day (0 point)
2. doing homework and being online in VK (1 point)
3. doing nothing (2 points)

7. Wisdom comes with…

1. gray hairs (0 point)
2. sclerosis (1 point)
3. winters (2 points)

        Count your results.

        From 0 to 4:

        You have a sense of humor but it’s hidden somewhere inside you. Try to look at things not so serious and don’t be afraid of becoming a bit crazy.

        From 5 to 9:

        You have a good sense of humor but sometimes you suffer from lack of originality. Read novels by K. Jerome or P.G. Wodehouse to learn how to make a good joke.

        From 10 to 14:

        You have a brilliant sense of humor. Whatever may happen you know how to cheer other people up and look as a very smart person

6. Results, awarding

At the end of the event, the participating teams receive prizes (tea in separate bags with the inscription "English Tea"), and the winners get the main prize - a sweet roll with the inscription "English Pudding".

Conclusion

Not everybody is able to understand English humor, but it is absolutely okay because we live in countries with different cultures, customs, lifestyles, and we have big differences between some rules and vocabulary. There are lots of types of English jokes that show these differences. Also, after reviewing them, we found out that English humor is based on wordplay, that is why we need to have a big vocabulary to understand them.

It’s necessary to tell a joke in a special way to make listeners laugh at it. You should make a straight face to make everybody feel like the joke wasn’t prepared. This way your joke has a better chance of success.

Using humor in the classroom will not only introduce students to the culture of the country, but also help to increase the efficiency of work in the classroom and relieve tension. It will make close relationships between teacher and students, and they will be much more motivated and interested to learn new information about the language.  We have considered a lot of methods to make lessons funnier.

Continuous work with students in such way will make a big influence on their results. This will greatly facilitate their communication with foreigners, enrich their vocabulary with words and various idioms, make it easier to understand complex rules and help them understand that learning languages is a very interesting and exciting process that is very important for everyone.

Application

1. Theophilius Thistle, thistle sifter, sifted a sieve of unsifted thistles. If Theophilius Thistle, the thistle sifter, sifted the sieve of unsifted thistles where is the sieve of unsifted thistles Theophilius  Thistle, the thistle sifter, sifted?  
2. The rate collector correctly collected the late rates at a great rate.
3. A flea and a fly in a flue

Were imprisoned, so what could they do?

Said the fly, “Let us flee!”

“Let us fly!” said the flea,

And they flew through a flow in the flue.

Some people enjoy cooking their families and their dogs (Some people enjoy cooking, their families, and their dogs)

Let’s eat grandma (Let’s eat, grandma)

We invited the dogs, William, and Harry (“We invited the dogs, William and Harry)

“The cat came back” (missing articles)

Old Mr. Johnson had some troubles of his own.

He had _ yellow cat which wouldn't leave his home.

He tried and tried to give _ cat away.

He gave it to _ man going far, far away.

Chorus: But the cat came back, the very next day.

_ cat came back. We thought he was a goner.

But _ cat came back. It just couldn't stay away.

Away, Away, Away

He gave it to _ farmer, said he'd take it to _ farm.

The farmer drove the tractor with _ cat under his arm.

He dropped it in a cornfield, thought he'd surely get lost.

The cat ate up the cornfield at the farmer's cost.

Chorus: But _ cat came back, the very next day.

_ cat came back. We thought he was a goner.

But _ cat came back. It just couldn't stay away.

Away, Away, Away

He gave it to _ trucker that was going to Mexico.

The trucker stopped for coffee at _ "Trucker Stop & Go".

But while he was a' paying he knew that he was stuck

He saw the cat jump in _ cab and take off with his truck.

Chorus: But _ cat came back, the very next day.

_ cat came back. We thought he was a goner.

But _ cat came back. It just couldn't stay away.

Away, Away, Away

He gave it to _ pilot with _ real nice plane.

_ pilot could just fly it far away in one day.

But the pilot had his troubles he couldn't touch down.

Because _ cat had the controls and made _ pilot turn around.

Chorus: But _ cat came back, the very next day.

_ cat came back. We thought he was a goner.

But _ cat came back. It just couldn't stay away.

Away, Away, Away

He gave it to _ train conductor, put it on _ train

New England's where _ train was headed up to Bangor Maine

He pull down on _ brakes those wheels screeched on the track

And as it ran away, conductor said, "Here, kitty cat".

Chorus: But _ cat came back, the very next day.

_ cat came back. We thought he was a goner.

But _ cat came back. It just couldn't stay away.

Away, Away, Away

The cat was taken in by _ lovely little girl

She loved that yellow cat, she made that cat her world

Now there is no reason for _ cat to come back

Cuz it never has to leave and it likes it like that.

Chorus: But _ cat came back, the very next day.

_ cat came back. We thought he was a goner.

But _ cat came back. It just couldn't stay away.

Away, Away, Away

It likes it where it is. It loves that little girl.

Old MacDonald had a farm (missing animals)

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o,

And on his farm he had a ____, ee-i-ee-i-o.

With a moo moo here and a moo moo there,

Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o,

And on his farm he had a ____, ee-i-ee-i-o.

With an oink oink here and an oink oink there,

Here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink oink.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o,

And on his farm he had a ____, ee-i-ee-i-o.

With a quack quack here and a quack quack there,

Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack quack.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o,

And on his farm he had some _____, ee-i-ee-i-o.

With a chick chick here and a chick chick there,

Here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick chick.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o,

And on his farm he had some ____, ee-i-ee-i-o.

With a honk honk here and a honk honk there,

Here a honk, there a honk, everywhere a honk honk.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o,

And on his farm he had a ____, ee-i-ee-i-o.

With a neh neh here and a neh neh there,

Here a neh, there a neh, everywhere a neh neh.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o,

And on his farm he had a ____, ee-i-ee-i-o.

With a hee haw here and a hee haw there,

Here a hee, there a hee, everywhere a hee haw.

Old MacDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o.

Appendix

Materials and sources

1.  “Similarities and differences between the English genre of “Jokes" and the Russian anecdote” performed by Kalinin Pavel Alekseevich,
2.  Mayol E., Milsted D. These strange Englishmen. – Moscow: Egmont, Russia Ltd., 2001. — 72 p.
3.  Ptakhina A. English anecdote as a reflection of national culture. Astrel, 2010.
4.  Toby Young. English humor, or how to lose friends and push people away. – M.: 2007. - 352 p
5.  Karasik V.I. Language circle: personality, concepts, discourse. – Volgograd Change, 2002. – 477 p.
6. infourok.ru, 
7. skyteach.ru
8. https://www.learnathome.ru/grammar/jokes-grammar.html
9. https://mixyfotos.ru/на-английском-про-фотографию/
10. https://smehnegreh.ru/zabavnoe/2669-smeshnye-kartinki-i-angliyskiy-yumor
11. https://dzen.ru/a/Y4OrUQiSzWTneV4L