Incorporating humour in the English as a foreign language classroom to enhance students' cultural competence.

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating the effectiveness of humour to ease cultural competence development. Accordingly, it is hypothesised that if EFL students were taught with humour, this would enhance their English cultural competence. The research is based on a quasi-experimental design that made use of a questionnaire, a pre-test, and a post-test, as research tools, to examine a sample of 46 second year students enrolled in the Department of English, Faculty of Letters and Languages, University of Frères Mentouri, Constantine1 during the academic year 2016-2017. Since little 'c' culture does not have a place in the curriculum, the two experimental groups were equally treated under the same conditions to maintain the principle of the one group pre-test post-test design, on the one hand, and to guarantee an exposure of all the subjects to all variables (humour and culture), on the other hand. This was the result of piloting the study in the academic year 2015-2016. The results of the questionnaire showed that the students were in favour of the incorporation of humour inside their classrooms for the powerful effect it has in generating an appealing atmosphere to receive cultural information. Moreover, the findings obtained from the t-test and the Orientation Cultural Model of Hammer (2007-2011) disclosed a significant improvement in the students' cultural competence, which confirms that humour has a considerable role in bridging the gap between learning a foreign language and learning its culture.