Examining Medical Students’ Views on the Use of Humour

Humour is always considered a vital component of a language classroom as its positive effects on learning are undeniable, such as catching and holding student interest, creating a relaxing and comfortable classroom atmosphere, constructing bonds among class members, and so on; in other words, it makes learning more enjoyable. Shatz and LoSchiavo (2006) state that learning is fun and should be. For that reason, humour should not be left out of the classroom and ignored as the side product of the lesson. Instead, it can help with content delivery and promote learning by making learning more effective with students’ increased interest and attention. Thus, a teacher incorporating humour into his/her practices can offer students a more entertaining and friendlier learning experience. Several studies have examined the extent of humour use in primary and secondary classrooms, but only a few studies explore humour use at the university level. To fill this gap, this paper examines university students’ opinions about the effect of humour use on language learning. Two hundred sixty-four medical students at a state university volunteered to participate in the study. The data for this study were collected through a questionnaire, and semi-structured follow-up interviews were also utilised to complement the data. The questionnaires were analysed through descriptive statistics, and the interviews were studied consecutively via content analysis. Results demonstrated that students see humour as a pedagogical asset to language learning by facilitating for raising interest, holding attention, increasing attention rates and building rapport among participants.