The language barrier is a familiar term, but what exactly is the humor barrier? Humor is a universal phenomenon, but the ways in which humor is used vary greatly from culture to culture. These differences can prove to be a major obstacle for English language learners hoping to communicate effectively in cross-cultural contexts. While a growing number of researchers have explored the importance of helping language learners better understand the humor of the target culture, in Bridging the Humor Barrier: Humor Competency Training in English Language Teaching, editors John Rucynski Jr. and Caleb Prichard bring together language teachers and researchers from a range of cultural and teaching contexts to tackle how to actually overcome the humor barrier. This book empirically examines humor competency training and presents related research that has implications for humor training. Contributors address a wide range of genres of humor, providing fresh insights into helping language learners deepen their understanding and appreciation of the humor of the English-speaking world, including jokes, sarcasm, and satire. This book is an excellent resource for English language teachers looking to help their learners avoid the pitfalls and reap the benefits of humor in the target language.
Introduction John Rucynski Jr. and Caleb Prichard Part 1: Humor Competence Development Outside the Class Chapter 1:"Working Backwards from Funny: Preparing Language Learners to Use Humor in Intercultural Encounters" Anne Pomerantz Chapter 2:"Humor Competency: The Role of Sociopragmatic Knowledge in Expressions of Humor in Intercultural Interactions" Jules Winchester Chapter 3:"Feeling Inadequate: Lessons from Cross-Cultural Adaptation to Help Learners Get over Inadequacies in Humor Competency" Maria Ramirez de Arellano Part 2: Integrated Humor Instruction Chapter 4:"Humor-Integrated Language Learning (HILL): Teaching with and about Humor" Mohammad Ali Heidari-Shahreza Chapter 5:"Junior High English Textbook Interactional Humor: Pragmatic Possibilities" Scott Gardner Chapter 6:"Reading Jokes in English: How English Language Learners Appreciate and Comprehend Humor" Nadezda Pimenova Part 3: Explicit Humor Competency Training Chapter 7:"Humor Competency Training for Sarcasm and Jocularity" Caleb Prichard and John Rucynski Jr. Chapter 8:"Theory, Content Knowledge, Input, Output: Elements in the Teaching and Learning of Humor Competence" Richard Hodson Chapter 9:"Using Diaries to Research and Develop Humor Competence in a Second Language" Maria Petkova Chapter 10:"Training English Language Learners to Recognize English Satirical News" John Rucynski Jr. and Caleb Prichard
