Instructor humor as a covariate for student engagement in comparison to intellectually stimulating teacher practices in an Armenian afterschool EFL program

Abstract

The use of instructor humor in language classrooms is often contended to positively affect student learning and participation. When studied in relation to student engagement, the findings on instructor humor are similarly positive and suggestive of a strong correlation. However, as there exist studies that report on intellectually stimulating teacher behaviors to be more effective in terms of student engagement, this study aims to test both. The research questions that this study addresses are on the relationships between pedagogical humor and student engagement, and intellectually stimulating teaching practices and student engagement. The two relationships are separately analyzed using correlational matrices. The context of this study is an Armenian afterschool EFL program from where 163 participants were recruited for the sample. The data was collected via an online anonymous survey that comprised three measuring instruments: Student Intellectual Stimulation Scale (SISS), Perceived Effect of Pedagogical Humor Scale (PEPH), Student Engagement Scale (SE). The results of this study showed a stronger correlation between student intellectual stimulation and student engagement than pedagogical humor and student engagement. However, when analyzed by gender, the correlation between pedagogical humor and student engagement for male participants showed equal in coefficients as the overall SISS and SE correlational coefficient. This study and its future furthering is significant for Armenian teachers and young students, as, with the youth’s influences of globalization and the heightened online interaction with humorous contents (e.g. memes, funny videos, etc.) on a daily basis, the implementation of humor in the classroom context yields itself potentially more fruitful nowadays.