International Journal of Development in Social Sciences and Humanities

Many experienced linguists and methodology manual writers have emphasized that authentic material and using games are not just time-filling activities but also have a great educational value. These activities make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms. These activities are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy student more opportunity to speak and to express their opinions and feelings. They also help learners of the English as a foreign language to acquire new experiences which are not always possible during a typical lesson. Humor is one of such activities. It can add diversion to the regular classroom activities. It can create a relaxed atmosphere and make students remember things faster and better. Using such activity, students will be encouraged, entertained, taught, and promoted fluency. If not for any of these reasons, it should be used just because it helps students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems that at times seem overwhelming. The present study sheds light on what is meant by humor? ? And how to be used inside the classroom? This research is predicted to find answers for the following questions: What do different types of humor occur in EFL classrooms? Are there differences in the quantity or content of humor used in 5th grade elementary school lessons as compared to 9th grade secondary school lessons? And how does the use of humor affect the atmosphere of the classroom? This study aims at: highlighting humor usage in different contexts of EFL classrooms, figuring out the differences in two groups, childhood and adolescence by investigating humor initiation of both teacher and student, pointing out the change of humor from childhood to adolescence, and finding how humor has an effect on the atmosphere of the classroom. It is hypothesized that: Humor has a considerable effect on the classroom atmosphere, there is a change of humor from the childhood to the adolescence stage, the childhood group uses more types of humor than the adolescence group. The data collected for the present study consists of 45-minute EFL lessons, 5th grade elementary school lessons and 9th grade secondary school lessons. In addition to the recordings, a 25minute thematic interview was conducted with the teacher of the lessons. The two school grades, 5th and 9th, were chosen according to the teacher’s schedule