Investigating Persian EFL teachers and learnersʹʹ attitudes towards humor in class

Humor is an important personal and interpersonal interaction which could be used as an effective tool in education in general and language learning in particular. Humor is one of the effective means of enhancing studentsʹ motivation to study English. It can promote students` interaction, ease the constant tension in the class and encourage students to take part in various activities. In fact, humor serves as an affective means of reducing affective barriers to language learning; and it can be used effectively in a number of ways and for different reasons in foreign language learning. In order to investigate the benefits of using humor in the language classroom, diverse groups of Persian EFL teachers and learners were asked to evaluate the use of humor in their classrooms. Results of this study strongly confirm a perceived effectiveness for humor as a very useful strategy to learning and teaching of foreign languages.