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Using
Story Jokes For Real Communication
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Teaching in a monolingual/monocultural,
non-English speaking environment can at times be frustrating. You want your students to
genuinely communicate with each other in socially acceptable ways, and at the same time
become more aware of cultural traits. For the former purpose, the L1 naturally outstrips
the L2 in communicative efficiency; and, as regards the latter, the only way cultural
experiences unknown to the students can be introduced into the classroom is by the
teacher. Even when the explanation of cultural and sociolinguistic skills is explicit, the
students are usually left practicing formulaic speech with other members of the class
whose reactions are not representative of the L2 speakers and often not even natural. We
are quite familiar with stilted dialogues roleplayed by students sounding something like
this:
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Would you be so kind as to lend me your pen?
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What is needed in a classroom is a reaction that
is real because it is spontaneous. This is where jokes and funny stories (see Footnote 1 ) can come in handy. In a
classroom setting made up of students from the same linguistic and cultural background, a
laugh or a groan is at least a more immediate and sincere response to a speech act than
the granting of an invented request or the acceptance of an unowned apology.
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Funny stories are part of our linguistic
heritage and even follow certain recognized scenarios. "Have you heard the one about
the." is often the opening; and the ending is a laugh, an exaggerated groan, or even
an apologetic "I don't get it." Moreover, they are really common
mini-narratives, and they are meant to be told over and over again and so lend themselves
naturally to rephrasing-a "macro-drill" that students rarely have the
opportunity to perform in class.
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A good exercise to get the class into the right
mood is to begin by telling some "bad jokes" yourself, perhaps the kind of two
liners that many joke books include. By helping students realize that not all jokes are
going to be funny to all people, you set the scene for their own (sometimes unfunny)
performances.
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You might then give out a two liner joke to each
student and get them to memorize it and then, of course, find a "victim" to tell
it to. Emphasize that they should: 1) be serious when they say the first line; 2) hesitate
before saying the punch line; and 3) say the punch line in a straightforward way.
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Tell them that they should practice their jokes
on different members of the class, trying to improve their delivery each time.
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At higher levels, the above activity can be
followed up with story jokes.
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1. Get a set of 6-12 funny stories, roughly one
or two paragraphs in length. These can be found in various magazines (e.g. The Reader's
Digest, English Teaching Forum , etc.), and textbooks; and even your friends might
burden you with them upon request. It's best to avoid ethnic, sexual, and political
genres, of course. The important thing is that the stories have clear and separable punch
lines.
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2. Write the stories out on slips of paper, without
their respective punch lines . Don't worry if you have six jokes and twelve students.
Just repeat the jokes.
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3. Write all the respective punch lines out on a
sheet of paper.
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4. Distribute one unfinished story joke to each
student. If two students have the same joke, so much the better. This simulates a real
life situation when people have heard the same joke.
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5. Distribute the sheets of punch lines to each
student. They have to find the punch line to their own story and then "learn"
the joke-whether that means memorizing it or putting it into their own words. They should
be careful, however, to retain at least the elements that give the joke its flavor, and
perhaps even determine its effect.
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6. Tell the students to go around the classroom
as if they were in a pub, bar, or other social situation. They should approach another
student, break the ice with "Have you heard the one about.?" and tell their
joke. The other student should just react or say (if he/she doesn't understand) "I
don't get it." Hopefully, the joke teller can either repeat the salient parts, the
punch line or, if worst comes to worst, explain why the joke is funny. The other student
should then try and tell his/her story.
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n.b. The students should tell their joke several
times to different people in one class. Tell them not to hesitate to change the joke story
the second time if they feel that will aid in making the joke more understandable or even
funnier.
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The value of relating a funny story lies in the
commitment required of the student telling it and in the observable and sincere response
that he/she elicits from the student who listens to it. Rarely do these elements intrude
on the English classroom.
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In the telling of a funny story, the commitment
resides not with the truth of information being expressed, or even one's adherence to a
view point about an issue-the usual kinds of activities in classrooms. Usually these two
varieties of commitment lead to obviousness on the one hand or unfair culpability on the
other. Telling funny stories makes a student accountable for the success of the speech act
itself, i.e. the proof is in the pudding.
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Likewise, the responses to a funny story are not
programmed by either the student's own culture or that of the teacher. Rather, they are
the result of real cultural factors: the sense of humor extent in the L2 culture that may
or may not be shared with the L1 culture. They are signaled explicitly by the behavior,
not just the word, of the participants.
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By the way, there are at least two spin-offs of
the above activity: One is that, since all students have the punch lines, they may very
well guess the ending of a story-something which, unfortunately happens in real life. The
other fall-out is that the students may actually enjoy themselves and someday, in a more
realistic setting, be able to entertain another person with their funny stories.
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A woman was walking down the street one day
when she happened to see a manholding a monkey.
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The woman asked the man, "Where did you
find that monkey?"
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The man answered, "In the street.
Why?"
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The woman said, "You should take him to
the zoo. "
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The man said, "That's a good idea."
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The next day the woman saw the man with the
monkey again. She said, "I thoughtyou were going to take him to thezoo."
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The man answered, "Oh, I did, and he
really enjoyed it. So today I'm going totake him to the movies."
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(The punch line is in case you have not guessed
it, in the last paragraph.)
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William
DeFelice is a lecturer in the Escola D'Idiomes Moderns, University of Barcelona.
He has taught English in Italy, Indonesia, Thailand and the U.S. |
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Return
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Footnote 1
| 1. Here I distinguish between "jokes",
which are usually two liners of the "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
variety, and "funny stories", which are also commonly called "jokes",
but which consist of more extended narrative, drama, repetition, etc. |
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