The Perceived Use of Humor by Teachers in the EFL Classroom

The research is designed to see how students perceive humor used by teachers in the EFL classroom. Humor is used as a teaching strategy to create a fun learning environment. This research aims to analyze how students perceive humor and the types of humor that are used by teachers in EFL classroom. In this study, the researcher used qualitative research methods, and the data was collected through a semi-structured interview. The samples for this research were eight students from grade eleven at SMA TNA Fatih Bilingual School in Banda Aceh, chosen by purposive sampling. The findings showed that there are positive and negative perceptions by students against the implementation of humor types in the EFL classroom. The researcher found that humor has various advantages and disadvantages. They are: (1) creating a fun language learning environment, (2) improving students’ interest in learning English in EFL classroom, (3) bridging the gap between students and teacher, and (4) motivating students’ understanding to be more engaged in the classroom. The disadvantages of humor are found when the teacher is not aware of choosing and applying appropriate and relevant humor in the EFL classroom, which causes students’ discomfort in learning and ineffective classroom in reaching the learning objectives.