Elyda Brilian Nugraheni

Farah Firgia Lutfi

Hilal Haqiqi
The Benefits of Surfing Humor
on Internet to Increase English
Competence and Cross Cultural
Understanding of Students in
English Department of UNNES
 INTRODUCTION

Why Internet
Humour?
 INTRODUCTION

• A lot of students open memes more

often than their course books.
• Students who enjoy jokes or
do jokes often being assumed
as bad students.
• Some phenomena show that
students who enjoy or do joke
have better general
comprehension of English than
them who enjoy or do less.
• Some phenomena show that
students who enjoy jokes and
do jokes have good attitude.
 INTRODUCTION
• What is Humour?

“The quality in something that makes it funny or

amusing”
Oxford dictionary 8th edition
 How does humour work?
The Incongruity Theory
The theory says that it is the perception of
something incongruous—something that
violates our mental patterns and expectations.
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Phylosophy)
 TOEFL Intensity Variety Subjective opinion about Subjective opinion about
Score their English Competence their behaviour

597 2 hours/day 9gag web, This sample is known for Easy going, humble,
4chan,reddit, sub having rich vocabulary, good adaptable, less
A reddit. logic, great score in EILTS judgemental, humorous,
simulation class. peace keeper, have a high
sense of responsibility.
577 2 to 3 9gag instagram, This sample is known for the Funny, expressive, less
hours/day webtoon, random fluency in connecting judgemental, creative,
B instagram joke and concepts. Average score in outspoken.
caricature. IELTS simulation class.

535 3 hours/day Yoo bro, 9gag This sample is known for the Critic, humorous, diligent,
instagram knowledge of theories. less judgemental but has
C
certain clear standard, high
sense of responsibility.
495 1 hour/day Quotes, 9gag This sample is known for the Humorous, tolerate,
instagram, random fluency In speaking. friendly, diligent, high
D
humor on sense of responsibility.
instagram.
475 1.5 9gag instagram This sample is known for the Thoughtful, adaptable,
E
hours/day eager to learn. rather serious, responsible.
How could humour affects English Competence
and Cross Cultural Understanding?
“Humor comprehension has been described as the ability to
perceive relationships or ideas in incongruous ways, whereas
humor appreciation has been defined as the ability to
understand and get pleasure from humorous messages (Ziv,
1984).”

Humor comprehension  English competence

Humor appreciation  Cross cultural understanding

• Recently, cognitive linguistic research has uncovered a basic
cognitive process, labeled blending or conceptual integration, in
which structure from two or more different mental spaces
(infra) is brought together in an independent blended space,
which dynamically creates a semantic structure of its own
(Fauconnier & Turner 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002; Coulson
2000).

• Suls contends that the process of detection and reconciliation of

the incongruity makes humor comprehension a problem-solving
task.

• Fry (2002) supports that notion and argues that error detection
and response competition are necessary for humor
comprehension.
“My dad threw butter out of the window to see
a butterfly.”
butter  butter flied  butterfly

“Did you take a bath?”

“No, only towel. Is there one missing?”

Take a bath = Clean the body

Take a bath = Take the bath tub
 “Why nut? Kenapa kacang?”
“Why not? Kenapa tidak?”

/nɒt/ vs /nʌt/

My name is Sully, but you can call me anytime, Babe.

My name is Sully, but you can call me ||||NAME|||.

||||CLAUSE||||, but you can call me anytime, Babe.
 Conclusion
• Samples which the intensity of self-exposure towards
internet humour is higher and the variety of humour that is
explored is wider have higher TOEFL Score and relatively
higher appreciation of their English Competence.

• Samples which comprehend larger variety of internet

humour have larger general knowledge that improve their
cross cultural understanding.

• Types of Internet humour that is explored affect English

competence and cross cultural understanding differently.

• Humour from internet have many beneficial effects toward

the development of cognitive and affective aspects that are
very helpful in learning English.
• Although humor is a universal human experience, people of
different societies perceive and use humor differently (Martin,
2007; Yue, 2010).

• Zhang (2005) demonstrated that humor may be an

inappropriate in cultures that value a highly formal educational
style. Normative expectations of other cultures regarding humor
and education should be studied as well.

• Using humor in this manner has two theoretical advantages for

learning. One is humor’s ability to enhance recall of concept
material. Learning requires information to be remembered. The
second is humor’s ability to heighten attention and interest (A
Review of Humor in Educational Setting Four Decades of Research, John
A.Banas)
 Suggestion
We suggest that

• The concept of humour can be used more consciously and

wisely in education field, especially in teaching and learning
English.

• Detailed research on how varieties of humour affect certain

components of English competence should be generated to
improve teaching and learning strategies.
THANK YOU