| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 96 === The main purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of reading English jokes on EFL junior high school students’ learning motivation, English achievement tests, and English competence tests. The study also explored the experimental subjects’ evaluations and perceptions of reading the English jokes in class.
The program lasted for six weeks with thirty class periods. The subjects were two ninth-grade classes in Sanho Junior High School in Taipei County. There were totally 67 students. One of the two classes was randomly assigned as the experimental group. They read a joke at the beginning of each class and then took the English class. The other class was assigned as the control group and took class as usual.
The instruments included thirty selected English jokes, one motivation questionnaire, one feedback questionnaire, two monthly English achievement exams, and the First English Basic Competence Test (BCT) of the school year 2007. The t-test was used to determine significance at the 0.05 level of confidence. For the open-ended feedback questionnaire, their answers were displayed in number and percentage to reveal their opinions.
The major findings of the study are summarized as follows:
1. In terms of overall learning motivation, there was no
significant difference between the two groups with and
without the English joke-reading program. In terms of
the three subcategorized learning motivation, there was
significant difference found in “intrinsic
motivation”, but no significant difference
in “motivational intensity” and “extrinsic
motivation”. For the experimental subjects, the
results indicated that reading English jokes had a
positive effect on the daily use of English and enhanced
their interests in learning English.
2. There was no significant difference in the performance
of English achievement tests between the two groups with
and without the English joke-reading program.
3. There was also no significant difference in the
performance of English Competence Test between the two
groups with and without the English joke-reading program.
4. The experimental subjects held a positive attitude
toward the English joke-reading program. They not only
thought that it was helpful in learning English but also
hoped to take similar programs in the future English
class.
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