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Story Jokes for real communication
Story Jokes
Teachers want their students to genuinely communicate with each other in
socially acceptable ways, and at the same time become more aware of
cultural traits. What is needed in a classroom is a reaction that is
real because it is spontaneous. 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. At higher levels, the above activity can be followed up with story jokes.
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.
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.
3. Write all the respective punch lines out on a sheet of paper.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
A Funny Story
A woman was walking down the street one day when she happened to see a man holding a monkey. The woman asked the man, “Where did you find that monkey?” The man answered, “In the street. Why?” The woman said, “You should take him to the zoo. “ The man said, “That’s a good idea.” The next day the woman saw the man with the monkey again. She said, “I thought you were going to take him to the zoo.” The man answered, “Oh, I did, and he really enjoyed it. So today I’m going to take him to the movies.”
How to teach a Joke in classroom
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1-Fun activities.
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