Researches have showed that joke telling is a type of verbal behavior associated with the field of sociolinguistics (e.g., Al-Khatib, 1999). This study aims to report Taiwanese jokes and their sociological functions that people in Taiwan attempt to communicate in jokes. Besides, this study will report what the typical topics and characteristics of Taiwanese jokes are and how language teachers can apply English jokes to make their students familiar with the social structures of the other nations. Through three examples of typical Taiwanese jokes, this study constructs and analyzes the mechanisms and structures in the jokes, and explains why these jokes would sound funny from Martinewu's (1972) views. The reader of this paper will gain an access to understand the characteristics of Taiwanese jokes and recognize the social backgrounds of Taiwan where the jokes are developed. Moreover, the language teachers will be informed about an effective pedagogy designed in this study in terms of reducing learning anxiety and raising language proficiency through high motivations due to holistic joke pedagogy. [This paper was published in: Proceedings of the 2009 International Symposium and Book Fair on Applied English Teaching, p281-292.]
關聯:
Online Submission, Paper presented at the International Symposium and Book Fair on Applied English Teaching (Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Nov 6, 2009)
