A perplexing silence: unlocking student communication through teacher humor in the EFL classroom.

ABSTRACT: A persistent paradox haunts English as a foreign language classrooms: students report high learning enjoyment yet exhibit a perplexing silence and low willingness to communicate. Grounded in Control-Value Theory, this study conceptualizes teacher humor as an external antecedent that shapes learners' control-value appraisals, thereby enhancing enjoyment and indirectly fostering willingness to communicate (WTC). This study proposes and empirically tests a psychological mechanism that contributes to understanding this "affect-behavior" gap, positioning teacher humor as a significant pedagogical factor. Path analysis of 483 undergraduates confirmed a significant indirect effect: teacher humor (TH) significantly boosted English learning enjoyment (ELE), which in turn was a powerful predictor of

SUBMITTER: Zhou T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12832323 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature