Joke identification, comprehension and appreciation by Spanish intermediate ESL learners:
Joke identification, comprehension and appreciation by Spanish intermediate ESL learners:

an exploratory study

Summary/Abstract: This paper reports on an exploratory study examining joke identification, appreciation andcomprehension by Spanish intermediate ESL learners. The study is based on a relevance-theoreticclassification of jokes, which assumes that humorousness results from manipulation of three parameters:make-sense frames, cultural information and utterance interpretation. It firstly ascertains whetherSpanish ESL learners recognise orally-delivered samples of seven types of purportedly jocular texts.Secondly, it examines whether these learners actually regard such texts as comical and why. Finally, itlooks into the learners’ interpretative problems in order to single out which joke type(s) is/are morechallenging. The study relies on quantitative and qualitative data elicited through an onlinequestionnaire comprising four tasks. The results indicate no correlation between joke identification andappreciation, and independence of successful joke recognition from sophisticated interpretative skills.Jokes involving invalidation of an activated make-sense frame were most easily identified and foundmost funny, but jokes exploiting cancellation of an initial, seemingly plausible, interpretation posed moredifficulties.

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