Abstract

As we know, most of the college students acquire and master systematical knowledge of English language only via having the English course; what's more, English is the basic obligatory course in university in china. However, many a student find English class so boring and so difficult to learn that they take little interest in English; therefore, they make little progress in English learning. So how to make students’ English-learning become relaxing and exciting has always been a heated topic in the foreign language teaching research field. Obviously, many research studies have regarded humor as a good way for English teachers to employ so as to inspire students to think, to imitate and to be creative.

Key words: humor, English teaching, principles, functions

摘要

目前，英语是中国大学生学习和掌握这门语言的必修科目。然而，很多大学生发现英语课堂非常的枯燥和乏味因而他们失去了对英语学习的兴趣；因此，他们在英语上很难获得进步。所以如何使英语课堂变得轻松而又有趣一直是外语教学研究的重点课题。当然，很多研究已经将幽默作为英语老师用来激发学生思考，模仿，并变得富有创造性的好方法。在这篇论文中，将通过对幽默的理解，幽默可能表现形式的探讨来激发学生的学习英语的兴趣，提升老师在英语课堂中的个人魅力以及形成良好的课堂氛围的幽默方法。同时本文还针对幽默的使用原则以及它在英语教学中的功能进行了阐述。本文并不仅仅是为了呼吁人们能够对幽默在英语中的重要作用有一个很好的理解，同时，希望这篇文章能够给英语教学带来一点新鲜感和教学帮助。

关键词：幽默；英语教学；原则；功能

1. Introduction
At present, English teaching is a very important course in college teaching. Most of the college students acquire and master systematical knowledge of English language only via having English course. And the CET4 and CET6 have been acting as two invisible swords on the shoulders of college students. Nowadays, more and more employers regard English as a measure of capacity of university graduates. We must break the traditional model of teaching because the teachers and students are to be friends--- learn and work together, so that teachers and students can learn from both sides and achieve maximum results with little effort. But how to make English classes become lively, interesting and sustain students' motivation effectively?