Mini Lesson

Across Borders: Exploring Humor and Speech Acts in Global Dialogues Student’s Name Institution Course # and Name Professor’s Name Submission Date Overview Subject: English as a Foreign Language Learners: High School (Grades 10-12) Setting: Urban High School This lesson aims to broaden students’ knowledge of the role of humor taxa in different cultures, develop their communicative competence, and promote a more inclusive perspective. The module is designed to help the students progress in their LC and become more truly sensitive and considerate of the cultures represented by their representatives as well. Rationale This unit on humor in speech acts in intercultural contexts has been designed to cultivate cultural competence in EFL students. As it is evident that one of the biggest challenges of EFL speakers is mastering cross-cultural communication with due regard to another culture’s taboos and stances, this course offers students an opportunity to hone their people skills through the lighthearted lens of humor. While humor is virtually irresistible and highly dependent on the cultural context, this course strived to illuminate the complex matrix of cross-cultural communication and give students a chance to engage with diverse perspectives and develop empathy. The integration of comedy film clips, role theory, and creative comic strip assignments was aimed to satisfy different learning types and help students experience a broader perspective on acumen. Therefore, the course deviates from the teacher-centered occasional content transmission and incorporates more experiential learning − the idea that students only truly learn from the educational content through direct application in practice. Since humor is the uniting force in which most people find themselves, this unit was the best course choice. Teaching Resources: Humor and speech acts relevant extracts from the Book: “Intercultural Communication and Language Pedagogy” – Chapter 6 The chapter explains the pragmatics of intercultural communication, particularly speech acts and cultural divergence. It presents theoretical knowledge and practical models that help understand the cultural foundation of the language aspects. International comedy clips from YouTube represent diverse styles of humor. * Eddie Izzard – Learning French A British comedian, Eddie Izzard, performs a set about the hardships of learning French. This clip may serve as an example of linguistic humor and cultural aspects of language learning. It is intended to help students learn about language barriers in humor and, in so doing, develop a level of sensitivity to subtleties of lost-in-translation humor. * Trevor Noah – It’s My Culture Trevor Noah, the South African comedian, talks about his experience of living between African and American cultures and what he noticed during that experience. Through gently pointing at both the differences and similarities in human nature. * Peters – Beat Your Kids Russell Peters, a Canadian humorist, dwells on the African, Asian, Arab, and Caucasi...