2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The Role of Instruction and International Communication in the Development of Humor Competency in a Foreign Language
| Project/Area Number |
19K00909
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| Research Institution | Okayama University |
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Principal Investigator |
RUCYNSKI John 岡山大学, 全学教育・学生支援機構, 准教授 (10512741)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
Prichard Caleb 岡山大学, 全学教育・学生支援機構, 准教授 (10440306)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | humor training / humor and culture / humor and study abroad / humor comprehension / verbal irony |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I will summarize the first year achievements in three categories.
1. Publishing: The Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator (Co-I) completed editing a book on the theme of humor competency training in English language teaching. In addition, the PI and Co-I co-authored two chapters in this volume.
2. Conference Presentations: The PI gave academic presentations at two international and one domestic conference, with the Co-I co-presenting for two of these presentations.
3 New Research Planning: Progress was made in two areas. First, the PI implemented and taught a course entitled "Humor and Cross-Cultural Communication" to Japanese and international students. Second, the PI and Co-I developed a survey designed to measure perceptions of Japanese students during study abroad.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
We believe this project is progressing rather smoothly for several reasons. First, our volume on humor competency training was completed. This gives us the opportunity to more widely disseminate the research both internationally and domestically. Second, all of our proposals for academic conferences were accepted. We were thus able to present our research at academic conferences in Australia, France, and Japan in the first year. Third, the "Humor and Cross-Cultural Communication" course was successful, as it attracted more than 30 total students from 10 different countries. This allowed us to collect further data on cultural differences with regards to humor. The only setback was one cancelled conference at the end of the year. However, the proposal for this conference was also accepted.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Our research plan for Year 2 is as follows. First, we will continue to apply to international and domestic conferences, although it is still uncertain whether these conferences will be able to be held. Second, we are currently working on our next article on the theme of humor competency training and aim to submit it to an international journal by the end of Year 2. Third, we will revise and hope to administer the survey on Japanese student perceptions of humor during study abroad. Finally, we also plan to implement our next research project on humor competency training in English language courses at our university, following up our previous projects on English satirical news and verbal irony.
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| Causes of Carryover |
There was a surplus this year for three reasons. First, the PI had planned on purchasing a new notebook computer for research, but it was determined better to wait to make this purchase later, as another computer was still in good condition. Second, the PI considered using this surplus after getting accepted at an additional international conference, but this conference was cancelled. Third, funds were planned to be used for the translation of survey comments, but the English level of Japanese students in the humor course was higher than anticipated, so such funds will be used in a later year.
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