STUDENTS NEED JOKES

For most students, English is considered as the second most difficult lesson after mathematic. To prove this, find how many students of SMA who have good mark in this lesson. Whereas, they have studied this most studied language all around the world, at least three years; when they were SMP students. Moreover, when the language had been learned in SD there are still many students who can�t get better mark.

According to my opinion, there is one thing which is still obeyed in learning this foreign language. It is humour. Check English handbooks for each school. Can you find much humour in them? Or, how many teachers, who teach the language, that use humour? Teachers do not use humour, because they think it will make the students play on them.

Less humour in English handbook primarily is caused by an assumption that it is hard to understand English anecdot. Humour is determined by culture. Different culture will produce different humour. Something funny for us can be unfunny for people of other cultures. We can watch American comedy. We often astonish to the people who laugh at something which is not funny. To define the humour of a culture, we must understand the culture and it is not easy.

But, however, students need humour. Humour can relax the students. If they relax, they will study better. Students are often worry to make mistakes during the lesson. They are often nervous about their abilities. This anxiety will be the negative effect on the students ability to learn.

So, we must use humour. We can tell a joke and help the students to understand it. We know that they have been understood by hearing their laughing. Or we can translate a joke into Indonesian together. Jokes can make the lesson much more interesting.

Indeed, more humour can make the students lose their respect to their teacher. To avoid this, teachers should create a balance between making humour and a condition that will change into chaos. I mean, that we can use a humour and stop it if it turns into negative thing.