چکیده (انگلیسی):

The purpose of this study was to examine EFL (English as a foreign language)
teachers’ views on the use of humor in ELT (English Language Teaching)
coursebooks for adult learners. In as much as the use of humor in English classes
has been widely advocated by scholars, the researchers decided to examine to what
extent this element has been incorporated in ELT coursebooks. To fulfill this goal,
three widely-used ELT coursebooks for adults, namely American English File,
English Result and Top-Notch were selected to be evaluated by teachers who had
the experience of teaching them. An eight-item rating questionnaire was given to
120 randomly selected teachers from 10 English language institutes in Tehran. The
collected data revealed that based on the teachers’views, the use of humor in the
target coursebooks was around average. The results also showed that among the
three coursebooks, English Result had a statistically more significantposition in
incorporating humor. Moreover, the findings revealed an advantage forthe use of
humor in receptive skills over productiveskills. This study also assessed and
compared the use of humor in all eight items of the questionnaire.Apart from
American English File, inspection of the participants’ gender seemed to indicate that
there was no significant difference between the participants’ gender and their
judgment of humor.It is both felt and recommended that materials writers include
more elements of humor in ELT coursebooks.