A Path Analysis of the Interrelationship Among EFL Learners’ Humor Style, Anxiety, and Language Proficiency

 Humor is a complicated part of the human experience and therefore an important dimension of humanity’s unique ability for language. The main purpose of this study is to find which dimension of humor styles can better predict anxiety and language achievement. The participants of the present study were 210 (103 female and 107 male) Iranian advanced EFL learners with different ages, both genders, and various educational backgrounds. Convenience sampling was employed to collect data. This study utilized one test and two questionnaires which are Preliminary English Test (PET), the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ), and The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Path Analysis and Pearson correlation were used to analyze data. Results showed that all four sub-constructs of humor styles, affiliative humor ( β = -0.27, p < 0.05), self-enhancing humor ( β = -0.31, p < 0.05), aggressive humor ( β = 0.17, p < 0.05), and self-defeating humor ( β = 0.20, p < 0.05) are significant predictors of learners’ anxiety. However, among four sub-constructs of humor styles, only affiliative humor ( β = -0.32, p < 0.05), and self-enhancing humor ( β = -0.25, p < 0.05) are positive significant predictors of learners’ Language Achievement. In addition, language achievement is predicted negatively by anxiety ( β = -0.26, p < 0.05). Two paths from aggressive humor to language proficiency ( β = 0.09, p > 0.05), and from self-defeating humor to language proficiency ( β = 0.07, p > 0.05) were not significant and removed from the model. With regards to the field of foreign language, humor has been identified as a powerful means to decrease students’ anxiety in a foreign language learning situations and it helps language learners in performing in a foreign