Teaching Poetry in An EFL - ESL Class - An Integrative and Communicative Approach
Teaching Poetry in An EFL - ESL Class - An Integrative and Communicative Approach
Teaching Poetry in An EFL - ESL Class - An Integrative and Communicative Approach
Abstract
The range of English learning materials currently available to students of EFL/ESL has been extended
and varied. They are ranged from magazines, essays, newspaper articles, journal writings, short stories,
plays and novels. However, very few have considered poetry as proper material for learning English
language. One of the factors for this marginalization of poetry as suitable material in the EFL/ESL
classroom is that many believe that English poetry is still characterized as deviating from or distorting the
norms of Standard English language and it is very difficult. The purpose of this paper is to show how
English poems, if selected prudently, can be turned into effective ESL/EFL materials that can be used to
improve students' level of the English language. The paper will try to show how an integrative and
communicative approach is an effective strategy for teaching poetry in an EFL/ESL classroom. Robert
Frost's poem 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' is used as a model.
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I. Introduction
Many consider poetry as one of the most sophisticated forms of literary expression and hence a difficult
medium for language learners. While some believe that poetry helps in the process of language
acquisition, others suspect that poetic concepts and cultural assumptions are usually too difficult for EFL
learners to grasp.
However, a broader perspective on the use of poetry in the language classroom can lead to a meaningful
and fruitful language learning experience. This paper tries to describe how poems can effectively be used
in English language classes to reinforce students' knowledge of the English language vocabulary,
grammar etc. The paper advocates an interactive and collaborative approach to teaching a poem which
will have the required result.
1.1 Advantages of using poetry to Language Teaching
One of the prerequisites for language learning is a rich experience of language in use which is available in
Poetry. Teaching a poem in an EFL class will also promote cooperation and communication as well as
individual expression in the EFL classroom. The benefits of using poetry in language classes have been
highlighted by many ESL/EFL practitioners. Their arguments are:
1. Poetry can be used as a valuable resource to introduce and practice language by exposing students to
"authentic models-real language in context" (Brumfit & Carter, 1987). According to Tomlinson (1989)
using poetry contributes far more to the development of language skills in real contexts than "a total
concentration on the presentation and the practice of language items"(p.42).
2. Poems provide students with an opportunity to enrich their vocabulary in a new way by offering
meaningful context, in which they could be used and hence be remembered more effectively (Lazar,
1996; Norstrom, 2000)
3. Poems encourage students in developing their creativity while providing a break from regular
classroom routines (McKay, 1982). As students study the poems, they can simultaneously discover
interesting ideas for creative writing. According to Collie and Slater (1987) "using poetry in the
language classroom can lead naturally on to freer and creative written expression" (p.72).
4. Poetry based activities are motivating as they generate strong emotional reactions. As Hess (2003)
notes, "Entering a literary text, under the guidance of appropriate teaching, brings about the kind of
participation almost no other text can produce. When we read, understand, and interpret a poem we
learn language through the expansion of our experience with a larger human reality" (p.20)
5. According to Lazar (1996), poems also provide students with insight into developing cross-cultural
awareness and this in turn will help them in acquiring fluency in the target language (p.75).
6. McKay (1982) points out that poems provide inspiration and can serve as a good model for creative
writing (p. 63).
7. Heath (1996) opines that poems deal with universal themes and human concerns, they offer
opportunities for students to project their feelings and emotions, thus fostering personal involvement
in learners (p.54).
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The teacher can prompt some questions which may be of help for the students to come to certain
conclusions:
· Why is the narrator watching the woods?
· Are the woods filled up with snow? What is the reason?
· What do the "woods" represent? Something good or bad?
· What do you understand by the expression "frozen lake"? Why is the lake frozen?
· The wind is described as "easy" and flakes are "downy"- Why?
· What do you think the poem is about? Does it convey a message?
The activities discussed so far are meant to elicit inferences from the students regarding the poem that
they are going to learn. These activities will create a lot of interest and curiosity in the mind of the
students and inspire them to read the poem closely. At this juncture, the teacher can ask the students to
open the text and engage them in the following While- reading activities
(B) While-reading Activities
After doing the pre-reading activities, students are ready to read and study the text that they are supposed
to deal with. Here, they are going to develop a purposeful interaction between the text and its readers. The
following While-reading activities can be tried out in the class:
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enhance the students' understanding and appreciation of the poem for the improvement of their expressive
and receptive skills.
Re-writing activities may be 'free' or 'controlled'. In the former, students enjoy the freedom of expressing,
in their own words, what they have understood from the text. They may be asked to summarize the poem
in a fixed number of words, or to rewrite the text with a different ending.
Students should also be encouraged to write a parallel poem using the same theme in a different
background, may be a local one, reflecting the type of identity they long for. They are supposed to use the
grammar structures in the original poem and adapt all the elements to writing about their own identity,
thus creating a new poem. [One EFL student of my University has written a parallel poem after studying
the original poem. She has used the local color and describes the beauty of Oman's barren mountains]
(Appendix 2).
(v) Role Playing
In role playing, students are asked to assume different roles. It enables the students to explore the
linguistic and conceptual aspects of the written word without focusing on the mechanics of language.
They are able to develop a sense of awareness of self in the mainstream culture through creating drama in
poetry with the result that language is more easily internalized, and hence language is remembered. Here,
the students use English for specific communication purpose. They get an opportunity to experiment with
non-verbal communicative aspects of language (body language, gestures, and facial expressions) along
with intonation, rhythm, stress, slang, and idiomatic expressions. Some poems such as Frost's The Death
of a Hired Man” are like short plays, often written in dialogue form, and are suitable for dramatization
and they have strong emotional theme. As Tomlinson (1986) points out, “Poems which express strong
emotions, attitudes, feelings, opinions, or ideas are usually more 'productive' than those which are gentle,
descriptive, or neutral” (p. 36).
Such activities help students gain self confidence and self esteem. In the case of the poem under study,
one student can play the role of the poetic persona, who is the narrator of the poem and the other the
traveler on horseback. There are numerous poems that the students can perform with the guidance and
encouragement from the teacher. Frost's other poems like “Mending Wall" "The Road Not Taken", John
Wakeman's “Love in Brooklyn”, Carl Sandburg's “Why Did the Children Put Beans in Their Ears?”,
Grace Taber Hallock's “Woodpecker in Disguise” are just few other examples that can easily be
dramatized in the classroom.
1.4 Conclusion
There are umpteen strategies and methods for teaching a poem in a language class room. The strategies
described in this paper are just a few. They can be applied in the case of teaching any other genres in
literature- a short story, a novel or drama. Whatever strategies a teacher adopts in the class, the aim is that
students gain a fuller understanding of the text and have linguistically and conceptually prepare
themselves to study it for interpretation and evaluation. Using the strategies discussed above, students
learn how to make predictions and check them against the details in the given text. They also learn how to
derive meaning of a text and form a semantic chain from the key words, examine how language is used to
describe a setting and create desired effects, analyze how to assess them, and also find out ways of
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transferring the text and reconstructing its specific and literal meaning. Thus, with awakened language
sensitivity and improved literary insight, they gain the ability to read a poem critically as a creative
expression with aesthetic sensibility.
References
Brumfit C. & Carter, R. (1987) “English Literature and English Language” in C. Brumfit and R. Carter
(eds). Literature and Language Teaching. PP. 12-18. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Collie & Slater (1987). Literature in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Dutta, Sujit K. (2001). Teaching Poetry in the School Classroom. CAUSE NUM 24
Heath, S. B. (1996). Re-creating Literature in the ESL Classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 30s, 776-79
Hess, N. (2003). “Real Language through Poetry: A formula for Meaning Making”, ELT Journal 57(1)
19-25
Jakobson, R. (1960). Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics in Sebeok, T. (ed) 1960. Style in
Language, Mass, MIT Press
Lazar, G. (1990). Exploring Literary Texts with the Language Learner. TESOL Quarterly, 30s,
773-75
McKay, S. (1982). Literature in the EFL Classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 16, 529-37
Tomlinson, B. (1986). Using Poetry with mixed ability Language Classes. ELT Journal, 40, 33-41
Appendix 1
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
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An EFL Student
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