ALUREY Poetry plus Wang Baoan finds a place for poetry in the Benefits of poetry Poetry offers the following potential benefits to learners of English, Memorisation Poetry is memorable. Fragments of poems stick in our minds: many adults ‘cannot help recalling those that they were taught in primary school, because the lines are often very poignant. Poetic forms such as echoes rhymes and repetitions not only help to stimulate Tong-term memory, but ea all of your life experiences to mind as cording to Henry ‘Widdowson, poetry is ‘the expression of all manner of imaginative insight, of subtle language classroom. ‘thought and profound feeling’. Many classical poetic lines, passed from seneration to generation, are evidence of its strong expressiveness. As Wordsworth put it, a good poem is the natural reflection of one’s own strong emotions. Poems have relevance to human affairs just as much as prose and novels do. However, how poems use language has often been neglected in the language classroom, Many teachers assume that poetry teaching is poor investment of time, having no practical reward as far as the students’ performance is ‘concerned. However, L2 poetry can be ‘effective for the development of language sense and ability. I should like here to explore the role of poetry in college English classes, and list several approaches to using it in actual teuching and learning practice ‘ enww.etprofessionat.com + ENGLISH TEACHING professional «save 48 September 2008+ 4 you read them. Lines of postry often remain in the pool of memory long alter communicative competence may have faded, Dirhythm (Our everyday speech is filled with sythms: pauses, stops starts, rises and falls By its very nature, language is siythmieal. As Laurence Lerner says, ‘Poetry builds upon the natural rythm of everday speech, but then often adds extra degrees of regularity to those free rythm. Rhythm makes poetry more evocative ‘more readable, and more memorable and ‘enjoyable’. Poetry is highly rhythmical and can introduce a new sense of & Janguage’ structure and imagery, is tone tnd verbal delicacy, its precise effets. Patterns of stress and rhythm are repeated in regular sequence, which facilitates students’ language acquis © Recitation Poetic language isa kind of condensed language: itis the combination of a poet’ meticulous choice of words. The [mages underlying the words are usually impressive and can be easily brought :0 mind. Young learners ace likely to be attracted by the easy response poems invite and may be surprised to discover how enjoyable poetry can be. Recitation isa traditional and effective approach in Joreign language aequisition, and poems are a good reeitation resource, EX Diversity Poetic meaning can be mysterious, and this can promote diversity. A thousand readers may create a thousand different Hamlets, and this is also the case with poetic meaning. This may ensure the validity of students’ personal interpretation, which, in tura, may enhance students’ seli:confidence in foreign language acquisition beeclassroom, I believe that teachers should | Hold fast to dreams eee tea | mee OeCtry ZaaSSEES, Beth in tur, ean help improve students Life Isreal Life is earnest! learning autonomy, self-evaluation and group dynamics. Students are encouraged to rearrange Teonducted a survey of 200 college the poem, fitting the lines together with students in an attempt to evaluate my the help of grammatical and lexical ep approach to the teaching of poetry. 86% clues. They should be able to work out Use Alon Maley points out, key factor SboWed approval, great interest or that the fifth line does not conform to in learning a foreign language is the appreciation of the approach, I take this the rst, and with the help of the ue ability and opportunity to play with it, © indicate that poetry teaching in ‘word for, may assemble the poetic lines Pootty ina medium by which this can. c0llege English classrooms is both inthis way: readily be done. Learning by doing and feasible and desirable, learning with pleasure are strongly recommended by linguistic researchers, ‘while interactive poetry writing is an ‘deal task for language learners because of its tolerance of errors. Enjoyable ‘poetry can str the students’ enthusiasm for foreign language acquisition Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird “That cannot fy. I students come up with totally different versions by following other linguistic clues, impressions and associations, the teacher can let the class ‘compare and discuss them, with sitention not on what is linguistically wel formed, but on the process of interaction, Bi interaction Students develop ther ability to use a language wien thee atention i focused on conveying and receiving authentic messages, ie messages that contain information of interest to both speaker ve : and listener in a situation which is of ses % ee 4 ‘importance to both, Poetry is a kind of - ea Completion futhenti message, which provides Present the poem fo the cass, but with ‘opportunities both for eacherstudent ~- Approaches to poetry certain parts of it removed. This task is land studentstudent interaction, vitally Poems can be made accessible to ‘not so much composition as completion: important in language-learning students by composition, completion, Students fill inthe Blanks with what hey situations. and comparison. I should like to Judge to be the most appropriate words demonstrat tis with reference to ‘This approach serves to awaken their Reasons for poetry poems inthe College English Integrated va¥eness of poetic appropriateness and Course (Books 1-6), but you can adapt__ Merry appreciation. the activites easily fo use with poems of sour choice. Poctry has many unique features which can be explored for college English Beauty is (1) teaching, whether English i the {nthe night, students! main subject of study or a Winds 2). rain fling, subsidiary course. Inthe College English a r Ora singer @) Integrated Couse textbooks (published. Composition Anything in earnest. by Shanghai Foreign Language In this activity, you ask the students, Education Press), 30 poems are elected individually or in groups to arrange the In the above stanza, three verbs are as a complementary reading source. scrambled lines of a poem into what removed. Inthe thied line, there is & Many Chinese college English teachers seems to be the most satisfactory verb, falling, which gives a clue: the skip these parts of the textbooks sequence verbs in the second and the third Blanks because of limited time, pressure of Give the lines of a poem to the ‘may also conform to the ‘noun + verb" ‘exams, their own interests or other students in jumbled order. Inchude at —_structure, so students can come up with reasons. However, as & result, many Teast one line that does not come fiom lots of verbs such as blowing, roaring Students who might enjoy poetry ose the poem at all, Tell the students that singing or crying. You then ask them to fut, and the opportunity for diversity in they must compose the poem by group _ decide on the most appropriate verb to ftuthentic reading materials is missed. consensus Ifthe groups come up with _wse before attempting the other lines Some teachers say the lack of diferent versions, these ean be This activity lends itself to other certainty in understanding pootry Compared and their relative merits can variations such as changing the number makes it difficult to teach, but [think it be argued with reference tothe textual of words missing from the original, or is important to use it in lass to cvidence. Take, for example, the Jeaving out a whole ine. You could also cultivate students’ abilities and enable following fines from a poem by provide a st of possibilities for the ‘them to appreciate poetry outside the Langston Hughes: students to choose from. {1G + sue 40 Sepomber 200+ ENGLISH TEACHING professional + weww.ctprofessional.com +8. Comparison A third approach involves inter-textual ‘comparison. Here you can vary the patterns of the original poem, and present the students with an alternative text or rewritten version in parallel, asking ther to comment on the two versions, or pick out the best one. Take, for example, the following poem: ‘Once in @ dream | saw the flowers ‘That bud and bloom in Paradise; ‘More fair they are than waking eyes Have seen in all this word of ours. And faint the perfume-bearing rose, ‘And faint the fly onits stom, ‘And faint the perfect violet Compared with them. (Cristina Rosset Paradise: In a Dream) A reformulated version might look like this: | once in a dream saw the flowers ‘That bud and bloom in Paradise; ‘They are more fair compared with what "have seen in the world with waking eyes. ‘The perfume-bearing rose faint The lily on its stom faint ‘The perfect vole faint How beautiful the flowers In the dream! By comparing the rewritten verse with the original, the students may find that the word order of the reformulated ‘poem is plain, which diminishes the effets of the orignal verse. This exercise may arouse the students awareness of meanings which are exclusively, yet elusively, represented ‘through particular patterns of language in poetry Comparison can also be made between. poems with similar content. Such activities will prime students to perceive the differences, for example, in Janguage used forthe theme of love: Nover seek to tell thy ove, Love that never told can be: For the gentlo wind does move ‘Silently, invisibly. (Wiliam Blake) ©, my love is tke a red, red rose ‘That's nevy sprung in June. (Robert Burns} Touching you I eatch midnight ‘As moon fires set in my throat. Hove you flesh into blossom made you ‘And take you made Into me. (Aude Lorde: Recreation) How do they doit, the ones who make love Without love? Beauttu as dancers Gliding over each other lke ico-skaters Over the ice, (Sharon Olds: Sex Without Love) Inter-textual comparison helps bring. hhome to students, through guided discussion, general differences between ‘poems, providing the basis for further language development. Students can then be invited to write poetry on a similar subject, Poetry versus prose Poems can also be compared with prose Students may be presented with a prose version or a prose version with ‘comments (prose paraphrase) which ‘incorporates the original text or even ‘expands upon it with additional ‘description and comment, We then present two poetic texts, one of which is the original and the other a derivation, and ask students to make comparisons between the two, evaluating their relative aesthetic value, For example Text IMy life closed twice before its close: yet remains to see Ifimmortalty unve A third event to me, ‘So huge, so hopeless to conceive ‘As these that twice betel. Parting is all we know of heaven, ‘And all we neod of hel (Emily Dickinson: My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close) Toxt 2 IMy life came to an ond inthe past at moments of parting, so it has closed twice already before its actual close in death, It remains to be seen if after dat, in immortality, | shall experience the same kind of event that | have already experienced before, as ‘overheiming and as hopeless: anothor parting to be looked back at with regret. ‘This approach may provoke keen analysis and understanding of the original verse, and encourage students to look at the different ways in which language can be used to poetic effet. It js important that the orignal should not be deified in advance, sine this would almost certainly dispose the students 10 sve it preferential treatment. Since poetsy possesses great merit as 2 linguistic form, I believe we eam enrich and add value to our language ciassrooms by encouraging students to analyse it, ead their own interpretations into it, rewrite it and make it their own. In recent years, foreign language acquisition experts have been advocating authentic learning materials. Poetry is ‘no only linguistieally authentic, bat alo emotionally authentic. The activities I have suggested here involve students in authentic discussion and negotiation and, I beliove, make an effective and importent contribution to language learning in the college classroom. GD ‘Lemes, An introduction to English Poetry Edward Arneld 1975 Maloy, A ‘Posty and song as effective language learning activites In Rivers, W M interactive Language Teaching CUP 1997 Widdowson, HG ‘Competence and ‘capacity in language learning’ In Clarke, MA and Handscombe, J (Eds) On Tesol 82: Pcie Perspectives on Language leaming and Teaching TESOL 1983, Zhai Xangjun etal Cologe Engh Integrated Course (Books 1-6} Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press 1998 Wong Baoan has worked asa cotage Engrah fearon since 1803, feocing students ‘majoring in both English eubjcts. He ais i harters degree st Henan Unversity, Ghin in 2002 and hag publishes & fewtgock enttied Precio TT WORKS IN PRACTICE Do you have ideas you'd lke to share with colleagues around the world? Tips, techniques and activities; simple or sophisticated: wel-rieg or innevative; something that has worked well for you? Al published ‘contributions receive a prize! rte to us or emai: lwip@etprofessional.com + wurmstprofesstonal.cam + ENGLISH TEACHING professional «sue 48 September 2008 +