Generally speaking, I don't go near poetry for English as a foreign language classes. What would Seamus make of that? Image credits: Burns Library, Boston College
Songs? Love using them in my English language classes.
Drama? Can't get enough of it.
Poetry? Hand me that barge pole, please.
I love poetry. As a graduate in English Literature, I certainly got enough of it as a university student. I even write it from time to time - mainly to amuse myself and remind myself just how much better most of the poetry out there is compared to my own feeble efforts.
But in my English as a foreign language classes? I have to admit, I generally don't go anywhere near it.
One clear exception to this rule would be with younger learners. Poetry for those ages is simple and direct. What rhyme does for pronunciation and internalisation of language patterns is wonderful. Likewise, the rhythm of poetry is fantastic for giving students an ear for the way the language sounds and the way it flows across stress and intonation patterns. Poetry plays with language for the joy of it, and YLs usually take to it like ducks to water.
But for older learners, including teenagers, poetry rarely if ever comes into my classroom.
Given that I personally love and appreciate poetry, I've often wondered why this is so. I guess it comes down to two sets of experiences.
First of all, as a teenager myself at school, I really enjoyed poetry in my English classes, but almost all of my classmates loathed it. Reminded of that, I've generally figured that the teenagers I bring English language instruction to will mostly feel pretty much the same.
Then, as a second language learner at The University of Melbourne (where I studied Swedish as my second major), I was exposed to a lot of (often "high brow") verse from Sweden's most renowned poets. Again, I loved it and generally couldn't get enough of it. The opening lines of Lagerkvist's raw lament in Ångest ("Anguish") still haunt and yet delight me decades after studying Swedish at university.
But, again, the reaction from most of my fellow classmates in those Swedish classes was pretty much along the lines of "Oh look, we're going to do another bloody poem in class today. It's Ångest! When are we going to learn how to ask for Stefan Edberg's autograph?"
So both as a school student with my own language, and then as an adult learner of a second language, the reaction I saw from classmates generally gave me the impression that poetry probably wasn't the most motivating material to consider putting in front of my learners - unless they were also English Literature students.
There is also that pendulum like reaction many teachers experience when contemplating their own interests and passions. Just because I really like it, doesn't mean my learners should or will like it. And it's not like poetry is going to help my learners ask for a caffe late with any more practicality or enhance their prospects of pulling off a good business presentation.
Right?
Hence the barge pole.
Now, I'm beginning to get the feeling that I may very well have committed some poetic injustice.
What's your take? Do you like to use poetry in your English classes for teens and adults? Do your learners respond well to it? Have I been depriving my students of the very thing that inspires and fascinates me with my own language?
:-)
