Strategies for the Use of Poetry in the Language Classroom

Abstract

The ESL classroom is finally ‘ready to bite in’ into the fruit of poetry. In recent years, there has been an uneasy relationship between language and literature. Literature, in particular poetry, was not considered appropriate material for second language learning. The structuralist approach, for example, focussed on the acquisition of grammatical structures while the more utilitarian communicative approach aimed at a functional command of the language so that students would be able to use the four skills of language in a variety of situations requiring English. In language classrooms adopting these approaches, literature only featured through the use of simplified readers. Present-day English language syllabuses like the KBSM, however, reflect the changed swing of the language teaching pendulum by advocating the infusion of literary elements in the programme.