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The case for poetry in the EFL classroom

Part II
Nelly Zafeiriadou

In the first part of this article I argued for the case for poetry in the foreign language classroom presenting
the strong reasons, cultural, motivational, linguistic and pedagogic ones which justify its place in the language
syllabus though the difficulties such a decision may entail such as the deviant and the figurative language of
many poems.
In the second part of the article this discussion will continue with a brief introduction on stylistics, the
questions it may raise as to its place in the teaching of poetry in the foreign language context and the
important issue of materials selection, such as parameters and criteria the teacher should not ignore before
introducing poetry in his/her classroom so as the reading of poems becomes a productive exploration which
enables students to experience the beauty and the power of language and feeds their confidence to read and
enjoy poetry in the target language on their own. The article will conclude with the presentation of a teaching
approach to Wilfred Owens ( 1893-1918) poem Dulce et Decorum est, a poet who under the influence of his
war experiences matured rapidly and remarkably but died when he was only 25.

Stylistics in the classroom

A language-based approach is quite a broad approach which covers a range of different goals and
procedures. Apart from their common belief in a closer integration of language and literature in the
classroom, proponents of this approach vary in their ultimate goals. Some, focus not on studying or reading
literature itself, but rather on how to use literature for language awareness and practice. 1 At the other end of
spectrum, a language-based approach to using literature, includes techniques and procedures which are
concerned more directly with the study of the literary text itself. The aim is to enable the students to reach
their own interpretations and make competent critical judgements of a literary text, by providing them the
tools they need (Lazar,1993: 27). Here the method of stylistics or stylistic analysis is frequently adopted.
Stylistics involves the close study of the linguistic features of a text in order to arrive at an understanding
of how the meanings of the text are transmitted. Widdowson defines it as the study of literary discourse from
a linguistic orientation(Widdowson 1983:3). It is argued that linguists are largely interested in the codes which
transmit particular messages, but not really in the messages themselves. Literary critics, on the other hand,
are concerned with the interpretation and evaluation of literary works. What stylistics provides, is a link
between the two, in that it uses linguistic analysis to understand how messages are conveyed.
(Lazar,1993:32).
Although in recent years a complex dialectic has built up around stylistics and its potential role in the
teaching of literature2,it is not the intention of this article to enter into the debate on the competing merits of
the different schools of stylistics. I am rather concerned with the purposes a stylistic analysis could serve if
integrated with the teaching of literature and in particular of poetry in the language classroom.
For the language learner, stylistics has the advantage of illustrating how particular linguistic forms
function to convey specific messages. It is argued that introducing elementary stylistics, where it is estimated
feasible and appropriate, enables students to reach an aesthetic appreciation of a text; it demystifies in a way,
the folk belief that understanding or appreciating poetry is the result of a kind of mystic revelation, which is
not available to everyone(Lazar,1993:31) and therefore, not easily accessible to language students. Form
and style of a poem can help to underscore or reinforce a message, and frequently they are both deployed by
the writer in such a way that the reader is able to establish an organic relation between what is said and how
it is said. (Carter and Long,1991:28)
Carter and Long suggest as an introduction to elementary stylistics in the classroom the poem Forty Love
by Roger McGough.( fig. 1) Formally, the poem is divided on the page by two lines which serve to represent a
tennis court, with a net dividing the court into two halves. The reader reads across either side of the net in a
way parallel to the movement of the tennis ball across the net from one partner to another. A kind of tennis
dialogue is established which reinforced linguistically by the poems title which belongs to the register of
scoring in tennis; this is also a pun on the words love and 40 (middle age), love in middle age being the
specific subject matter represented in the poem.

1
2

see the Introduction to Duff and Maley,1989; also Ramsaran , 1983.

See for example, Widdowson 1975, Gower 1986, Carter 1988.
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40
Middle
Couple
Ten
When
Game
End
Go
The
Will
Be
Tween

Love
Aged
Playing
Nis
The
Ends
They
Home
Net
Still
Be
Then
Roger Mc Gough

Fig. 1

Presentation:
1. the teacher writes the poem on the board
2. he\she makes some comments about the form of the poem. Asks students to discuss, comment on the
unusual features of the poem. Asks students what they notice about its punctuation and shape of it.
3. Teacher reads aloud the poem, or plays the cassete if it is recorded. Students listen to it.
4. Students discuss the poem in small groups. They are asked to explore about any other unusual
features and their possible effect. They are asked to think about the levels of meaning of the title.
5. Teacher records the discussion of one group. On playback he\she considers to what extend the
discussion was exploratory, simple, text-based and used no specialised terminology.
6. A further interesting strategy with this poem would be to write it out as a piece of prose. The students
are told the text is a poem, supplied with the title and invited to reconstruct it. This is another way
,perhaps more activity based of discovering some answers posed to the above questions
Middle-aged couple playing tennis when the game ends and they go home
the net will still be between them.

(Carter and Long,1991:31-33)

The above suggestions for an introduction of elementary stylistics analysis of a poem lead to the following
issues: first the one of materials selection and of the criteria that condition an appropriate selection; second,
to a discussion of procedures in some sample lessons for the use of poetry in the classroom. These will be
developed in the following chapter.

Selecting materials
a. General criteria. B. Tomlinsons suggestions
In order to exploit the potential value of poetry to the full it is important to establish some criteria when
selecting poems for use with a whole class. The criteria of suitability clearly depend on each particular group
of students, their age, their emotional and intellectual maturity, their interests, their cultural background and
linguistic proficiency. Tomlinson, (1986:35-6) attempts a guideline of criteria the teacher should take into
consideration:
Universal appeal. Very special topics might have great appeal for a few students, but are unlikely to
attract the majority. However, universal topics such as youth, old age, love, birth, friendship, education,
have great potential, as most learners have close experience of them.
Surface simplicity. It is important for a mixed ability group that the poems used are linguistically
accessible for the weakest members of the group. The title or the opening lines might not frighten
them off.
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Potential depth. It is also very important that poems have potential depths of meaning and can thus
challenge the brighter members of the group who meet no difficulties in responding to the linguistic
surface of the poems.
Contemporary language. Most foreign-language learners are daunted and alienated by poems
whose language is remote in time and style from the variety they are learning , thus the language of
the poems they are asked to read should not be very different from that they study.
Brevity. Using short poems is safer in a mixed ability class, so as to minimize the risk of losing
students.
Potential for illustration. The ideal poem for the mixed ability EFL\ESL class is one which apart from
satisfying the above criteria, lends itself to visual, auditory, or tactile illustration through the use of
realia (eg, slides, films, objects, photographs, music ) or specially designed aids (eg drawings, sound
effects, mime).

What Tomlinson however, seems not to take into account in his suggestions, is the fact that consideration
of criteria involving the students cultural background and literary background is far more complicated than
expected. For this reason, I attempt to examine more closely these complex criteria .
b. The students cultural background
When considering this factor, teachers should think about how far the students cultural background and
their social and political expectations will help or hinder their understanding of a text. They will also need to
consider how much background the learners will need in order to grasp the meaning of a text. Carter and
Long ,(1991:130-4) recognise that background is a learner need and the best way to satisfy that need is by
teacher input, preferably by a short and economical lecture. Wilfred Owens Futility and John Mc Rays In
Flanders Fields,(from The Norton Anthology of English Literarure) for example, poets of the First World War,
will need to be placed against a particular literary and historical background. Within this framework, students
would be more stimulated to experience and participate imaginatively in the situations depicted in the poems
and to understand what possibly caused the writing of them.
c. The students literary background
Theres an interesting relationship between the literary background of the students and their linguistic
competence, since the two do not necessarily go together ( Lazar,1993:54). Students, may have studied
literature in their own language and thus, their level of literary competence will help them to make sense of a
literary text even when their linguistic knowledge is rather limited. On the other hand, students who have little
literary knowledge but are linguistically proficient, may meet difficulties in coming to grips with the literary
meanings behind the texts. Therefore, when teachers choosing poetry to use with students they should look
not only at the grading of the language in the poem, but at its specific literary qualities and whether their
students can navigate their own way in the poem.

Using a poem with students

The aim of this chapter is to suggest an approach of exploring a poem in the language classroom. I
believe that a poem yields a meaning if the reader dwells within it imaginatively; therefore, such an approach
should lead learners to an experience of a poem through activities which focus primarily on the content
and not the language of the poem. They should ideally involve students in interactions which engage them
emotionally and intellectually. A focus on language should be integrated with a focus on the students
experience and that the various pre-reading and post-reading activities need to be integrated with a studentcentred development of response to the text.
The following activities could be used with students at lower and higher levels accordingly. Teachers can
use them as they are, or selectively according to their group of learners; it should be mentioned though, that
they have been designed to meet more the needs of students at higher levels (upper-intermediate and
advanced) since the writer of this essay feels that she has more experience and interest in introducing poetry
at these levels. 3
PRE-READING ACTIVITIES
a. Stimulating student interest in the text
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the model is an adaptation of similar ones suggested in Tomlinson 86,Maley&Duff 89, Lazar 93
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Students are asked to predict the theme of the poem from its title or a few key words or phrases in the
poem.
Students or small groups of students are given different lines from the poem and asked to suggest the
subject or theme of a poem. Does this change when they hear the other lines read aloud to the class?
Students discuss or describe pictures, photographs or posters relevant to the theme of the poem.
Students discuss personal experiences related to the theme. If they do not have, they are asked to
respond imaginatively in a situation similar to one in the poem.

b. Providing the necessary historical or cultural background.

Students read or listen to a text which describes the historical or cultural background to the poem.
Students read or listen to a text about the authors life which may deepen their understanding of the
themes of a poem.
More literary-minded students could be given information about the genre of the poem or the literary
movement to which the author belongs before reading it.
WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES
a. Reading aids
Students are let to read the poem by listening to a reading of it before they attempt to read
themselves. This can be done by the teacher reciting the poem or via a recording of a rehearsed
reading.
Students are presented the poem only one verse at a time on an overhead transparency projector and
try to predict about the next verse; this works well with narrative poems.
Students could be given the poem in a jumbled version into groups to sequence before reading it;
jumbling up verses could apply well to ballads.
Certain words could be removed from the poem and students have to fill in the gaps, either using their
own sources or a given list of words.
Students could focus on a picture, retain images in mind, listen to sound effects (eg. waves, the wind ,
gunfire, etc.) or mood music while reading of the poem.
b. Helping students with the language of the poem
If there is unusual or deviant language in the poem, students could be asked to work on activities
exploring more formative uses of language. They could work on collocations of verbs, for example,
that meet in a poem.
The teacher could teach at this stage, any important or culturally obscure words, phrases or
grammatical constructions that appear in the poem.
To guide students towards an understanding of more metaphorical or symbolic meanings in the poem,
students could be asked to free-associate round some of the words of the poem which carry powerful
symbolic connotations.
POST-READING ACTIVITIES
a. Helping students towards an interpretation of the poem
Students are given a series of statements about the possible underlying meanings of the poem, and
they decide which ones are true or false.
Students are given two or three brief interpretations of the poem (possibly from critics or, if relevant
references are not available from the teacher) and they decide which one is the most plausible or
appropriate. They can present and discuss their own interpretations in juxtaposition, as well.
If a poem is written in rather archaic language, students could be asked to compare this to two
versions of it in modern English- which version best captures the meaning and tone of the poem?
Very advanced students could be asked to compare a poem with two different translations of it in their
own language. Which translation is the most satisfactory?
Students imagine they are filming the poem. They have to decide what visual image they would
provide for each line or verse of the poem as it is recited.
Students practise reading the poem aloud and decide what mime or gestures would accompany a
choral reading.
a. Further follow-up activities
Students rewrite the poem as a different form of discourse. This works well with ballads or narrative
poems. Students can rewrite the story as if it were a newspaper article or the script for a soap opera.
Students read and discuss other poems by the same author, or other poems on the same theme.
Students write their own poem, using the original as a model.
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A discussion or role-play based on the theme or subject of the poem.

Students discuss the values and world-view which are either implicitly or explicitly expressed in the
poem. Do they agree with them?

In the following section I will present suggestions of how to use Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen
with higher levels of students.

Description of the students

Age: 17-18 years.
Purpose of study: they are students of the Comprehensive Lyceum of Komotini, Greece, preparing
themselves for the A levels. English is a required subject in all three grades. They are all taught Greek
literature as one of their main subjects.
Background: most of them are of Greek origin and culturally homogeneous students. The two main
religious communities are the Christian Orthodox and the Muslim ones. The majority of the students come
from the area of Thrace, or they are repatriated Greeks from Diaspora.
Language proficiency: more than half of my students hold a F.C.E. A few of them ,especially 3 rd grade
students hold a Proficiency certificate ( from Cambridge or Michigan University). The rest belong to an
intermediate or lower-intermediate level
The poem: Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
Overall time of the poetry sessions: a week; approximately three teaching hours.
Phase 1: Pre- reading activities
a) Photographs, posters, drawings, and cartoons depicting war as glorious and heroic are displayed
(pinned on the walls, passed around, put on the blackboard, distributed to groups, etc., depending on
the size and nature of the class and the classroom).
b) The teacher invites discussion about war films, books, TV programmes that the learners know, and
questions are asked about the view of war portrayed by them.
c) The teacher displays photographs, drawings, slides etc., depicting the horror and futility of war, and
invites the learners to compare the two displays and to comment on the differences in the portrayal of
war. The teacher reads different lines from the poem and asks students to predict the content and title
of the poem.
d) The teacher chairs a short , improptu debate on the motion dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,
after explaining that the title comes from the famous sentence in the Odes of Horace it is sweet and
honourable to die for ones country. The time is World War I; the scene is France.
Phase 2 Exploring the historical context
At this stage students are given the necessary historical and cultural background to the poem. The teacher
presents briefly the chronicle of the World War I.
a) Students work in small groups of three four. They are given printed copies from the news review
of the Chronicle of the 20th century (1996 Dorling Kinderslay ) which are relevant with the World War
I. Each group is invited to read and present their news review to the rest of the class.
b) The teacher gives information about Wilfred Owens life and tragic death. She explains why he is
considered the most profound of the poets of protest. A biographical note about the authors life and
literary movement, can be given to students later on.
Phase 3. While reading activities
a) The teacher attempts to create an atmosphere which will help students to feel and visualize the
poem. She tells the class to close their eyes and imagine themselves as soldiers marching along a
muddy road during the war. (you are freezing cold, you havent eaten for more than ten hours, you are
walking through wet snow carrying a rifle and a pack on your back, the winter night is black and scary,
sometimes lit up by lights and gunfire, etc.). The teacher then recites the poem while a piece of
heroic or lyrical classical music is being listened to, as a sound background to reinforce the
atmosphere(eg. Wagner, Beethoven or Rachmaninov ). Alternatively, the teacher can play a
recording of the poem which has been produced with sound effects (eg. wind, gunfire, shells
exploding, men screaming, etc.).
b) The students are asked to try to describe how they felt in this imaginary travel into the poem. What, in
general, the poet is trying to transmit to the reader?
c) At this stage, the teacher gives out copies of the poem and the students are given time to read it.
Dulce et Decorum est
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Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turn our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shot. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick ,boys! An ecstacy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering ,choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devils sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

d) The teacher gives help with the language of the poem and proceeds to an analysis of metaphorical or
symbolic meanings of the poem such as she asks them to free-associate round some words of the words of the
poem which carry some powerful symbolic connotations eg. haunting flares (line 3), drunk with fatigue (line7).
She urges them to think about how imagery is used by the poet.
e) Wilfred Owens poems are powerful and concentrated transcending bitterness to evoke what is called
the pity of war and to suggest the human waste and confusions involved in modern warfare. How is this
pity of war transmitted to the reader in Dulce et Decorum est? Students are called to think and discuss on
these suggestions
Phase 4. Follow-up activities
a) individual work
Students are asked to imagine that they are W.Owen and write a letter to a close friend or to his family
b) individual work
Is this a poem with a message?. If so, what is the message and to whom it is addressed? Students are
asked to write an essay developing their arguments.
c) group work
Students are given to read in groups of four some real war letters from E. Sanger1993 Letters from two world
wars, Dover: Alan Sutton and are invited to present them in a dramatized form in the following class.
d) group work
Students are asked to write page one of the filmscript for the film Dulce et Decorum est.

Conclusion
I set out this article to defend the teaching of literature and in particular of poetry in an EFL context. The article
presented a historical review of the issue discussing briefly the three models as outlined by Carter & Long
(1991) and a language based approach as to it. It also argued for the unique advantages that poetry offers
both to teachers and students. Poetry as a form of language is universal among all human beings and the
themes which deals with are common to all cultures. Poetry deals with important human experiences and
heightens the students awareness of even the apparently trivial; it provides a content which appeals to students
because they can respond to it in their own way. The fact that they can make a personal response is in itself a
motivating factor.
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In succession, the article discussed issues related with the deviant and the figurative language of poetry
as well as the introduction of stylistics in the classroom. Suggestions then were made for some criteria
concerning the selection of works of poetry which paved the way for a poetry lesson sample with students of
higher levels. Wilfred Owens Dulce et Decorum est, a poem manifestation against the war and a poet
whose powerful and concentrated poems evoke what he called the pity of war and suggest the human waste
and confusions in modern warfare were chosen for this purpose.

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Literature (fourth edition) Volume 2, New York: W.W.Norton &Company
Brumfit, CJ and Carter, R A 1986 Literature and Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carter,R (ed) 1982 Language and Literature; An Introductory Reader in Stylistics, London: Routledge.
Carter,R and Long,M N 1991 Teaching Literature, London: Longman.
Collie,J and Slater,S 1987 Literature in the Language Classroom, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
Gower, R 1986 Can Stylistic Analysis Help the EFL Learner to Read Literature? in ELT Journal 40,2
Hall,L 1989 Poetry for Life: A practical Guide to Teaching Poetry in the Primary School, London: Cassell
Hill, J 1986 Using Literature in Language Teaching, London: McMillan.
Lazar,G 1993 Literature and Language Teaching. A guide for teachers and trainers, Cambridge:Cambridge
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______ 1994 Using Literature at Lower Levels in ELT Journal 48,2
Maley, A and Moulding, S 1985 Poem into Poem. Reading and writing poems with students of English,
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Maley, A and Duff, A 1989 The Inward Ear. Poetry in the language classroom, Cambridge:Cambridge University
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Ramsaran, S 1983 Poetry in the language classroom, ELT journal 43,2
Short, M (ed) 1988 Reading, Analysis and Teaching Literature, London: Longman
Tomlinson, B 1986 Using Poetry with Mixed Ability Classes in ELT Journal 40,1
Widdowson, H D 1975 Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature, London: Longman
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________ 1986 The Untrodden Ways in Brumfit,C J and Carter, RA Literature and Language Teaching.