Learning Language Through Literature: A Sourcebook for Teachers of English in Hong Kong

Chapter 12. Teaching and Writing Poetry in the Secondary School—Bridging the Credibility Gap

19฀ C H A P T E R฀ Teaching฀and฀Writing฀Poetry฀ in฀the฀Secondary฀School฀—฀ Bridging฀the฀Credibility฀Gap฀ Peter฀Falvey฀ INTRODUCTION฀ In this chapter we focus on ways in which English language majors attending pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes can become aware of the benefits of introducing poetry writing into the language classroom. For the purpose of this discussion, the creation and writing of poetry (referred to as 'poetry writing') will be distinguished from the use of poems written by others in the literature and language classroom. PRE-READING฀QUESTION S฀ Consider the following questions before reading the chapter: 1. Wha t issues of credibility do teachers face in the language classroom? 2. Wha t are the benefits of teachers or tutors demonstrating that they too are willing to attempt the exercises that they set their students? 3. D o teachers gain by doing the creative activities they set their students? PURPOSE฀ In this chapter it is claimed that writing poetry is not only a worthwhile activity in itself, it is also argued that the teachers themselves can benefit fro m th e experience of writing poetry. This is because they can be shown that it is not 168฀Pete r฀Falvey฀ only possible for them to achieve a degree of success in their own experience of writing poetry but also to realize that their willingness to write and present their poems will add to their credibility, and thus effectiveness, in the classroom. The main argument in the chapter is that poetry-writing classes will suffe r from bot h a lack o f credibilit y an d from misse d opportunitie s fo r a share d initiative between teacher and students unless it is possible for the teachers to demonstrate that they too are prepared to write poetry and make it accessible to their students. (Tibbetts demonstrates thi s in Chapter 8 when he creates a poem spontaneously in front of the class). The same argument applies also to the teache r methodolog y class/tutoria l roo m wher e i t is likel y tha t simila r credibility problems will arise unless teacher educators can also demonstrate a comparable commitment to writing and presenting their work to teachers-intraining . In this chapter we present the poetry created by teachers-in-training. While elaborating the arguments above , we also discuss the major benefit s tha t the teaching of poetry-writing can bring to the second language classroom and its possible contribution to second language acquisition . The author is grateful to his students for the data presented in this chapter. The poems quoted were produced by participants attending recent and current undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes at the University of Hong Kong. The great majority of the students involved in these programmes are native speakers of Cantonese, attending programmes where they major in the teaching of English language. READING฀AN D฀WRITING฀POETR Y฀TH E฀BENEFITS฀TO฀SECON D฀ LANGUAGE฀LEARNIN G฀ It has been argue d elsewher e (Male y an d Duff, 1989 : 6-16; Cummings and Simmons, 1983; Chan, 1995) that the use of poems and the teaching of poetry can be advantageous i n the second language classroom. A sensitivity t o and awareness of language can be enhanced by a study of how poets create their poetry. In Chapter 2 Margaret Falvey argue s that an exposure to the poetry of a second languag e ca n be of direct benefit t o young learner s o f English. Thi s chapter will argue that the development of the language skills involved in the creation o f poetry provide s 'add-o n value ' t o the benefits tha t accru e whe n students are given explicit exposure to the reading and comprehension of poetry. Involvement in the processes of creating poetry not only enhances an awareness of the second language, it can also be of direct benefit to language acquisition itself, particularly the development of writing skills. Some of these direct benefits of encouraging and helping students to write poetry can be summarized as follows and further elaborate d below: Teaching฀and฀Writing฀Poetry฀in฀the฀Secondary฀School฀16 9฀ • th e development of an awareness of the processes of writing in line with modern approaches to writing exemplified by drafting, revision, rewriting, peer review and publishing; • th e development...