Learning to appreciate the value of poetry in the EFL classroom

Abstract

It is largely known that any type of literature is usually included in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) syllabuses at high schools in this country, and much less poetry. Also, it is widely stated by EFL teachers in secondary education that fear is the real cause of them not leading to make the necessary effort of teaching literary pieces; such as fear of facing a text which is too difficult, both in terms of language and meaning, fear of not dealing with the core subject syllabus, or the worst of all fears: having to cope with students' loss of interest and boredom during these lessons. Notwithstanding, what most EFL teachers ignore is that if they select the right motivational poems, pupils will learn not only poetry itself but also English. I do want to remark that all the language features can be perfectly exploited at maximum by a thoughtful use of ideal poems. Besides, reading poetry will successfully contribute to young students’ personal development and cultural education. In this project three models of a didactic unit can be observed. The first one contains the activities that I designed before starting the Practicum phase. The second model is the one which was actually implemented in the classroom, and it was created when I saw my students group level of English and general knowledge about poetry reflected in survey results. Lastly, the third and final pedagogical model is an improved version adapted to these students outcome; its activities were reorganised considering the real results of this experiment. At the end of this assignment a conclusion will be drawn regarding the observation of three complete sessions working on English poetry in a public high school.