‘A Poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.’ Robert Frost, American poet
1. THE ROLE OF POEMS
Poetry may be used not only to develop students' knowledge of English and particularly their writing skills. Teenage learners tend to have serious problems with self-expression in foreign languages. It seems that using poems and introducing creative writing activities might help them to express their moods, opinions and attitudes more effectively and eagerly.
There is evidence to suggest that poetry is a powerful, multi-purpose tool in effective teaching of a foreign language as it constitutes a rich resource of language input (Maley and Duff 1989).
What is more, creative writing can help students to write well (“when students write about themselves, there is a reason for writing”) and read well (“when students write more confidently, they read more confidently”), as indicated by Spiro (2004:10). Finally, experimenting with language while writing poems enhances development of learning strategies as well.
According to Ghosn (2001) literature is also capable of fostering emotional intelligence. Nowadays young people face problems with recognition and expression of their own feelings. They often have a pessimistic outlook and they seem to lack empathy and emotional resistance.
2. OUR EMB EXPERIENCE
Being aware of poetry writing benefits, we included it in our Erasmus Minus Bullying project activities. All goals mentioned above were accomplished and students developed their skills as far as expressing feelings and thoughts is concerned. As poetry writing activities were held in groups, students could learn how to cooperate. Teamwork is something they will have to practice in their professional life, that’s why we found it useful.
First of all the theory and patterns were presented to students during a workshop in Belgium. The choice of poetical forms was vast and it was catering for students of different age groups and language levels. Then students created their own poems with the theme of bullying.
It turned out that poetry may be attractive to young people although sometimes it is regarded as old fashioned. Creating short videos filmed by mobile phones, which was done in Belgium, turned out to be a modern and interesting addition.
Poems were also written in Finland on the Storybird e-platform and the use of this means proved very inspiring, too.
3. SKILL ACQUISITION
The poem writing activities can be used during foreign language, native language, religious education and pedagogical activities both to prevent bullying incidents and as a form of intervening, for example when we know that someone was a victim and has problems with talking about it openly.
Carefully chosen literary works wisely exploited by the teacher, can help the child gain insight into human behaviour, deepen his other sensitivity and empathy. Ghosn emphasizes ‘the potential of literature to nurture emotional intelligence and caring communication’ and she presents some practical examples of literature-based activities (for example scripting, sharing one’s own feelings, detecting feelings in text, etc). They develop students’ language and presentation skills as well.
4. OVERALL BENEFIT
During the survey, it turned out that being bullied is embarrassing for the victims and enabling them to express their feelings is highly recommended.
Emotionally intelligent students are not only better at interpersonal relationships but also appear to be more successful at studying and learning.
5. WHEN TO USE POEMS
The poems can be used in anti-bullying campaign as a form of prevention, encouraging teenagers to be brave and active enough to react sensibly in case of being a victim or witnessing of bullying incident. Poetry activities can also be a useful tool for dealing with violence which actually happened. They can lower stress level and enable expressing feelings.
Bibliography
Duff, A. and A. Maley, 1989. ‘The Inward Ear. Poetry in the language classroom’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ghosn, I. K. 2001. ‘Nurturing Emotional Intelligence through Literature’. English Teaching Forum, Vol. 39, No 1.
Spiro, J. 2004. ‘Creative Poetry Writing’. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
