Using poetry with mixed ability

language classes
Brian Tomlinson

This article first considers the potential value of using poetry with mixed
ability classes. It then establishes criteria for the selection of texts and
suggests ideas for using them in the classroom.
Finally, the article
exemplifies
its main points by describing
ways of using two different
poems.
The potential

value

of poetry

I would like to start this article by answering

some of the typical objections
to using poetry in language lessons, and then to move on to consider some of
the very positive gains which can be achieved
by using poetry.
The learners find poetry difficult and boring in their own language, never mind in a
foreign one.
Many learners arc put off poetry in their mother tongue as a result of having
to study it as an academic
discipline
which involves background
reading
and close textual analysis.
I have found that many such learners
enjoy
poetry in a foreign language if they are encouraged
and helped to respond to
it globally and imaginatively.
We are trying to help our learners to communicate in contemporary colloquial English,
not in stilted poetical terms.
The main exposure
during
my poetry
lessons
is to the contemporary
colloquial
English of the group and plenary interactions
which precede and
follow the reading of the poem(s).
The poem is a stimulus,
not a model for
emulation.
We are aiming to increase the communicative competence of our learners, not to produce
poets.
The main objective
of using poetry in language
lessons is not to teach the
learners to write. or even appreciate
poetry. but to find a means of in\-olving
the learners in using their language skills in an active and creative way, and
thus to contribute
to the development
of their communicative
competence.
Most authentic poems are verydifficult to understand, even for native speakers, as their
meaning is rarely overt and their use of language is idiosyncratic.
Many poems are difficult to understand
completely,
but they use stylistic
devices (e.g. of pace, stress, focus, repetition,
onomatopoeia,
etc.) which
facilitate global comprehension
and effective response,
and help the learners to discover covert meaning.
Reading poetry can thus help to develop the
important
language
skills of identifying
and interpreting
assumptions
and
implications.
We only have a few hours a week to teach our learners the basics of English, and so
poetry is a luxury we cannot afford.
ELT Journal Volume 40/1 January 1986

Oxford University Press 1986

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In this situation
I have found that sometimes
using poetry (and other forms
of literature)
as the basis for intelligent
communication
activities
has
contributed
far more to the acquisition
of language
and the development
of
language skills than a total concentration
on the presentation
and practice
of language
items.
Positive

The following
are my main reasons for using poetry in language
classes,
and in particular
in those classes which are heterogeneous
in ability:

value

As language
teachers,
we are fundamentally
educationalists
and not just
instructors,
and it is our duty to contribute
to the emotional,
imaginative,
and intellectual
development
of our learners.
The recent focus on language
functions
has unfortunately
led to courses consisting
almost entirely of the
learning
and practice of exponents
of such functions
as inviting,
instructing, accepting,
declining,
greeting,
and inquiring,
and such interactional
routines
as ordering
a meal, buying a ticket, and asking for directions.
While the content of such courses is obviously
important
for survival in a
second-language
environment,
it is of trivial educational
value and has
contributed
to a narrowing
and restricting
of the content
of language
lessons and to a diminishment of language
learners.
It has been my experience
that poetry (if chosen
carefully and used intelligently)
can open and enrich
the content of language
lessons, can provide useful opportunities
for gaining experience
of the world, and can contribute
to the development
of the
whole person as well as the learner of a language.

value

It has been my experience

that average
language
learners
are most
motivated,
most open to language
intake, and most eager to use language
when their emotions,
feelings,
and attitudes
are engaged.
One way of
achieving this is to stage the learners encounter
with a poem in such a way
as to maximize
its impact
and thus to involve the learners
actively
in
responses
to the poem and the language
activities
built around it.

Achievement

value

Most language
learners
are initially daunted
by poetry in a foreign language and would certainly
put up barriers
if told they were going to do
poetry. However,
I have found that if poems are met as parts of larger
communication
activities,
and if the teacher helps to make them accessible
through
pre-reading
activities
focused on content
rather than language,
then many learners
are able to give valid responses
to poems and thus to
gain a considerable
sense of achievement.

Individual

value

Poems have the great potential

value of appealing
to each individual
reader
in different ways and of being accessible
on many different levels of meaning. Thus, a carefully chosen poem can help all members
of a mixed ability
group to achieve something.
The weakest can achieve at least a superficial
but satisfying
global response
to the poem (even if it is only a vaguely felt
emotion or attitude),
whereas the middle learners can get further into the
poem, and the brightest
can gain the great satisfaction
of imaginative
and
individual
insights into the potential
meanings
of a poem.

Stimulus

value

Poems which achieve affective responses

from learners can stimulate
them
to unusually
intelligent
and creative use of language in follow-up activities.
This achievement
can bring great satisfaction
and pride, and I have found
it can even lead to more accurate
and appropriate
use of language
in
follow-up
activities
which challenge
and engage the new-found
pride.

Educational

Affective

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Skills development

Poems more than any other type of text can give valuable opportunity
for
learners
to use and develop such important
skills as deduction
of meaning
from linguistic
and situational
context; prediction;
relating text to knowledge and experience
of the world; reading creatively;
and the recognition
and interpretation
of assumptions
and inferences.
Many EFL/ESL
courses
do not require
learners
to use such intelligent
skills until the advanced
stages of the course, and concentrate
on skills required
to respond
to the
explicit
statement
of meaning.
It is my experience
that the earlier L2
learners engage their intellect and imagination
as well as their knowledge,
memory,
and mechanical
skills, the more likely it is that they will become
truly literate in the foreign language.
Poems (as well as songs, short stories,
and plays) can, provided they are not too linguistically
demanding,
provide
even elementary
learners
with opportunities
to start developing
the
so-called
advanced
skills of comprehension.

A few provisos

I am not advocating
the exclusive
use of poetry
(or any other form of
literature),
but suggesting
that it can play a valuable
role in a balanced
programme
which could also include the overt teaching
of specific structures, functions,
and lexical items, and the overt teaching
of communication skills.
Notice also the many cans in my descriptions
of the potential
value of
poetry above. I am not claiming
that poems always work, or that every
member of a group gains during a session in which a poem does work. What
I am claiming
is that if an appropriate
poem is used intelligently
by a
teacher who believes in the potential
value of poetry, then that poem is
capable
of achieving
what few EFL texts can achieve,
i.e. different
but
equally valid motivations
and responses
and the rare engagement
of the
whole person
regardless
of the language
knowledge,
experience,
and
ability of each learner.
In order for poetry to achieve
some of the values listed above, it is
important
that the focus is not on difficult bits of language but on responses
to what has been understood.
I have found that pre-teaching
difficult items
and setting questions
on vocabulary
and structures
can kill a poem as an
affective experience
and can reinforce the students
negative view of poetry
as difficult and alien. I have also found that interesting
pre-reading
activities which focus on the topic(s)
and feelings of the poem can help the
learners to take knowledge
and experience
to the poem and to gain access
to it, without
worrying
about the words and structures
they do not fully
understand.

Criteria

In order
consider
class.

selection

for the
of poems

Universal appeal

Surface simplicity

to exploit the potential

the following criteria

value of poetry
when selecting

to the full, it is important

to
poems for use with a whole

Very special topics might have great appeal for a few members
of a group,
but are unlikely to attract the majority.
However,
such universal
topics as
youth, old age, marriage,
birth, love, education,
and friendship
have great
potential,
as most learners have close experience
of them.
It is especially
important
for a mixed ability group that the poems used are
linguistically
accessible
for the weakest members
of the group and that
there is nothing in the title or opening lines which might frighten off such
members
of the group.

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Potential depth

Affective potential

It is also very important

that poems used with mixed ability groups have
potential
depths of meaning
and can thus challenge
the brighter
members
of the group who have no problems
in responding
to the linguistic surface of
the poems.
Poems which express strong emotions,
attitudes,
are usually more productive
than those which
neutral.

feelings, opinions,
or ideas
are gentle, descriptive,
or

Contemporary
language

For most non-literary

learners
it is important
that the language
of the
poems they are asked to read resembles
the language
they are being asked
to learn.
I have managed
to get classes of schoolchildren
to respond
positively
to Blake, Hopkins,
and even Chaucer,
but most foreign-language
learners are daunted
and alienated
by poems whose language
is remote in
time and style from the variety they are learning.

Brevity

Some members
of every class will be capable of enjoying long poems, but it
is safer to use short poems with a mixed ability class, so as to minimize
the
risk of losing people.

Potential for illustration

Some

practical

suggestions

Pre-reading activities

The ideal poem for the mixed ability EFL/ESL

class is one which satisfies
the criteria outlined
above and which lends itself to visual, auditory,
or
tactile illustration
through
the use of realia (e.g. slides, films, objects,
photographs,
music)
or specially
designed
aids (e.g. drawings,
sound
effects, mime).

Learners
can be prepared
for their experience
of a poem through activities
which focus their intellect
and imagination
on the content
of the poem,
which arouse curiosity and expectations,
which help the learners to predict
aspects of the poem, which make them want to read the poem, and which
ultimately
make the poem accessible
to all of them. These activities should
focus on content, not language,
and should ideally involve the learners
in
interactions
which engage them emotionally
and intellectually.
Activities
which can achieve this include:
-discussing
controversial
topics related to the theme of the poem;
-predicting
the poems
content
from drawings,
photographs,
realia,
sounds, etc.;
-listening
to or reading
related songs, stories, scenes from plays, anecdotes, etc.;
-interpreting
a related mime;
-reading
a poem in the mother tongue which is related in theme;
-sampling
random
lines from the poem;
-taking
part in simulations
designed
to give the learners vicarious
experience related to the character(s)
and themes of the poem.
Activities
which cannot achieve the desired emotional
or intellectual
readiness include pre-teaching
difficult vocabulary
items, practising
structures
or functions
featured in the poem, and other learning activities which focus
the learners
minds on language
items and run the risk of suggesting
that
the poem is a model of language use, rather than an expression
of ideas and
emotions
to react to.
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Reading aids

Post-reading activities

The most obvious way to help learners

to read the poem is to let them
listen to a reading
of the poem before or while they attempt
to read it
themselves.
This can be done by the teacher reading the poem live after
thorough
preparation
or via a recording
of a rehearsed
reading. Other aids
to accessibility
include pictures to look at while reading, images to retain in
the mind while reading,
sound effects (e.g. waves, the wind, gunfire, etc.)
and mood music to listen to while reading.
Presenting
the poem line by line on an overhead
transparency
projector
while eliciting predictions
about the next line, and presenting
the poem in
jumbled
order for groups to sequence
before reading it are other techniques
which can make poems more accessible.
The first overt response
required
of the learners
to the poem should be an
affective and global one. They should feel free to express their reactions
in
any way they wish. Obviously
at this stage teacher judgement
or, even
worse, correction
could kill the learners
responses
and inhibit any subsequent
creative follow-up.
The next response
to the poem should involve the learners
in extended
interaction
in which they use their interpretation
of the poem to inform and
stimulate
communication
activities
which will involve them in intelligent
use of English.
Such activities
include:
-painting
group interpretations
of the poem;
-simulations
involving
interviews
with the poet or with characters
from
the poem;
-dramatizing
the poem;
-producing
mime or dance versions of the poem;
-turning
the poem into a short story;
-producing
mother-tongue
versions of the poem from memory;
-turning
the poem into a pop song;
-continuing
the poem;
-re-writing
the poem from a different viewpoint;
-reciting
the poem in different ways to give it different
interpretations;
-comparing
the poem with other texts on the same theme;
-discussing
controversial
statements
about the poem.
Ideally the learners
should be able to choose from a number
of optional
activities.
One way I have managed
this with a mixed ability class is to set
up and label six follow-up activities
in different parts of the classroom
and
let learners go to the one which attracts them and is at an appropriate
level.

Some

sample

lessons

Elementary/upper
elementary/lower
intermediate

I present
below suggestions
of how to use a poem by John Arden with
students
at elementary-lower
intermediate
levels, and ideas for using a
poem by Wilfred Owen with intermediate-advanced
classes.
Phase I
a The class is divided

into groups,

with

approximately

four learners

to a

group.
b Each group is given photographs
of old people and asked to say what
they seem to have in common
and how they differ from each other.
c Each member
of the group is invited
(not forced)
to describe
and
comment
on an old person he or she knows.
d Each group sits in a circle and performs an oral chain composition
which
the first sentence and
begins Old people.
. . (i.e. one learner contributes
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Using poetry with mixed ability classes

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then the members of the circle take it in turns to offer a sentence following
on from the previous
one).
e New groups are formed and then each group writes chain compositions,
with each member
beginning
his or her composition,
Old people are
often very . . ..
Phase 2
a The teacher tells the class that they are going to listen to a poem by an old
lady about herself, and asks each individual
to write down five words
they expect to meet in the poem.
b Learners
are encouraged
to read out their words and explain why they
have chosen them.
c The teacher tells everybody
to close their eyes and think of an old lady
and then to keep their picture in mind while they listen to the poem.
d The teacher reads aloud (or plays a recording
of) the following poem1.
PHINEUS:
Im an old old lady
And I dont have long to live.
I am only strong enough to take
Not to give. No time left to give.
I want to drink, I want to eat,
I want my shoes taken off my feet.
I want to talk but not to walk
Because if I walk, I have to know
Where it is I want to go.
I want to sleep but not to dream
I want to play and win every game
To live with love but not to love
The world to move but me not move
I want I want for ever and ever
The world to work, the world to be clever.
Leave me be, but dont leave me alone.
Thats what I want. Im a big round stone
Sitting in the middle of a thunderstorm.
There you are: thats true.
Thats me. Now: you.
(John Arden)
e The learners are encouraged
to express their feelings about the old lady
in the poem to their neighbours
and then to the class.
f The learners are asked to suggest adjectives
describing
the old lady and
to explain why they have chosen them.
Phase 3
a Each learner is given a copy of the poem to read, while the teacher labels
areas of the room ready for the follow-up
activities.
b The teacher explains the six options and tells the learners to do the one
which appeals to them most.
i Practising
reciting the poem in two different
ways.
ii Painting
a picture of the old lady.
iii Choosing
from six photographs
of old ladies the one which
the lady in the poem, and then writing a couple of sentences

they feel is
(or lines of

Brian Tomlinson

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poetry)
which they think each of the other five ladies is likely to say
about herself.
iv Pretending
to be the son or daughter
of the old lady, and writing a letter
to her on her birthday.
v Taking part in a simulation
in which the relatives of the old lady decide
whether
to place her in an old peoples home, offer her a room with one
of them, or let her continue
to live alone.
vi Accepting
the old ladys invitation
(Thats me. Now: you.) and writing
a poem about themselves.
The learners can do their chosen activity alone, in pairs, or in groups (apart
from those doing the simulation)
and can change their activity if they find it
too difficult, too easy, or not very interesting.
It is hoped that each activity
will ultimately
engage the learners in discussing
the poem with each other
and/or with the teacher.
Phase 4
In the following
lesson the learners
are invited to display or perform
the
products
of their activities
(e.g. reciting
the poem; talking about their
paintings;
communicating
their decision about the old ladys future), and
other learners are encouraged
to ask questions
and express their reaction.
The learners should not be forced to put themselves
on public display, but
should be guided and encouraged
if they want to.
intermediate1
upper intermediate1
advanced

Phase I
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
(plenary
or group)
about war films,
books, TV programmes,
etc. that the learners
know, and questions
are
asked about the view of war portrayed
by them.
c The teacher displays photographs,
drawings,
etc., depicting
the horror
and futility of war, and invites the learners to compare
the two displays
and to comment
on the differences
in their portrayal
of war.
d The teacher chairs a short, impromptu
debate on the motion Dulce et
decorum
est pro patria mori (after first translating
it into English: It is
sweet and honourable
to die for ones country).
Phase 2
The teacher
tells the class to close their eyes and imagine
themselves
as
soldiers marching
along a muddy road during a war (You are freezing cold,
you havent eaten for ten hours, you are walking through wet snow, you are
carrying a rifle and a pack on your back, the night is black but sometimes
lit
up by lights and gunfire, etc.). The teacher then reads aloud this poem:2
Dulce et Decorum est (by Wilfred Owen)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed,
coughing
like hags, we cursed through
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-shod.
All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells
dropping
softly behind.

sludge,

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Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! -An

ecstasy 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.
Alternatively,
the teacher can play a recording
of the poem which has been
produced
with sound effects (e.g. wind, gunfire,
shells exploding,
men
screaming,
etc.).
Then the learners
are asked to imagine
that they are Wilfred
Owen
walking in the mud, and to make statements
about what they think about
war.
Phase 3
a The teacher gives out copies of the poem and the learners are given time
to read it.
b The learners
are asked to choose one of the following
activities:
i Individual work
Imagine
that you are Wilfred Owen, and write letters to two of the
following:
your wife, your mother, a close friend, a newspaper.
ii Group work
Do both of the following:
-Design
and paint a poster to advertise
the film, Dulce et Decorum
Est.
-Write
page one of the filmscript
for the film, Dulce et Decorum
Est'.
Phase 4
a The learners are encouraged
to show their work to each other and to the
teacher, if they want to, and to invite suggestions
for improvement.
b The learners
are encouraged
to pin up the final versions of their work,
together with the illustrations
from Phase 1, copies of Dulce et Decorum
Est, and copies of any other war poems in English that they can find.
Other classes can then be invited to visit the exhibition
and talk about
what they see and read.3
Conclusion

Most students
have had enjoyable
experiences
of poetry through
songs,
but many of them resent and fear poems as irrelevant,
boring, and difficult,
and see them as models of inappropriate
English which can only help them
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by teaching
them a few new words.
However,
if poems
are selected,
prepared,
and used in the ways I haved suggested
above, they can break
down the barriers
and involve the learners in thinking,
feeling, and interacting in ways which are conducive
to language
acquisition.

Received December 1984

Notes

1 From The Happy Haven, first published

in New
English Dramatists 4, by Penguin
Books, 1962
(reprinted by permission of Penguin Books Ltd).
The poem is in fact an extract from a play, and is
far from being great poetry. However, it satisfies
most of my criteria for selection as the basis of
intelligent communication
activities, and has succeeded in gaining the desired affective response and
involvement from numerous groups.
2 From Georgian Poetry, Selected and Introduced
by
James Reeves, published by Penguin Books in 1962.
3 Obviously this poem and this lesson would not be
suitable for certain countries and certain types of
classes, as it could provoke a negative conflict of

views. However, it can stimulate productive debate

and arouse positive feelings in classes in which the
topic of war is not politically or religiously sensitive.

The author

Brian Tomlinson is Director of Studies at Bell College,

Saffron Walden, where he is responsible for the teacher
training and tertiary courses. He has wide experience
as a teacher and teacher trainer and has worked in
Nigeria, Zambia, and Vanuatu. He also has considerable experience as a syllabus designer and curriculum
developer,
and has published
numerous
articles,
coursebooks, and books for teachers.

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