Abstract
A survey of how practicing teachers of English in Norway use and view poems provides the point of departure for this chapter. The authors find clear evidence that teachers and their pupils, especially in primary school, value poetry both as an end in itself and for language learning and other purposes. This finding is discussed in relation to the widely held criticism that poetry is used for language learning at the expense of other valuable purposes that it could and should serve. Rather than reinforcing this view, the authors argue that poems can and should serve many purposes. Although this study focuses on Norwegian language learners, its conclusions are broadly applicable to any classroom where teachers and their students wish to enjoy and learn through poetry.
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Notes
- 1.
The literature on English in the classroom uses various acronyms, including EFL (English as a Foreign Language), ESL (English as a Second Language) and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). We have chosen to use the more general acronym ELT (English Language Teaching), as it is beyond the scope of this chapter to discuss the status of English in Norway and the role of English in Norwegian primary and secondary schools.
- 2.
In this chapter, primary school refer to grades one through seven, where the pupils are aged between five or six and thirteen. Secondary school refers to grades eight through ten, where pupils are aged between twelve and sixteen.
- 3.
The phrase “from nursery to Shakespeare” has been deleted in a recent revision of this preamble.
- 4.
When we say “poetry,” we are referring to poems, songs, and nursery rhymes, unless the context requires otherwise.
- 5.
This use of “authentic” has been largely abandoned, but was in common use twenty or so years ago to describe texts that were not written specifically for the purposes of English language learning.
- 6.
In citing respondents who wrote in English, we have standardized spelling and grammar. When we cite responses written in Norwegian, we have translated them and indicate this with the symbol (N).
- 7.
This does not necessarily mean that they regard these purposes as unimportant. The teachers may not have thought of them while they wrote their answers, or they may quite simply have taken them for granted.
- 8.
See note 6 above.
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Munden, J., Skjærstad, T. (2018). English Poetry in the Foreign Language Classroom: A Study of Teacher Perspectives, Purposes, and Practices. In: Kleppe, S., Sorby, A. (eds) Poetry and Pedagogy across the Lifespan. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90433-7_13
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