Reporting: (December 7, 2022)

Lesson 6: Benefits of Different genres of literature to language; The Importance of Using

Poetry in Language Teaching
I. The Relevance of Teaching Different Literary Genres in the EFL Classroom
Each literary genre is characterized by its own language patterns, its specific stylistic choices
and its patterns of cultural orientation. Novels and short stories, for example, take
advantage of their setting and plot to expand new degrees of realism. Plays, in contrast, are
mainly around characters and their interactions, and they are written to be performed
on stage. However, poetry is known of its various forms; it controls standard expectations
about usage. Understanding these genres can help both teachers and students to be aware
of their benefits in any classroom and to overcome the mismatch between literature as a
content-based subject and literature as a rich authentic material used in language classes.
II. The importance of reading different genres
“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you
can't help it.”― Oscar Wilde

Despite demonstrating a love of the written word, many readers tend to devote most of
their time to consuming books in one or two specific genres.

And what’s the harm in that? If you find that a particular type of narrative speaks to you,
shouldn’t you continue reading books that fall under that category?

Well … yes and no.

Of course you want to read books that entertain you and bring you joy, but it’s well worth
adding some variety to your reading list. You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of
reading different genres.
Why?

Reading isn’t just a fun pastime — it’s an opportunity to learn and achieve personal growth.

And the more you step outside of your comfort zone, the greater your chances of making
new discoveries and experiencing a shift in your perspective.

Think of it like an adventure — one that will allow you to uncover treasures you never
thought possible!

How You Benefit from Expanding Your Reading List

1. YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY.
When you read a wide array of books, it’s not uncommon to come across unfamiliar words
and phrases. Sometimes you can glean enough context from the sentence to understand the
meaning; other times you’ll need to consult the dictionary for clarification. Either way,
you’re able to stow away the definition in your mind for later use. Having a comprehensive
vocabulary serves you well throughout your life. It allows you to communicate more
effectively with teachers and peers. It improves your reading and writing skills. It helps you
process information faster. It supports your efforts to stay informed of global affairs.

You may not even realize it at first, but when you add a greater variety of books to your
reading list, you’ll slowly begin adding new words to your lexicon, reshaping the way you see
and interact with the world.

2. YOU CAN DEVELOP A BROADER PERSPECTIVE.

It isn’t just exposure to new words that can affect your view of the world.

When you mix things up and add a wide selection of titles to your reading list, you can start
to see people, places, and historical events in a new light.

For example, reading a nonfiction book about a group of people in another country can
foster greater understanding of cultures unlike your own.

Even a piece of fiction set in a different time period can allow you to see where we’ve been,
where we are, and where we’re going.

When it comes to stressing the importance of reading different genres, the fact that doing
so can broaden your perspective of the world is arguably the most noteworthy point of
them all.

3. YOU CAN DISCOVER A NEW FAVORITE GENRE.

You undoubtedly have a favorite genre or two now, but what if you’re missing out on others
because you’re not adding any variety to your reading list?

Sure, you’ll likely find that not every genre is your cup of tea — and that’s okay.

However, by diversifying your reading material, you could wind up enjoying a particular type
of book just as much as others you read on a regular basis.

And when that happens, the number of works you can add to your reading list grows
exponentially — so much, in fact, that you may need to increase how many you read at
once.

4. YOU CAN GET INSPIRATION FROM SURPRISING PLACES.

It’s amazing how expanding your reading list can open your mind and provide you with
inspiration when you need it most.

Of course, some genres are meant to provide encouragement, motivation, and support,
such as self-help books and memoirs.
Others, however, aren’t designed specifically to inspire readers, yet they’re able to do so
nonetheless.

By picking up a book from a genre you wouldn’t normally read, you may be struck with a
sudden urge to finally write your own novel, travel to a faraway place, or even just take up a
new hobby.

Ways to Add Variety to Your Reading List

Even when you understand the importance of reading different genres, you may find it
difficult to adjust your reading list when it has remained more or less the same for so long.

The good news is that there’s no wrong way to go about it. However, if you could use some
guidance so this new approach doesn’t turn into a failed experiment, consider the following:

 Try incorporating one new type of book at a time. The more drastic the change, the
less likely you’ll be to stick with it.

 Don’t be afraid to read multiple books at once. It may be easier to alternate

between a new find and an old favorite.

 Ask friends, family members, and co-workers for recommendations. They may
prefer books that you wouldn’t normally go for.

 Review the complete works of your favorite writers. Though authors typically stick
to one genre, some branch out. Taking this approach allows you to “dip your toe in”
by reading a different type of work from an author you’re already familiar with.

 Be spontaneous and choose a new genre at random! Go to your local library,

bookstore, or e-book marketplace and head to a section you wouldn’t usually visit.

Takeaway
The importance of reading different genres should not be understated, as increasing the
range of books you read can provide you with a number of benefits.

If you’ve found yourself in something of a reading rut, don’t be afraid to play around with
your reading list. Pick up a book you wouldn’t usually go for. Chances are you’ll get more out
of it than you may anticipate!
III. Benefits of Using Poetry to Language Teaching
Poetry is a short piece of imaginative writing, of a personal nature and laid out in lines. In
this sense, poetry is a product of the language and a tool to teach it, a tool to teach
grammatical clues and a product when students make a composition of any topic.

Most of the poems include metaphors. Students can use cognitive skills by making
comparisons between two different things and finding their similarities. The figures of
speech used in poetry such as metaphors, similes and personifications help students to have
a better understanding of the use of language in an unconscious way.

Poetry is a way for teaching and learning basic skills. It can be used as an enjoyable and a
rewarding tool with the properties of rhyming and rhythm. It helps students to easily learn
with the supra-segmental aspect of the target language, such as stress, pitch, intonation.

Using poetry while teaching English can have many benefits:

 It encourages creative writing.

 It helps students appreciate sounds words and patterns.
 It develops phonic skills.
 It makes students express feelings and opinions.
 It provides a great opportunity to play with language.
 It reinforces the ability to think and to experiment with students’ understanding of
the world.
 It helps to acquire vocabulary, creativity and imagination.
 it reveals, restates, reinforces and affirms those things which we think are true.
 It gives the chance to discover and explore the use of the language.
 It generates collaborative activities (pair and group work).
Poetry and the four skills

We can develop the four skills while using poetry:

Poems are good to reinforce grammar structures and to improve writing abilities, bringing
out creativity and rhythm in the classroom since students have to use their imagination to
write.

Also, poems help to develop oral and mental capacities. They should be read aloud to
reinforce the student’s phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary as well as to
sharpen their receptive language skills by learning rhyming, sounds, stresses, pauses,
alliteration and syllables.
Ideas for using poetry in the classroom

 Discussing the theme of a poem and writing out personal experiences related to the
theme.
 Deducing meanings from the context.
 Completing a paraphrase of a poem (cloze-style).
 Choosing the best paraphrase among a few.
 Predicting what’s coming next after reading only one verse at a time.
 Ordering jumbled stanzas or lines in the correct sequence.
 Rewriting a part of a poem in one’s own words and ideas to offer different
messages.
 Filling an omitted word, phrase, or line in relation to its context.
 Discussing similarities and differences between poems of the same subject or
theme.
 Identifying any aural or musical qualities in the poem (rhyme, alliteration, and
simile).
 Reading aloud poems (choral reading) and making a song. This teaches intonations
and stress.
 Using visuals images such as paintings to help pupils envisage settings, historical
periods, etc.
 Imitating o parody the style of poem.
 Acting the poem: mime, role play, performance, etc.
 Making a peer or group composition, writing together.

The Importance of Using Poetry in Language Teaching

Using poems can aid to learn and to teach the target language skills (Burton, 1984).
Because most poetry intentionally or unintentionally uses metaphor as one of its
principal features, poetry offers a noteworthy learning process (Collie & Slater, 1990). Many
learning benefits can be derived from studying poetry, including appreciating the writer’s
composition process, which students get by studying poems by components, and developing
sensitivity for words and discoveries that may later grow into a deeper interest (ibid.).
Hall (2003) also explains the educational benefits of poetry. He maintains that it first
provides readers with a different viewpoint towards language use by going beyond the
known rules of grammar and syntax; second, it triggers unmotivated readers owing to
being so open to diverse interpretations; third, it evokes feelings and thoughts, and
finally it makes students familiar with figures of speech due to their being a part of daily
language use. Unlike the other genres, poetry is written in verse which makes it different
and difficult from the ordinary language. Maley and Moulding state that: The range of the
materials currently available to the teachers of English is wide and varied. Magazine and
newspaper articles, advertisements, brochures, technical instruction manuals, business
letters, and so on are all drawn up a great effect. But poetry is all too often left to one side.
So the aim of the English teacher should be to make poetry accessible to the students of
EFL/ESL: to make it possible for them to read and enjoy it. (Maley & Moulding, 1985: 28)
Besides, Preston (1982) states that poetry is a rewarding and enjoyable experience with the
properties of rhyming and rhythm both of which convey appreciation for the power of
language. At this juncture, it can be stated that students become familiar with the
supra-segmental aspects of the target language, such as stress, pitch and intonation.
Through poetry, students can also study the semiotic elements in the target language
(Leech, 1969). Semiotic elements represent a cultural training as well (ibid.). Hanauer (1997)
claims that poems should be seen as hyper-signs of which constituent semiotic signifiers
come together in their common link and lead to the symbolic level which is the one inclined
to be signified in a poem. Tosta tackles a number of good reasons to integrate poetry into
the EFL classroom: One reason is that poems usually deal with universal themes, such as
love or hate, which are familiar to all readers. Secondly, poems bring contexts which are not
only rich culturally but also linguistically. There is also the additional advantage of
length, which makes many poems easy to remember and thus well suited to a single
classroom lesson. Even the myth of complexity can be positively approached and serve
as a motivational factor, since students will have a feeling of accomplishment as they
successfully work with a poem in class. (Tosta, 1996: 62). Poetry employs language to
evoke and exalt special qualities of life (Burton, 1984). It is particularly lyric poetry which is
based on feelings and provides still another emotional benefit (ibid.). Poetry is one of the
most effective and powerful transmitters of culture. Poems comprise so many cultural
elements- allusions, vocabulary, idioms and tone that are usually difficult to translate into
another language (Sage, 1989).

Conclusions

Using poetry in the classroom is a great tool, but we cannot forget that we have to choose
the right material, so students can maximize their learning. It has to be interesting and
adequate for each student level, reading about new things is usually interesting for
students.

Learners will benefit from literature; we are responsible of putting in touch our students
with material that catches their interest, so they want to read and listen more, which turns
out in further and richer learning. Also, it can create opportunities for personal expression
as well as reinforce learner´s knowledge of lexical and grammatical structure giving the
opportunity to develop their communicative and cognitive skills.

Many teachers think that including poetry in the EFL classroom can be a very heavy and
useless work. However, we have analyzed some of the benefits that working with poetry can
bring to the learning process. Also, we pointed that not only it is useful but also, students
can have great fun if we choose the correct activities and poems.