Benefits of Using Poetry in Language Learning

By Fizza Syed

Educational benefits of using poetry

Poetry could be used as a medium to teach language as it shows a path to teach basic language skills. Some of the educational benefits of using poetry are explained by Sarac:

Different viewpoint for language:

It broadens the seeing perspective of learner, as they begin to use language in a completely different way. The grammar used in poetry is different (it does not follow typical grammar rules) for example, incomplete sentences. The syntax is also different for example, in this verse "women and men both little and small; cared of anyone not at all" the structure of sentence does not follow typical grammar use. The vocabulary used is also different for example a word "no one" used in a poem does not belong to standard English vocabulary, but in the poem it gives the meaning poet wants to explain. A poet might use slangs and jargons in order to make his poetry more meaningful In this way learner catches a different viewpoint towards language by going beyond the known uses.

Motivates the reader:

Poetry always have hidden meanings which are never expressed clearly, in order to grasp the original meaning the reader has to explore more and poetry triggers the unmotivated reader to find out what is inside. By reading a single verse almost every person out of 10 would come up with a different interpretation.

Emotional association:

Whenever reader reads a piece of poetry, and get its original idea they start to find associations between the words and their own life and when reader is able to do that he/she will generate emotional responses. Thus, poetry evokes feelings in the heart and mind.

Learning figures of speech:

Reading poetry makes the reader able to identify different figures of speech used in it for example, metaphor, personification, simile, imagery and irony etc as they are a part of daily language

Properties of poetry:

Poetry is an enjoyable experience in learning a new language with the properties of rhythm and rhyming, both of which portray love, affection and appreciation for the power and sounds of a language. Thus, the reader becomes more familiar with the supra-segmental aspects of language I.e. pitch, stress and intonation.

Semiotic elements:

This is the general study of signs and symbols and their functions in a language and these elements are perfectly learned by poetry. In poetry nothing is as clear as it is said, there are always some deeper meanings and to portray those deeper images there is a need of signifier and signified which are used by the poets in poetry.