Literary Stylistics: Literature and Language

© 2019 Mariwan N. Hasan and Chnara H. Khdhir. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/07/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9450-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9449-7 (e)

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CONTENTS

Preface

Facilitating English-Language Learning To Ef Learners With Poetry

Pedagogy Of English Language Through Literary Texts To Non- Native Learners Of English Language

The Importance Of Literary Texts In Teaching Language In Efl Classes: The Waste Land As An Example

The Significance Of Literary Texts In Pedagogy Of English Language In Efl/ Esl Classrooms

The Significance Of Literary Texts In Pedagogy Of English Language In Efl/ Esl Classrooms

Pedagogy Of English Language Through Literary Texts To Non-Native Learners Of English Language

The Significance Of Language In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot

To Use Literary Texts In Esl/Efl Classes Or Not Mariwan Hasan

PREFACE

This book is the work of six years. Several authors have taken part in writing this book. The gap between literature and language is to some extent removed. Each of the two will serve each other. The book’s value lies in its focus on literary stylistics. Katie is right when she says most stylistics is not simply to describe the formal features of texts for their own sake, but in order to show their functional significance for the interpretation of the text; or in order to relate literary effects to linguistic ‘causes’ where these are felt to be relevant. In recent years a special focus has been on learning English as a second language and pedagogy of English Language in EFL/ESL classrooms. To learn any language easily, it is usually through its literature and culture. So, English Language is not an exception. This book contains several critical essays on the pedagogy of English Language to EFL/ ESL. There is a tendency by stylisticians of literature to analyse and explain the part of the writer and the style of the manuscript in its literariness like editing the manuscript.

Mariwan Hasan

FACILITATING ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNING TO EF LEARNERS WITH POETRY

¹Mariwan Hasan

²Chnara Khidhr

ABSTRACT

There are many new techniques in teaching English in EFL classes nowadays. Literature in general, and poetry in particular, can be used in teaching English language to EF Learners. The most efficient one tends to be reading and writing of poetry. While a vast number of scholars think that poetry promotes language acquisition process, they will also believe that poetic concepts and cultural assumptions are usually quite difficult for EF learners to comprehend. Whereas this may be true of poems as a reading activity yet, the practice of poetry in the writing class can offer real and combined ways of language learning which are of personal expressions. Normal structures can give learners an outline for communicating thoughts those which are important to them, without the limitations of linguistic precision. Picture lyrics, pattern poems and haiku, thus offer methods for making English a method for individual expression, imagination and improvement, serving to diminish obstructions in a nonthreatening learning place. Well known song scripts can likewise draw attention to elocution, sound and sentence stream, notwithstanding containing contemporary social critique. This study proposes that a more extensive viewpoint on the use of verse in the language classroom can prompt important and effective language learning and will add taste to the process of learning.

Keywords: Teaching Poetry, Learning English, Picture Poems, Pattern Poems, Rhythm & Aesthetics of Poetry.

I. INTRODUCTION

The conventional perspective of verse as a standout amongst the most complex types of artistic and semantic expressions renders it for a special only for the most advanced language learners. And still, after all that, the abundance of artistic allusions, recorded references and social presumptions normally seen in progress of famous poets, can restrain appreciation enormously for the native speaker (NS) and non-native speaker (NNS) similarly. Like Brindley (1980) states:

Poems often deal with geographical or social settings alien to the students’ experience. Perhaps the greatest barrier to understanding poetry, however, is its elliptical, metaphorical, and highly allusive language. Poetry, from this perspective (i.e. as a high-level, individual reading activity), has little to offer the EFL classroom, especially at middle school and high school level. (Brindley p.1)

However, when one takes a wider vision of the word, one can see that: a poem is a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their beauty and sound and are carefully arranged, often in short lines which rhyme (Collins Cobuild, 2001). This definition, which is without reference to perception of uneasy metaphorical, social, or moral suggestions, and nothing about linguistic accuracy, metrical structure, sentence structure or consistent sequencing of thoughts, opens the ways to pop-songs, haiku, pattern poems, picture poems, nursery rhymes and folk songs, all of which can be seen as verse. By focusing on delight, and introducing verse through media and methods that provide maximum student involvement and interest (Brindley p. 1), language learning can be very easy, and learners of various levels can get benefit from the medium of poetry to utter their views in the target language.

Another hypothesis with respect to the examining and composing of verse is that it is an individual movement. This study, though, takes an intuitive, shared approach, and depicts how poems can be utilized to advance collaboration and correspondence and expression at the personal level, in the EFL classroom. By inviting students to be in the poem (Moore p.44), effectively reading poems in groups or in pairs, and making thoughts together, verse can turn into a vital piece of the EFL classroom and can be a method of researching issues pertinent to the students’ experiences, backgrounds, and demeanours.

II. PICTURE POEMS

Picture poems have a key role in offering a visual point on arranging of words, and are in this manner a successful method for urging learners to interact with the target vocabulary. By utilizing non-linguistic structures, students can play with the language, creating visual and verbal output.

Poetry can turn into a basic piece of the EFL classroom and can be a method for examining issues important to the learners’ experiences, backgrounds, and outlooks.

FIGURE 1

Picture poems (1): The organised words can make a shape (Picture poem 3 adapted from Hadfield & Hadfield, 1997, p. 9, section 16. Picture poem 4 adapted from Finch, 1998).

1.

3.

                Smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke

                smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke

…             …smoke smoke smoke smoke

…….         ……smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke

…….         .smoke smoke smoke

……  …  …smoke smoke

…..    ……        ……smoke smoke

…… …… ..        …. ……smoke smoke

(Finch 2011)

4.

                            memory of clouds

                        of perception of memory of

perception of perception of clouds of memory of

                        perception of memory of clouds of clouds

                            of perception of perception of

                                memory of memory of

                                    clouds of clouds

                                        of memory

                                                                            (Krishnamurti 2001)

An essential kind of picture poem, as in the above figure 1, is one intended to resemble the question it depicts. The structure for this situation is the shape of the object, and duty-completion originates from masterminding words to coordinate that shape. Poems 1 and 2 in figure 1 utilize very much shaped sentences, yet poem 3 just uses two words (smoke, fire) representing the flexibility of pictorial expression through reiteration. Poem 4 takes this idea further, playing with importance by arbitrarily exchanging three words (memory, clouds, perception) in a shape suggestive of one of them (clouds), before making last remarks. In its refusal of punctuation, this poem allows the reader to associate and interpret subjectively.

In figure 2 below one can see another kind of picture poem, in which the words outline the object being portrayed. Likewise with past cases, these words can be sentences or accumulations of word-affiliations, without syntactic structure. Along these lines, learners can encounter quick accomplishment as far as communicating in English, and stress or nervousness can be decreased. These lyrics consequently urge students to cooperate and explore different avenues regarding the objective language in a non-debilitating learning condition, and can be shown on the classroom walls, giving constant approval of the students’ endeavours and capacities. It is clear that the above mentioned example are attractive and will draw the student’s attention to itself and in this way it even makes the learner taste the aesthetics of poetry.

III. HAIKU

Haiku develops conceptualizing and community oriented expression, and encourages expression without the burden of sentence structure. Learners are urged to notice words and short expressions as independent, and to play with the sounds of the words, while juxtaposing simple ideas. If learners at the beginning have difficulty in comprehending any piece of picture poem’s structure, then