Integrating Poetry into EFL/ESL Teaching

Has poetry a place in the EFL/ESL context today?  The answer is ‘Yes’.  It has a tremendous appeal for learners and it is the best way of creating a love for language.  It stimulates them to see, hear and think of things in new ways.  It lays a foundation for the appreciation of the beauty of language, for poetry is beauty - beauty of form, beauty of language, beauty of thought, mood or feeling.  Language teaching can be rather dull if we always look at linguistic points using only predictable textbook examples.

Much depends on the choice of poems for the various classes.  They should be easy to understand and suitable for the age groups under instruction.  Poems with unusual, archaic, difficult language and thought should be avoided.  It would also be good, though not absolutely necessary, if some of the poems related to the daily life of the learners.

The use of poetry in an EFL/ESL classroom involves many factors, such as the use of the Internet, reading poems, comprehension, appreciation, and finally writing poems using blogging.  Creative teachers can work wonders in the classroom by incorporating poetry into their EFL/ESL work. 

Has poetry a place in the EFL/ESL context today?  The answer is ‘Yes’.  It has a tremendous appeal for learners and it is the best way of creating a love for language.  It stimulates them to see, hear and think of things in new ways.  It lays a foundation for the appreciation of the beauty of language, for poetry is beauty - beauty of form, beauty of language, beauty of thought, mood or feeling.  Language teaching can be rather dull if we always look at linguistic points using only predictable textbook examples.

Much depends on the choice of poems for the various classes.  They should be easy to understand and suitable for the age groups under instruction.  Poems with unusual, archaic, difficult language and thought should be avoided.  It would also be good, though not absolutely necessary, if some of the poems related to the daily life of the learners.

The use of poetry in an EFL/ESL classroom involves many factors, such as the use of the Internet, reading poems, comprehension, appreciation, and finally writing poems using blogging.  Creative teachers can work wonders in the classroom by incorporating poetry into their EFL/ESL work. 

Need for a Specific Approach to Spelling Instruction

By Dr. George Kolanchery

georgeomani@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Regularity or predictability of English orthography is not a regular/predictable proposition. Educational researchers continue to spend a good amount of time to evolve effective strategies to ensure a steady command of learners over spelling in English but the truth is that still spelling in English evades the grip and grasp of many. Addressing spelling difficulties is a necessity because poor spelling hampers both reading and writing skills.

Teaching and learning spelling, unless done with innovative and improvised tactics, will invite boredom and diminishing degree of motivation in learners. The English spelling system turns to be logical and learnable if proportionate care is taken to apply appropriate measure of commonsense logic and improvised tactics/technologies while teaching it.

The paper throws light on the comprehensive approach (CA) to spelling which is a creative blend of the traditional as well as the multisensory approaches because it makes use of multimedia, general knowledge of the learners, supportive pull of the mother tongue, spellwares, and application of certain strikingly improvised memory tactics to concertize the elusive and confusing spelling system of the English language. The salient feature of this approach lies in making the whole learning process an edutaining one with the use of five CA tools.

The paper also examines the need for a specific approach to spelling instruction in ELT curriculum and pedagogy. The paper will further share with the audience the   need for combating the spelling difficulties of ESL learners and the possibilities of adopting the CA to teaching and learning spelling to ESL leaner’s of various levels/needs.  The presenters’ classroom experiences of applying CA tools   in their ESL/EFL context and its consequent positive outcomes in spelling abilities of their students will also be discussed.

'STIGMA' means........

Hi friends

what I mean by 'stigma' is 'the top of centre part of a flower that receives the pollen that allows it to form new seeds'. So I hope your comments will help to form new thoughts.

Power of Sound

When children play in a playground they repeat /chant the repetitive rhythms that help to control the game, and children plainly take great delight in it. There are many situation where the only apparent reason for a use of Language is the effect the sounds have on the users or listeners. We can group together here such different cases as the rhythmical Litanies of religious groups, the persuasive cadences of political speech making the dialogue, chants used by prisoners or slaves as they work, the various kinds of Language games played by children and adults and the voices of individual singing in the kitchen or the bath. Do you like to add something more to this........? Welcome !