Developing Student Responses to Poetry in English: Guided Reader-response in EAP Reading Classes

Poetry reading is challenging for EFL students, but offers great rewards both in terms of language improvement and in student motivation to read (Lazar, 1993). As Gray (1960:8) noted, there are important differences between literal understanding and “reading beyond the lines”, and literature gives students the opportunity to use and develop these critical skills (Gajdusek & van Dommelen, 1993; Ghosn, 2002; Van, 2009). Literature’s position in language acquisition and pedagogic theory has not been stable, and the formulations, which have come about in the last two decades, are at odds with its previous incarnation as the object of grammar translation. Newer methodologies, which use poetry for language instruction, explore its literary features and celebrate its merits as verse require both explication and grounding in practice. This paper reviews and synthesizes theory on the advantages of using poetry in EFL with specific relevance to Japanese university academic reading students’ needs. A mediated approach to students’ exposure to poetic texts is proposed, and finally, a classroom technique is given as a practical example