Fun Way to Learn English with Poetry and Song

I gained some experience while learning literature. As a student of English education, I can use literature works such as poetry to improve my reading and writing skills. The fundamental concepts of English study are reading and writing or we can say it's serving as a portal to a higher level of thinking. Reading is a process of communication of ideas from one person to another through the medium of writing or printing to seek the ideas behind words (Miller 1990). It means that reading is the activity of understanding the context of a text in order for me personally to develop new knowledge and information from it.  I think literature is a central part of many lives. Anyway, using poetry as a media allows me to gain inspiration into how to develop my writing skill. According to Rahman (2016), Using poetry as a learning media is a good way for the students in improving their ability in writing. Actually, I agree with that statement because by employing poetry as media, I can learn many vocabularies especially about adjective, adverb and so on. By knowing this, it helps me to get new information to help me correct my writing errors. Another experience that I have is the opportunity to study literature in two different languages has helped me to find similarities in two different cultures. Hafsa (2017) states that Through reading literature in another language, we begin to access new ways of thinking and other traditions. I can discover new reality and also improving my knowledge and understanding of other language. Even though it takes time to understand English Poetry. :D

In this essay I will also provide an innovation in teaching English. First, the sources used for this innovation teaching are songs, magazines, and articles. Second, the teacher determines a theme, for example about "environment". Here students are free to explore various songs about the environment. Apart from that, they can also search for some print or online magazines as well as articles. After reading articles and magazines, students can underline several key words related to the theme. Finally, students can begin composing their own song lyrics or arrange the key words into poetry. It can be creative writing for the students. Manara (2015) state that Creative writing fosters ‘playfulness’ (language play) and encourages learners to play creatively with the language. The benefits of this activity is not only improving the ability of writing poetry, but also students can gain better understanding in reading by knowing the key words. Through creative play with poetic expression, learners manipulated conventional imagery into original expressions of their own experiences, demonstrating how writing poems had an empowering effect against questions that surround global English language use (Rosenhan, Claudia & Galloway, Nicola, 2019). Besides that, students can build their creative skill by drawing or adding something that relates with the topic.

Warm Regards,

Ramadhani Widita Andini Pratinawang (195110507111004)

Literature in ELT B

References :

Rahman, N. W. (2016). The Use of Poem to Improve Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Text at Tenth Grade of Ummul Mukminin Islamic Boarding School Makassar. Retrieved from http://repositori.uin-alauddin.ac.id/1356/1/NINIK%20WAHYUNI%20RAHMAN.pdf 

Hafsa. (2017). Why study literature in another language? Retrieved from https://owltutors.co.uk/study-literature-another-language/ 

Manara, C. (2015). Experimenting with Language through Creative Writing Tasks. Retrieved from http://ojs.atmajaya.ac.id/index.php/ijelt/article/view/664/523 

Varita, D. (2017). Improving Reading Comprehension through Literature Circles. Retrieved from http://jurnal.unsyiah.ac.id/EEJ/article/view/7231 

Rosenhan, Claudia & Galloway, Nicola (2019). Creativity, self-reflection and subversion: poetry writing for Global Englishes awareness raising. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332652700_Creativity_self-reflection_and_subversion_poetry_writing_for_Global_Englishes_awareness_raising