Yay! I didn’t know that I was a poet:“ The Efficacy of Writing Poetry in ESL Classes from a Translingual Approach

Abstract

Writing poetry is an effective way of teaching in the ESL classroom, especially when approached through the lens of the translingual perspective. This paper introduces the translingual approach to teaching and how ESL teachers of writing can benefit from this approach to teach writing poetry. The paper then provides two practical examples of how to approach teaching writing poetry in the ESL classroom from a translingual perspective. The purpose of this paper, hence, is to argue that writing poetry in the ESL classroom can be a fertile environment that houses different hybrid norms that students bring to the classroom, provides good moments for negotiation, and valorizes creativity. This paper concludes that the translingual approach to writing poetry is less intimidating and more of a hybridity-tolerant way for students to learn English language and to experience the world differently. Poetry becomes a fertile environment for students to perceive language as a hybrid of norms and to learn how to negotiate meanings, structures, and grammar.