Using a “Prosing Poem” Strategy in Teaching Poetry in the Efl Context of Indonesia

Abstract

The present article reports our reflections on how to teach an introductory course on poetry in an Indonesian tertiary educational institution where English is a foreign language. The reflections are made on the basis of our experiences of teaching the course, the main challenge of which centres on students’ wronged perception of what poetry is; students tend to have an entrenched idea that poetry must be perplexing. The reflections have led us to a teaching strategy which we call “prosing poem.” Applying the strategy, we help students by providing made-up prosaic forms of the poems. This strategy has proven to help demystify students’ idea on poetry as a difficult subject. It allows students to unpack the poetic texts in a less daunting way as they can rely on their English mastery without having cognitive block.

Revisiting Existed Syllabus in Poetry Class: An Interactive Approach

“…Additionally, English poetry lecturers should make the learners understand the importance of poetry for social functions. Related to these problems, some recent studies proposed some pedagogical methods in teaching poetry, such as using a "prosing poem" strategy (Amri & Basthomi, 2022), employing dance (Delchamps, 2018;Jusslin & Hoglund, 2021), using songs (Sebastian, 2020), or using technology (Curwood & Cowell, 2011).…”