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International Journal of Management (IJM)
Volume 11, Issue 11, November 2020, pp. 409-417. Article ID: IJM_11_11_041
Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=11
Journal Impact Factor (2020): 10.1471 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com
ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510
DOI: 10.34218/IJM.11.11.2020.041
© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed
AN ANALYSIS OF USING STYLISTIC TOOLS IN
TEACHING POETRY AT GRADUATE LEVEL
Abdul Majeed Rana
Faculty of Management Sciences, ILMA University Karachi, Pakistan
ABSTRACT
This research explores the idea of effectiveness of using stylistics tools in teaching
poetry at Graduation level. The poems were selected from ‘A New Anthology of English
Verse’ compiled by “Kaneez Aslam”. This Anthology is the part of syllabus of Punjab
University for Graduation. Only five poems were selected out of the book. The research
analyzed the teaching of the poems through the use of stylistic tools with a view of
making their meanings explicit. It is worth noting that stylistics, as a scientific
discipline, is really beneficial to those who are teaching English; no matter whether
English is their native, second or the foreign language. Not only the foreign students
but also the native speakers of English language can benefit from stylistics especially
the students of graduate level can learn linguistics besides literary competence.
Nowadays, stylistics, as a branch of linguistics can help in having logical and scientific
understanding of the literary texts.
Keywords: Graduation, poetry, stylistic tools, teaching.
Cite this Article: Abdul Majeed Rana, An Analysis of Using Stylistic Tools in
Teaching Poetry at Graduate Level, International Journal of Management, 11 (11),
2020, pp. 409-417.
http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJM?Volume=11&Issue=11
1. INTRODUCTION
It is worth noting that stylistics, as a scientific discipline, is beneficial for those who are teaching
and studying English language either as a native, second or the foreign one. Not only foreign
students but also the native speakers of English language can benefit from stylistics. They can
get linguistic competence beside literary competence. Nowadays, stylistics, with its tools and
methods of linguistics, can helps in having a logical and scientific understanding of the literary
texts.
The rapid growth of linguistics as an independent discipline and its application literature
has opened new horizons in the field of literary criticism in the twentieth century. There is a
number of recent developments in and around linguistics which deserve to be better known to
http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 409 editor@iaeme.com
Abdul Majeed Rana
literary critics for they point to the newer ways of reading. Hence, literary criticism, as a
discipline, has always welcomed innovation.
Since linguistics is the study of language, it is imperative for a linguist to know what
language is. Language is a very complex human phenomenon; all attempts to define it have
proved inadequate. In a nut-shell language is an ‘organized noise’ used in actual social
situations.
Language is a symbolic system based on arbitrary conventions infinitely extendable and
modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the speaker. So learning multiple
languages is important, no matter where in the world you are. One language that is incredibly
important to learn, however, is English. While this might seem like an elitist point of view, it
actually is not; because of the number and power of the countries that do speak English, English
has become the language that is the international business language. Because of the importance
of business in our society, English has become credibly important to be learnt. Those who learn
English as foreign language, learn the basis of every level of schooling which is hard and more
challenging for the students. It is incredibly important for them. So we can say the teaching of
English language to students with different first languages is very important. Teaching English
can occur either within the state school system or more privately, at a language school with a
tutor.
Language is Allah’s special gift to mankind. Without language civilization would have
remained impossibility. Language is ubiquitous (ever present). It is present everywhere in our
thoughts and dreams, prayers and meditations, relations and communications. Besides being a
means of communication and storehouse of the knowledge, it is an instrument of thinking as
well a source of delight (e.g. singing). It transfers the knowledge from person to another; and
from one generation to another. Language is also the maker and unmaker of human relationship.
Without language man would have remained dumb animal. It is our ability to communicate
through words that makes us different from animals. For its omnipresence, language is often
taken for granted.
Usually it is observed that the students of B.A learn only summaries and some questions
given in handbooks of poetry and pass the examination but they do not know the real spirit of
poetry. There is also another problem that mostly the writer oriented approach is used to teach
poetry, there is utmost need that students should be taught poetry by using poetry oriented
approach .They should be made to learn the scientific analysis of poems also. As a course
offered in M.A TEFL is to analyze stylistically poems of Pakistani poets. In MA English also
there is a need of doing applied linguistics on any poem. It is, therefore, disheartening that the
performance of students has been very poor. This has been attributed to the poor teaching of
stylistics through poetry which is an important fever of literature. The researcher is going to
find out the solution of poor performance in stylistics analysis with the use of various strategies
which may be very effective for teaching stylistic analysis through poetry. The study will also
examine the effects of stylistics tools on student’s achievement in poetic literature.
2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
To enable the students of graduation to analyze poetry stylistically and to enable the them in
exploiting poems through particular stylistic tools.
We hope that the findings of this study would lead us to find out effective strategies for
using stylistics tools in teaching poetry. It is also hoped that study will improve student`s
achievements and make poetry a pleasant pursuit. It is also possible that result of this research
could be a use to curriculum designers and textbook writers. It is also expected that the final
project may give certain advantages to the students who need some additional information about
better understanding of the stylistic tools used in poetry.
http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 410 editor@iaeme.com
An Analysis of Using Stylistic Tools in Teaching Poetry at Graduate Level
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
A question prior to ‘What is good teaching?’ is ‘What is teaching?’ What, indeed. As teachers
we may find this bald question strangely difficult to answer. It is just what we do, in lectures,
classes, seminars, workshops, tutorials, by telephone, in teaching texts, websites, online. We
study literary texts and movements, theoretical and critical works, performances and so forth,
and analyze and discuss them with our students; we try to help our students become better at
expressing their ideas and feelings verbally, in writing, creatively; we mark and assess their
work. But, whatever we might reply, we are unlikely these days to say simply, Well, ‘we tell
them what we know’. And this is in large part owing to an extraordinarily popular and pervasive
force in higher education known as the ‘Student Learning’ movement. Indeed, so successfully
has attention been shifted from teachers/teaching to learners/learning in recent times, at least in
Britain and Australia, that it is almost shocking to see the question ‘What is teaching?’ asked at
all. In so far as the movement has helped us think of teaching as a means to an end rather than
an end in itself the effect has been salutary, for teaching is, of course, a means to an end – a
complex of activities, strategies, mechanisms, invitations, stimuli and rhetorical ploys designed
to help students learn and to become better learners.
On this view of things, the teachers’ job is of course mainly to foster a deep-level approach
to study among their students, and to encourage the students to reflect on the ways in which
they study and learn. This the teacher can do by devising appropriate study activities and,
especially, assessment tasks, for students adopt an approach determined by their expectations
of what is required of them.
Lots of profound researches done earlier consolidated the hypothesis of the present study.
According to Maley and Duff (1989), “Poetry offers a rich resource for language learning. A
poem offers a readymade semantic field for learners to enter”. Benton, M., & Fox, G. (1987)
affirmed “the main objective of using poetry in language lessons is to find a means of involving
the learners in using their language skills in an active and creative way and thus to contribute
to the development of their communicative competence”. Moore, (2002) was of the view that
in-depth reading and close analysis of text in pairs or other small groupings can make poetry an
integral part of the English classroom. “As with other poetic forms, pattern poems can promote
a number of positive learning functions” (Holmes & Moulton, 2001). Rebecca Scudder, (2012)
an ESL teacher recommended using poetry with “predictable language patterns, repeated
words, phrases, lines, and identifiable rhymes” so that they are easier for students to read.
McCarthy, Carol (2009) offered “a number of ideas for guiding students in their exploration of
poetry from their own cultures”. According to Hughes, (2007), “poetry offers wonderful
opportunities for reading, writing, speaking, and listening practice for EFLs”. Poetry also gives
students a chance to expand vocabulary knowledge, to play with language, and to work with
different rhythms. Stylistics in the early twenty-first century is very much alive and well. Upon
the exploration of texts (may it be literary or non-literary) by the utilization of stylistics, this
method of inquiry has an important reflexive capacity insofar as it can shed light on the very
language system it derives from; it tells us about the ‘rules’ of language because it often
explores texts where these rules are bent, distended or stretched to breaking point. Interest in
language is always at the fore in contemporary stylistic analysis which is why you should never
undertake to do stylistics unless you are interested in language”. Carter (1996: 5) argues on the
relevance of stylistics for literature teaching stating that stylistic analysis helps to foster
interpretative skills and to encourage reading between the lines. He further posits the advantages
of stylistics stating that “stylistics provides students with a method of scrutinizing texts, ‘a way
in’ to a text, opening up starting points for fuller interpretation. The method is detailed and
explicit, it shows how you reach or begin to reach an interpretation. From a teaching point of
view, students learn to open a text not only by osmosis but explicitly and consciously. A
http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 411 editor@iaeme.com
Abdul Majeed Rana
pedagogically sensitive stylistics can give students increased confidence in reading and
interpretation”. Carter`s (1996) emphasis on how stylistics can be a useful tool in the literature
class is of paramount importance since literature study has generally caused a feeling of
apprehensiveness in the pedagogy of teaching English as a foreign or second language. EFL
context is no exception in this sense. In a very detailed survey regarding literature teaching in
the EFL context, Akyel and Yalçin (1990) posit that the lack of pedagogical approaches that
target development of language competence and awareness seems to be a prevailing fact. The
aforementioned “apprehensiveness” is even more ascendant when it comes to analysis of
poetry. In another study, Akyel (1995) argues that although poems have a lot to offer to EFL
students, “because of the ‘unusual’ features of poetic language, teachers either do not seem to
be much interested in using poetry in the classroom, or they cannot communicate their
enthusiasm to their students”. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s notion about poetry as something
like ‘the best words in the best order’ substantiates the point that poetry can give a strong feel
about language. The aforesaid views of researchers discarded traditional method of teaching
poetry but substantiated the idea of introducing stylistics based approach for teaching poetry in
ESL classroom.
Usually it is observed that the students of B.A learn only summaries and some questions
given in handbooks of poetry and pass the examination but they do not know the real spirit of
poetry. There is another problem also that mostly the writer oriented approach is used to teach
poetry, there is utmost need that students should be taught poetry by using poetry oriented
approach .They should be made to learn the scientific analysis of poems also .As one of the
courses offered in M.A TEFL is to analyze stylistically poems of Pakistani poets. In MAEnglish
also there is a need of doing applied linguistics on any poem. It is, therefore, disheartening that
the performance of students has been very poor. This has been attributed to the poor teaching
of stylistics through poetry which is an important fever of literature. The researcher is going to
find out the solution of poor performance in stylistics analysis with the use of various strategies
which may be very effective for teaching stylistic analysis through poetry. The study will also
examine the effects of stylistics tools on student’s achievement in poetic literature.
4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research is designed both on qualitative and quantitative methods. The research is
conducted by using experimental research design. The researcher tried to get the results from
his research that was conducted at Government collage for women Qila Didar Singh,
Gujranwala. The researcher observed that being an Urdu medium institution no special effort
was being made to teach poetry to the students of graduation level by the teachers. Traditional
method of teaching i.e. Summary Method and answer question method were being used in most
of the government institutions and this college is expected to be following this method of
teaching. The focus of the teacher is to teach students by using stylistic tools in teaching poetry.
The collection of data was a vital part of the research and for which different means of data
collection were selected.
Research design is experimental. As research instruments pretest is taken and after the
special treatment by using stylistics tools to the experimental group a post test is taken.
“A New Anthology of English Verses” for graduate level prescribed by Punjab University
Lahore. For two weeks the experimental group will be taught stylistically.
This study is delimited in the two following ways.
Here only the 10 stylistics devices are taken into consideration.
Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Rhythm, Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, Climax,
Hyperbole and Irony
ii. Only the following five poems are exploited for teaching stylistic devices:
http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJM 412 editor@iaeme.com
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