Language Acquisition via Spoken Word Poetry: An Innovative Tool for the World Language Pedagogy
Subject Area
Foreign Language Pedagogy
Abstract
Spoken word, through poetry slams and poetic open mic events, is gaining an increasing popularity on urban stages, and makes of poetry a living spectacle that fully engages those involved. Slam poetry in the world language classroom has the power to offer our students an innovative tool through which they put into practice all four language skills in the target language while expressing their thoughts, emotions and creativity. By creating and performing their own texts, students get personally involved into the language acquisition process and develop active agency over their learning. This presentation aims at conveying the power and benefits of spoken word in the acquisition and practice of world languages. It will describe the process of language practice through poetic writing and its performance, with concrete examples of texts and videos in Spanish and English. It will show how to focus on a specific grammatical structure, vocabulary building, and pronunciation, while guiding the students through the process of writing and staging their own poetic texts.
Brief Bio Note
Senior Lecturer and Language Program Coordinator at Bryn Mawr College. Her research embraces several facets of Spanish cultural studies, from humor literature to representation of Roma in literature and film. Her more recent project focuses on poetry slam and spoken word as a pedagogical tool to enhance the Spanish language curriculum.
Keywords
World languages, Pedagogy, Spoken word, Slam poetry, Creative writing, Performance
Presentation Year
October 2020
Start Date
10-22-2020 1:15 PM
End Date
10-22-2020 1:55 PM
Embargo
12-15-2019
Recommended Citation
Arribas, Ines, "Language Acquisition via Spoken Word Poetry: An Innovative Tool for the World Language Pedagogy" (2020). South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL). 5.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/seccll/2020/2020/5
Language Acquisition via Spoken Word Poetry: An Innovative Tool for the World Language Pedagogy
Spoken word, through poetry slams and poetic open mic events, is gaining an increasing popularity on urban stages, and makes of poetry a living spectacle that fully engages those involved. Slam poetry in the world language classroom has the power to offer our students an innovative tool through which they put into practice all four language skills in the target language while expressing their thoughts, emotions and creativity. By creating and performing their own texts, students get personally involved into the language acquisition process and develop active agency over their learning. This presentation aims at conveying the power and benefits of spoken word in the acquisition and practice of world languages. It will describe the process of language practice through poetic writing and its performance, with concrete examples of texts and videos in Spanish and English. It will show how to focus on a specific grammatical structure, vocabulary building, and pronunciation, while guiding the students through the process of writing and staging their own poetic texts.
