Denaturalising Language Standardization: The Poetry of John Agard
Abstract
This study discusses the use of poetry in language teaching by focusing on John Agard’s poems. The paper analyzes John Agard’s poems to enact resistant plurilingual pedagogies suggested by Flores (2013) across language classrooms. In this analysis, the study discusses that Agard’s poetry reacts to the emphasis on the standardized English used in those countries where English is spoken as the first language. Agard refuses to speak and write in a traditional structure of the English language, and his poems lay bare how the immigrants are marginalized and depicted as insufficient in terms of using proper English. Having experienced racism and discrimination in linguistic and social contexts, Agard deconstructs neoliberal and particularly Eurocentric ideas about language and culture. Hence, this study shows how the use of unconventional English in Agard’s poetry is exemplified and paves the way for language learners to creatively use English without being restricted by standard English ideologies. Additionally, the study shows how Agard’s poems could be used to enact resistant plurilingual pedagogies.
Keywords
John Agard, resistant plurilingual pedagogy, Poetry Teaching
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