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

Dilde Standartlaşmanın Reddi: John Agard Şiiri Örneği

Abstract

Bu çalışma, John Agard'ın şiirlerine odaklanarak dil öğretimi sürecinde şiirin kullanımını tartışmaktadır. Çalışma, Flores (2013) tarafından önerilen eleştirel çok dillilik pedagojisinin bir uzantısı olarak John Agard şiirlerini incelemiştir. Bu incelemede, Agard'ın şiirlerinin, İngilizce’nin ana dil olarak konuşulduğu ülkeleri merkeze alan standart İngilizce kullanımı fikrine bir tepki olarak kabul edilebileceği öne sürülmüştür. Agard, İngiliz dilinin geleneksel yapısı içinde konuşmayı ve yazmayı reddetmekte ve şiirlerinde göçmenlerin doğru İngilizce kullanma konusunda yetersiz olarak algılanıp marjinalleştirildiklerini göstermektedir. Hem dilsel hem de sosyal bağlamlarda kendisi de ırkçılık ve ayrımcılığa maruz kalan Agard, dil ve kültürle ilgili neoliberal ve özellikle Avrupa merkezli fikirleri çözümlemekte ve eleştirmektedir. Dolayısıyla, bu çalışma, Agard'ın şiirlerinde, geleneksel olmayan İngilizce kullanımının nasıl örneklendiğini ortaya koymuş ve bu şiirlerin, İngilizce’yi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen öğrencilerin standart İngilizce ideolojileri ile kısıtlanmadan yaratıcı bir şekilde kullanabilmeleri için yeni fırsatların önünü açtığını göstermiştir. Aynı zamanda, bu şiirlerin kritik çok dillilik pedagojisinin temel unsurlarını gerçekleştirmede de yol gösterici olarak kullanılabileceği ortaya konmuştur.

Keywords

• John Agard
• kritik çok dillilik pedagojisi
• şiir öğretimi

References

1. Agard, J. (2006), ‘‘Listen Mr Oxford Don’’, Index on Censorship, 35 (2): 100-101.
2. Agard, J. (1990), Mangoes & Bullets: Selected and New Poems, 1972-84.
3. Agard, J. (2018), The Coming of the Little Green Man. Bloodaxebooks.
4. Carter, R. (1996), Look both ways before crossing: developments in the language and literature classroom. In Carter, R. & McRae, J. (Eds.), Language, literature and the learner: Creative classroom practice. (pp.1-15). Longman.
5. Clymer, E., Alghazo, S., Naimi, T., & Zidan, M. (2019), ‘‘CALL, Native-Speakerism/Culturism, and Neoliberalism.’’ Interchange, 1-29.
6. Claudine A. (2019), ‘‘Voix et silence dans les arts: passages, poïèsis et performativité’’, Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 41-53.
7. Collie, J., & Slater, S. (1987), ‘‘Literature in the language classroom: a resource book of ideas and activities.’’ Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8. Erkaya, O. R. (2005), ‘‘Benefits of using short stories in the EFL context.’’ Asian EFL Journal, 8: 38-49.

9. Finch, A. (2003), ‘‘Using poems to teach English.’’ English Language Teaching. 15(2): 29-45.
10. Flores, N. (2013), ‘‘The unexamined relationship between neoliberalism and plurilingualism: A cautionary tale.’’ Tesol Quarterly, 47(3): 500-520.
11. Foucault, M. (2008), The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978– 1979. New York, NY: Picador.
12. Ghosn, I. (2002), ‘‘Four good reasons to use literature in primary ELT’’, ELT Journal, 56(2): 172-179.
13. Gönen, S. İ. K. (2018), ‘‘Implementing poetry in the language class: a poetry-teaching framework for prospective English language teachers’’, Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 9(5): 28-42.
14. Güzel, N.S. (1999), ‘‘Teaching the language and the structures of literature through poems in EFL classes’’, In D. Köksal & İ. H. Erten (Eds.), Challenges for language teachers towards millennium. (pp. 110-116). Çanakkale: Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Uni.
15. Hadaway, N. L., Vardell, S. M. & Young, T. A. (2001), ‘‘Scaffolding oral language development through poetry for students learning English’’, The Reading Teacher, 54(8): 796-806.
16. Hertel, R. (2021), “John Agard.” A Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Poetry, 1960-2015. Eds. Wolfgang Görtschacher and David Malcolm. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 443-452.
17. Kathie B. (2019), ‘‘When Breath Becomes Subversive: The Performance Poetry of John Agard. Voix et silence dans les arts: passages, poïèsis et performativité’’, Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 41-53.
18. Kubota, R. (2016), ‘‘The multi/plural turn, postcolonial theory, and neoliberal multiculturalism: Complicities and implications for applied linguistics’’, Applied Linguistics, 37(4): 474-494.
19. Lazar, G. (1993), ‘‘Literature and language teaching’’, Cambridge Uni Press.
20. Marshall, S. & Moore, D. (2018), ‘‘Plurilingualism amid the panoply of lingualisms: addressing critiques and misconceptions in education’’, International Journal of Multilingualism, 15:1, 19-34.
21. McKay, S. (1982), ‘‘Literature in the ESL classroom’’, TESOL Quarterly, 16(4): 529-536.
22. McKay, S. L. (2003), ‘‘The cultural basis of teaching English as an international language’’, TESOL matters, 13(4): 1-4.
23. Oster, J. (1989), ‘‘Seeing with different eyes: Another view of literature in the ESL class’’, TESOL quarterly, 23(1): 85-103.
24. Savvidou, C. (2004), ‘‘An integraed approach to teaching literature in the EFL classroom’’, The Internet TESL Journal. X (2).
25. Perisic, A. (2021), ‘‘How to Get a Life: Humanities Education in the age of Neoliberal Exhaustion’’, Critical Education, 12(3). Rosa, J. D. (2016), ‘‘Standardization, racialization, languagelessness: Raciolinguistic ideologies across communicative contexts’’, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 26(2): 162-183.
26. Pendell, P., Saiful, S. H. N. A., & Andilolo, I. (2020), ‘‘Poetry reading pedagogy for English language learners: Overcoming cultural barriers’’, Journal of Nagoya Gakuin University; Language and Culture, 32(1): 15-28.