Poetry Writing in EFL Classes

A classroom-based study of Korean university students' attitudes toward
poetry writing assignments in English academic writing classes

Rodney E. Tyson
American University of Sharjah, UAE

A paper presented at:
TESOL 2002: The 36th Annual International Convention and Exposition
Salt Lake City, UT - April 9-13, 2002.

End-of-semester Questionnaire:
Student Attitudes about Writing Poems (N=42)
[1 = strong disagreement; 5 = strong agreement]
Statement
 1
2
3
4
5
Mean
 Standard
Deviation
1. I enjoyed writing the poems.
0
1
13
20
8
3.83
0.762
2. Writing the poems helped me improve my English ability.
0
3
11
23
5
3.71
0.774
3. I enjoyed reading (or hearing) other students’ poems.
0
2
11
19
10
3.88
0.832
4. Reading (or hearing) other students’ poems helped me improve my English ability.
0
6
22
12
2
3.24
0.759
5. I enjoyed having other people read (or hear) my poems. 
0
6
20
14
2
3.29
0.774
6. I tried to write good poems because I knew other people (my professor and classmates) would read them. 
2
3
12
19
6
3.57
0.991
7. I enjoyed preparing my poetry portfolio (including the reflective essay).
0
2
18
14
8
3.67
0.846
8. Preparing my poetry portfolio (including the reflective essay) helped me improve my English ability. 
1
1
10
27
3
3.71
0.742
9. Writing the poems helped me to become more confident in using English. 
0
2
11
20
9
3.86
0.814
10. I learned to understand English poetry better through this class. 
0
2
5
19
16
4.17
0.814
11. I think it was a good experience to write English poems in this class. 
0
1
1
12
28
4.60
0.665
12. I recommend that you ask students to write English poems the next time you teach a class like this.
0
2
7
15
18
4.17
0.881

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