Academic
Summary of an Article
In this paper, the main ideas
expressed in the article by Atsushi Iida (2010) Developing Voice by Composing Haiku: A Social- Expressivist Approach
for Teaching Haiku Writing in EFL Contexts are summarized. The author describes
and explains a social approach within the wider Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) Method as a useful as well as
enriching means to lead EFL students towards the expression of their “inner
feelings” and the “development of voice and audience awareness” (Iida, 2010, p.28) while
developing their linguistic tools at the same time.
Iida (2010) starts his article by presenting poetry writing as a
social approach to language development and self-awareness. He points out that Haiku,
a type of Japanese poetry, can be used as a classroom writing activity to
foster students' construction of identity by expressing their own beliefs,
feelings and thoughts. Particular importance he seems to give to the role of
audience in the construction of this identity. This can be seen when he states
that “just developing voice is insufficient because without an audience there
is only one-way communication” (p.29). Contrary to that, when socializing, he
adds, students negotiate meaning and value systems. Additionally, he sustains
that this type of poetry possesses a structure that facilitates not only fluent
writing but also vocabulary acquisition (2010).
Iida (2010)
continues to describe the somehow flexible structure of a Haiku poem,
accompanied by an example to shed light on the “multiple interpretations” it
might trigger (p.30). He points out that it is precisely this multiplicity of
interpretations that allows for the reader's imagination and the writer's
freedom of expression, which makes of Haiku a “humanistic approach” to writing
(p.30)
Iida (2010) goes on to explain
why the relationship between the writer and the reader in Haiku is important
when teaching students how to write a poem of this type. He reinforces the fact
that students need to be aware of the presence of readers that will “judge the
quality of haiku” (Minagawa, 2007 as cited in Iida, 2010, p.30) and in order to develop “authentic
communication skills” (p.31). Towards the end of his article, he explains five
suggested steps to be followed by teachers to present and work with Haiku in
class and how the teacher can approach Haiku analysis to make of it an
effective tool in language teaching that actually goes beyond that.
At the end of his article, Iida (2010) concludes his
work making a summary of the main ideas developed in it. He also seems to
reinforce the benefits that this social approach to language teaching and
learning can have in university classrooms and the plenty of opportunities that
it opens towards self-discovery, inner exploration, culture awareness and
skills practice among others (2010).
References
Iida, A. (2010) Developing voice
by composing Haiku: a social-expressivist approach for teaching Haiku writing
in EFL contexts. English Teaching Forum. (Number 1), pp.28-34
Analysis
of In - Text Citations
All along his article, Iida (2010) makes
reference, directly or indirectly, to works of other writers following APA
(American Psychological Association) style. One example of the use of in-text
citations that he makes is the following sentence: “Bishop (1999, 17) also
describes the need for writers to gain ‛a deeper understanding of the
connections between thought, words, and life’ in order to explore the self” (p.
29). In this case, Iida is quoting Bishop directly, transcribing his words
textually.
In other instances, Iida (2010)
includes the work or study of other scholars by paraphrasing their ideas. This
can be seen in the following example: “Haiku entertains readers, and it is the
readers who judge the quality of Haiku” (Minagawa 2007, as cited in Iida, 2010,
p. 30).
Even though the author seems to make
a meaningful use of in-text citations to support his arguments, he does not
always follow APA style conventions to cite other studies or writers. His work does
include part of the necessary information such as the name of the authors cited
and the dates of publication of their works. However, he does not respect punctuation
conventions since the name of the author being cited is not followed by a comma
as established by APA styles.
References
Iida, A. (2010)
Developing voice by composing Haiku: a social-expressivist approach for
teaching Haiku writing in EFL contexts. English
Teaching Forum. (Number 1), pp. 28-34.
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