Experimenting with the languaging approach in teaching poetry: Contribution to a special issue Working with Literature in Nordic Secondary Education

Abstract

This article aims to address the need for research on a collective response to poetry reading and the need for research on poetry pedagogy. Our goal is to develop a teaching method called: the languaging approach. Languaging is understood as a socio-culturally applied and embedded practice that has the potential to improve students’ metacognitive understanding. The article examines the differences between dialogue-based student discussions and teacher-led conversation and whether the languaging approach and collaborative dialogue can offer new teaching approaches for literature education. The context of our study is Finnish teacher education. The data were collected during a teaching experiment that was conducted as a part of student teachers’ pedagogical studies. The data were collected from two groups of 13-year-old students (n = 31) during their L1 lessons. The structures of the lessons differed from each other: A) the teacher led the discussion, or B) a languaging approach was used in a group discussion. Eighty minutes of video data were analysed using a directed content analysis. The study revealed that several students who were encouraged for languaging were able to describe their thoughts to each other and build meaningful analytical discussions together. The languaging approach encouraged students to communicate their own thinking processes and present argumented representations of poems, but also express their hesitations and doubts about their readings. With the languaging approach, students’ various orientations to interpret the poem were made visible. Student’s discussions also give an insight that facility with terminology can help students describe their thoughts more accurately.