by Masimba Mukichi

Created on: October 21, 2009   Last Updated: October 23, 2009

A poet is a " commander in chief" of his words. He knows where to vary his voice, lower it or raise it. A poet should always pronounce words correctly to capture the attention of the audience. Poetry has a place in teaching pupils how to pronounce words correctly. I don,t want to leave this asssertion, poetry as an aid to pronunciation half baked. I need to explore it further and satisfy my argument that poetry is here to stay in aiding pronunciation.

Poetry is usually written in stanzas, as a way of aiding pronunciation the teacher may tell pupils to read each stanza aloud.By so doing the teacher will be aiming at improving pronunciation and voice projection. If pupils can read stanzas aloud the teacher can pick mistakes and henceforth corrret them. By telling pupils to read poetry aloud the teacher can decide in his lesson to take note on how children pause at punctuation marks. If children can read acccording to how the punctuation marks in the poems command them to to do- then hats off to the teacher's successful strategy of reading poetry observing punctuation marks as a means of fostering pronunciation.

Using gestures in speaking and in pronunciation of words is a tried and tested method in boosting confidence. The teacher in a poetry lesson aiming at promoting pronuciation ,may tell children to use gestures as they read certain words in the poem.E.xample , The sun is overhead. The teacher might want to emphasise the pronunciation of the word overheard. Children may be told to use gestures in pointing the position of the sun when it is overhead. It is proven that children learn more from what they do and see.Rote learning although it is now deemed old fashioned, I am of the opinion that it has a place in teaching pronunciation using poetry. The teacher will give a model of pronouncing words correctly in the chosen poem and children should follow after, in turns.

Writing poetry has its style such as employing rhyming words. In one of his/her pronunciation lesson the teacher might teach children how to pronounce rhyming words in the poem in use. There is also need of letting children write a dictation exercise as the teacher will be calling out words and sentences. The children should listen carefully, the manner in which the teacher will be pronouncing his words and sentences. After the children have writtern down the dictacted sentences and words they should read loudly, their written words and sentences in the manner in which the teacher was doing during the dictation exercise. By employing this method the teacher will be killing two birds with one stone- viz, pronunciation and spellings. Miming the words and learning the poem by heart can remarkably improve the pronunciation level of children as they later recite their poems in turns and in front of fellow pupils.

In conclusion I am of the opinion that if you want the child to eat fish for life you should not give him/her fish but teach him/her to fish correctly. Relating this to pronunciation, one may say if you want children to be good news readers and effective at pronouncing words correctly,teachers should leave no stone unturned in using poetry as tool of improving pronunciation.

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