Factors Affecting Foreign Language Learners’ Noticing in the Process of Reading English Poetry

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to empirically identify the noticing factors in EFL learners' processes of reading English poetry. Based on Schmidt's (1990) "noticing hypothesis", previous studies have demonstrated that noticing occurs when ESL and EFL learners read poetry. However, few studies have examined the factors that promote such noticing. Therefore, this study observed the factors that occurred when 25 Japanese EFL learners read an English poem. These factors were categorized according to the following stylistic concepts: foregrounding, deviation, parallelism, and subcategories of the latter two concepts. As a result of the categorization, five factors were identified: semantic, syntactic, and graphological deviations, as well as phonological and syntactic parallelisms. These linguistic expressions that cause deviations and parallelisms can serve as criteria for selecting poems as teaching materials to enhance noticing in EFL learners.