A Study on the Characteristics of Focus on Form with English Poetry : From the Viewpoint of the Traits of Poetic Communication

Abstract

Literary texts have been in the spotlight as a tool for focus on form. Focus on form, however, is originally expected to occur in ordinary communication. Thus, the use of literary texts for focus on form may bring some differences. Whilst previous studies have discussed the common aspects between focus on form and reading literary texts, they have not paid attention to the differences between them. In this study I focus on English poetry and poetic communication, which surrounds English poetry, and discuss what traits they bring to focus on form. In the end I point out four aspects which focus on form with English poetry is expected to show: (1) learners work on various parts of the text simultaneously and as a result their reading speed becomes slow; (2) learners pay attention to the linguistic form of marked linguistic expressions; (3) the mapping of meaning onto linguistic form involves weak implicature and marked linguistic form; (4) learners' comprehension process should be encouraged to stop as a result of their paying attention to linguistic form.