“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.”Allen Ginsberg Poem doesn’t mean the same to everyone it reads and one can interpret the poem however they like. Reading poetry necessitates getting oneself deeply involved in identifying the significance of poetic words, visualizing the idea being described and evaluating how words and phrases combine to form a greater implication. Unlike other literary genre, poetry draws the attention of learners to the linguistic elements, sounds and its functioning. Poetry helps the learners to notice phonetic sounds of a foreign/second language. Recent studies suggest that poetry plays a crucial role in students’ language learning process as it helps to enhance their linguistic knowledge and literary interest. Learners’ ability to use symbol-sound relationship is a greater possibility of poetry according to academicians.
Since the text book allotted to students may not be sufficient for the learners to master poems of all genres, teachers most often find it difficult to enhance the poetic and literary skills of the students through conventional teaching methodologies. With the advent of digital language labs in foreign language learning, mastering communication skills become quite easy for the students.
The highly sophisticated digital Language labs available in industry today are extremely helpful for the learners to develop their language and literature aspiration through the collection of study materials including, poetry, fictions, novels, biographies, etc. Poetry learning empowers the learner with complex syntax and vocabulary, understand semantics, develop cultural awareness, expand the learners’ thirst for self-expression, promote multiculturalism and many more. A good poetry master in language lab comprises of the different types of poetry including sonnet, ode, epic, narrative, free verse etc.
The extensive use of technology and multimedia resources in digital language labs helps students to learn poetry strengthening language learning skills, especially their linguistic proficiency. By familiarizing the activities of poetry reading and writing in language labs, students can develop their expertise in language and communication to a greater extent.