I am The Voice I want to Hear: The Identity and Meanings of EFL Poetry through Metaphors and Written Narratives

Abstract

The idea of poetry as the strongest and most powerful inner truth or voice of human beings should be more introduced in the EFL classroom. The use of metaphors and written narratives in poetry are effective in conveying identity and meaning. In poetry, metaphors and other figurative language are essential tools for expressing the voice within. However, it is rarely discussed in EFL studies. Therefore, this study focuses on exploring how identity and meanings of EFL poetry can be revealed through metaphors, other figurative language and written narratives. The method of this research is qualitative research, which uses poetry and written narrative inquiry as data collection method. The samples were 29 EFL learners gained from saturated sampling technique. The outlier data from the saturated data were chosen purposively to gain deeper understanding on how identity and meaning is constructed through metaphors and written narratives. This study took the personal and language-learning journeys of chosen data from two poets (all pseudonyms), Cath and Lia. The findings suggest that the poets with distinct voices, distinct narratives, and distinct ways of constructing meaning, showed their identity through their metaphors and written narratives. Self-acceptance is the process of negotiating with the oneself and with past trauma. In the context of EFL learning, metaphor and written narratives are used as tools to reveal a new identity in language learning, deeply rooted in the poetry of EFL learners.