Poetry Slam and Slam Poetry – useful in the teaching of German as a foreign language?

Abstract

So-called poetry slams regularly take place in almost every larger city, where amateurs and professionals engage in public poetry battles. The judgement of the audience decides on winners and losers, as competitiors strive to impress the crowd with their poetic skills. This relatively young expression of poetry which originated in the U.S., has already found its way into German schools and educational research. In the field of German as a foreign language, however, this is not the case. There is as yet no academic debate on the matter and only a few proposals on how to integrate poetry slams into classroom education. Yet slam poetry offers many possibilities to help improve all four language facilities. Contemporary topics, briefness, content variety and structural openness make it easy for every learner to engage with the text. Poetry slams offer discussions on colloquial speech and German culture through a range of topics. Creating their own poetry, learners strengthen their usage of the German language, as well as their expressive powers and vocabulary. Performing their texts also promotes oral skills. Lastly, participating in a poetry slam fosters listening skills. Given the mentioned benefits, it seems necessary to further explore poetry slams as a way to improve language skills in German as a foreign language.

Keywords: poetry slam, slam poetry, language facilities, methods on language learning, language teaching