57

Hasan Ali Yücel Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi

Sayı 2 (2004),57-67

•CONNECTING NLP AND P O E T R Y WRITING IN T H E L A N G U A G E

CLASS'
Dilek İnan, Evrim Üstünlüoğlu (*)

ABSTRACT
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is one of the humanistic
and psycho-suggestive approaches which focuses on subjective
experience and internal representation of the world through our sens­
es. NLP helps us train, speak and act in new and positive ways. NLP
gives us the opportunity to explore the inner, virtual world in each of
us.

We acquire a foreign language by using our five senses.

Therefore, NLP is most beneficial in language learning. The main pur­
pose of this paper is to introduce a number of ideas/examples to
enable students to develop writing skills via writing descriptive poetry.
By Using NLP technique English language teachers:

1 - will enable students to become aware of and be prepared to

articulate the qualities of their own writing in English,

2- will enable students to produce limited examples of high

quality work to meet specific challenges,

3- will enable students to gain critical insights into the process­

es of literary production.

The students of English will gain an appreciation of the power

and practice of imagination in literary creation through creative writing
workshops using NLP. Additionally, the students will recognise the
multi-faceted nature of writing in English, and of its complex relation­
ship to other disciplines and forms of knowledge.

NLP is sometimes accused of being manipulative. For when

you use NLP, you are bound to ask students various, and sometimes
restricting, manipulating questions to give them the space, time and
opportunity to look for/produce meaning in the target language
through a perception within the limits of their experiences. But don't
worry, CONSTRICTION LIBERATES.

(*)Balıkesir Üniversitesi Necatibey Eğitim Fakültesi

58 Dilek İnan, Evrim Üstimlüoğlu

'Since Feeling is First"

Since feeling is first

who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you,

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady I swear by all flowers. Don't cry
_ the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids flutter which says

we are for each other: then

laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death I think is no parenthesis

E. E. Cummings
(1894-1962)

Many language teachers have sought new and better ways to facili­
tate and accelerate language learning for years. Since the 1960s, main­
stream approaches have been characterized in some of the literature as
being Audiolingual which became dominant in the United States during the
1940's, 1950's and 1960's and focused on linguistics and behavioural psy­
chology, Cognitive which emerged as rule acquisition and deductive - induc­
tive grammar teaching and learning and an Eclectic combination of these.
In recent years, new pathways to learning have been explored and
remarkably innovative ways of fostering language learning have emerged.
Within this great variety of ideas, most but not all fit well into the mainstream
of long established and conventional approaches. It can be argued that
"innovative approaches" emerged as a reaction to conventional assump­
tions about the structure of language, its process in the brain, its usage in
communication and also about the most effective course objectives, course
content and so on. Among them are comprehension-based approaches
which focus on establishing receptive skills first listening comprehension in
Connecting NLP And Poetry Writing 59

particular (Total Physical Response, The Natural Approach), production-

based approaches which encourage learners to attempt verbal communi-
cation in particular (Silent way, Outreach learning) and humanistic and psy-
cho-suggestive approaches (Suggestopedia, Problem solving approaches)
(Murcia, 1991, p:30-32).
Humanistic and psycho-suggestive approaches dealt with not only
with learner-external dimensions of the teaching environment but also with
learner-internal dimensions (as a receiver and processor of input). These
approaches claim that if language teachers keep the lessons pleasant,
enjoyable, non threatening, and give encouragement, smile, learners may
be able to process more input as intake and access more intake as output
(Murcia, 1991).
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is one of these humanistic and
psycho-suggestive approaches being used recently in language teaching.
What is NLP?
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), developed by a Professor of
Linguistics, John Grinder, and Mathematician, Richard Bandler in the 1970s,
is an attitude to life and it is a collection of techniques, models and strate-
gies to facilitate personal growth and learning. Neuro-Linguistic
Programming can also be shortly defined as follows:
Neuro; is related with the nervous system and the way in which we
experience and internally represent the world through our senses.
Linguistic; is related with how the language we use influences our
internal communication with ourselves as well as our external communica-
tion with other people; in other words, language shapes and reflects our
experience, that is, if we change the way we speak, we can change our
behaviour.
Programming; is related with our ability to change unhelpful habits
and limiting beliefs and replace them with more effective behaviour and sup-
portive beliefs. That is, we can train ourselves to think, speak and act in new
and positive ways, (http://www.tefifarm.com/teachers/reviews/winners/in-
your-hands.htm)
Neuroscients have found that our brains, in addition to taking in infor-
mation from the outside through our senses, make internal models of exter-
nal experience so that we can perform operations and look at results inter-
nally. In other words, our mind is like a video recorder having the capability
of deleting, distorting, and generalizing information. NLP deals with figuring
out how neural structures are formed and changed and how people can
learn to control the structuring of their own experience for the benefit of
themselves and others (Murpey, 1996).
NLP also explains the science behind the teaching tools of acceler-
ated learning using brain to learn faster, to motivate yourself, enjoy daily life
and to achieve goals easier
60 Dilek İnan, Evrim Üstünlüoğlu

(http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/braingym.htm)
The assertions of this approach are;
- firstly know what you want, have a clear idea of your goal in each sit­
uation.
- secondly, be alert and keep your senses open to know what you are
getting.
- thirdly, be flexible and change your behaviour until you get what you
want (http://www.xtec.es/~jmaguire/nlp)
NLP is used in many disciplines such as counselling, health, care,
sports, and personal development. In this study, the impact of NLP on edu­
cation and namely language teaching will be described.
NLP in Education
NLP in education tells us about how we think and learn. It shows how
to explore the structure of our own subjective experience, that is, how we
construct our view of the world, submerging into the inner, virtual world in
each of us. Using NLP techniques may enable students to discover their
own inner learning process. Discovering their rich internal software, feel­
ings, sounds, images they learn, how to control the way they think, shortly
they learn how to learn by being aware of themselves.
Classroom, undoubtedly, is a place where various variables meet.
We, as teachers, are one of these variables because we are unique in our
classes with different students with our communication style -voice tone,
posture, eye movements, gestures, breathing, choice of words. At least
learning to recognise these in ourselves and in others, that is awareness,
helps us to choose appropriate behaviour and to avoid being locked into
arguments. It gives us flexibility in how we handle the classroom and
respond to whatever might emerge in the course of our teaching day.
NLP IN LANGUAGE TEACHING
The influence of language on our lives and achievements is central to
NLP and it can be therefore easily adopted to the teaching environment.
Indeed, some NLP techniques such as using stories and guided fantasies to
affect the non-conscious mind are already familiar elements in many lan­
guage courses.
NLP claims that the sensory channels (ears, eyes, hands) are relat­
ed to different learning systems. As education is a multi-sensory experience
it should feed all learning preferences taking all learning styles into consid­
eration. One should remember that slow learners are just, in fact, different
learners and that they find the current (teaching system difficult for them­
selves. Therefore, teaching language requires the use of all representative
systems motivating different learning styles.
Visual learners receive information and learn better when they can
read or see the information. Auditory learners learn better when the informa-
Connecting NLP And Poetry Writing 61

tion primarily comes through the ears while the kinaesthetic learners learn
best through physical involvement. These 3 learning styles show different
reactions to environment. Visual learners need attractive surroundings and
are easily distracted by visual disorders. Auditory learners need continual
auditory stimuli even when it is silent they make their own whistling, singing,
and humming. Kinaesthetic ones need space to move. Even their eye move-
ments show characteristics. Visual learners tend to look up towards the ceil-
ing when thinking. They need eye contact with the speaker when listening.
Auditory learners tend to look left and right in the direction of their ears with
only brief eye contact with the speaker while kinaesthetic ones tend to look
down and away, with little eye contact (http://www.lsci.com.ar/novedad.htm).
Some learners prefer using one sensory channel over the others,
while some prefer using a mixture of all three channels. Students with
greater learning style flexibility are also greater achievers as they are able
to process information in whatever way it is presented. No matter what your
preferred sense is, language educators believe that the best learning envi-
ronment is the one in which ail the senses are involved. So, if we base our
teaching environment on these learning styles making the students aware of
their own feelings we can achieve more fun and attractive lessons.
In addition to learning styles, psychology of learning is also essential
for satisfactory learning. No matter how prepared you are for your teaching,
no matter what teaching methodology you use, the most important question
is how prepared your student is for learning, that is, the psychology of learn-
ing. To create the psychology of learning is one of the most important tasks
1
of a teacher. NLP has a vision that everybody can learn (O Connor &
McDermott).
NLP helps the student be aware of his feelings, his thoughts, consid-
ering students having different learning styles such as auditory, kinaesthet-
ic, visual as well as preparing them for learning.
In this study, developing writing skill through NLP has been taken as
an example. However, one should never forget that the other skills can be
taught through NLP as well, depending on teacher's creativity, eagerness,
flexibility. J>
Creative Writing as a Teaching Strategy
So far-we have argued that the main objective of using NLP in teach-
ing is to make the students be aware of their learning styles by using their
sensory channels. Language learning, indeed, should involve all three learn-
ing styles. NLP technique is most beneficial in creative writing especially in
poetry, as NLP and descriptive poetry both explore personal, inner worlds
through sensory channels.
Poetry is made of words and writing poetry is something rather per-
sonal and it requires sensitivity to sound, images, emotions. Both the stu-
dents and the teachers have the opportunity to review what has been
62 Dilek inan, Evrim Üstünlüoğlu

[earned in terms of grammar and vocabulary. Creative writing and especial­

ly writing poetry through NLP in English is quite pragmatic for the teacher to
analyse what she has taught so far. The teacher has the opportunity to jus­
tify, enforce and make a closer survey of what has been learned. And it is
quite enjoyable and fun for the students as writing poetry is a simple, pas­
sionate activity. The students have the chance to express their emotions
directly and simply, they have the opportunity to discover their inner worlds
and create their inner dream-worlds. Creative writing through NLP in the lan­
guage class is useful especially in producing descriptive poems by thinking
and writing in the target language as the students will pay the greatest atten­
tion in choosing the most appropriate words and expressions. The students
will go through a constipation process and as an old saying says
'Constipation in small dogs is a sign of good health'.
Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of feelings and by writing poetry
through NLP students will be able to express their feelings with a spontane­
ity of response. NLP offers a chance of knowing oneself, therefore writing
poetry through NLP gives the chance of knowing oneself as the tone and the
mood of the poem actually reflect its author's.
Much can be gained from creative writing using NLP if we think of it
as a practical resource in the EFL teacher's tool kit. The writing of short,
descriptive pieces can have a beneficial effect on the use of nouns, verbs,
adjectives and adverbs in students' writing. Furthermore, if the method is
applied regularly and often, students will become quite skilled in the produc­
tion of short, but evocative, pieces of written English.
The making of a descriptive poem through our senses resembles to a
sausage machine, we want the students to work with the words to create a
poem from their simple descriptions. But first, the words themselves must be
"spiced up." Another resemblance between writing poetry and a sausage
machine is that poetry is like condensed soup or undiluted fruit cordial.
Descriptive poetry is a "condensed language"; it is so concentrated and
intense that it needs our own interpretations to "dilute" the language and
make it intelligible.
First steps
First we introduce the students the writing of these pieces as a class
activity with the teacher in control. Then we choose an interesting subject,
or a descriptive scene, and write it on the board: such as funfair at night; a
storm in the desert; a family barbecue in the woods; a busy marketplace; a
birthday party; a trip to the zoo; a circus performance; a day at the races,
etc. Then we divide the board into three equal columns, headed as follows:
HEAR SMELL SEE
We are now going to encourage responses from students. A favourite
subject might be " a family barbecue in the woods'. We need, first of all, to
list the various sense impressions that can be recorded under the three
headings. These will be fairly obvious: Under HEAR we'll get the sounds of
Connecting NLP And Poetry Writing 63

birds, sound of burning wood, perhaps sound of music, the children's laugh-
ter. From SMELL we'll get the smell of woodsmoke, scent of meat and veg-
etables being barbecued, the odour of nature: trees and flowers, we will feel
the warmth of sun on our backs. SEE has the most to offer with the bright
colours of nature, the colourful leaves and flowers, the blue sky.
In their first attempts at creating something out of "A Family Barbecue
in the Woods', we suggest that the students be restricted to writing a poem
that is only nine lines in length (three lines each from HEAR, SMELL, and
SEE). During the first lesson, the items under each should be brief and
should be restricted to nouns. The teacher then asks the class for adjectives
to describe these nouns.
For example, under HEAR, someone may have given you 'birds'. You
ask the students what these birds sound like? Are they quiet on the trees, or
flying up in the sky? You will get words like fluttering, twittering, chirping,
singing.
When you have enough adjectives for a given noun, you ask the class
to help you make a descriptive phrase to go on the board in place of the sin-
gle word, instead of just birds, we might now get: fluttering, twittering, chirp-
ing, singing birds.
In this first session, the teacher is very much in control. S/he helps the
students build up these phrases until the board is full. In the next part, stu-
dents must individually choose their own favourites from the ones on display,
and arrange them in any order they like. You can suggest, for example, that
there's no need to have three HEAR phrases, followed by three from SMELL
and three from SEE; the nine lines may be in random order. Once a given
time has passed, you then get students to read out their examples to the
whole class.
Development
On a purely practical level, it's a good idea to limit the number of
words they can put in one line (no more than twelve, for example). This pre-
vents the length and complexity of a line or a phrase. But there is no need
to restrict the students with concepts like rhyme and rhythm and it is up to
the teacher and the level of students to introduce figurative language such
as similes, metaphors, onomotopea, or different styles, moods, genres and
techniques. This will depend largely on the class and how much time you
wish to devote to this kind of work.

Conclusion
What you make out of writing descriptive poems using NLP, is largely
up to you. Some teachers may find it's a useful addition to their writing skill
courses. Others may wish to use it as an introduction to teaching literature
(particularly poetry) in the language class. One of the best ways of under-
standing how poets work is to try and produce a poem of your own. But as
64 Dilek İnan, Evrim Üstünlüoğlu

a gentle introduction to structured creative writing it can be very rewarding,

while on the syntax level, it has proved useful practising word order in sen­
tences, particularly if you get students to use adverbs as well as adjectives
in their poems.
Here are some simple techniques or rather styles for writing descrip­
tive poems using NLP in the language classes.
1- INSTRUCTIONS FOR DIAMOND-SHAPED POEMS
Students work individually - in pairs - small groups of 3-5.
Students and the instructor choose a topic or a starter word and write
a sausage poem together.
Students write their own poems completely "from scratch" or with
starter words suggested by the instructor.
Description: Diamond-shaped poems with 5 lines. Incorporates oral,
reading and writing skills.
TASKS
a) Identify the structure / form of the poem (what are the parts of
speech in each line); and,
b) Report orally and informally to the rest of the class on the feeling /
tone of the poem.
Students can use dictionaries, as necessary, to figure out unfamiliar
words.
Education
written collaboratively by Evrim and Dilek
Education
Necessary, lifelong
Training, challenging, improving
A journey that leads us to the target
Discipline

TEMPLATE
Title of Poem
Author's Name

Line 1: Education = 1 NOUN-A

Line 2: Necessary, lifelong = 2 related ADJECTIVES
Line 3: Training, challenging, progressing = 3 descriptive GERUNDS
(verb + -ing)
Line 4: A journey that leads us to the target = 1 complete, related
Connecting NLP And Poetry Writing 65

SENTENCE
Line 5: Discipline = 1 NOUN-B (a synonym of NOUN-A)

Students' observations regarding synonyms, parts of speech on each

line, emotional tone, etc. are also discussed / outlined clearly.

Similarly you may want to make use of diamond-shaped poems with

7 lines. The instructions are the same. This time you may want to go a step
further and ask the students to find a relationship between the first and last
lines. Students can use dictionaries, as necessary, to figure out unfamiliar
words.
Woman
Written collaboratively by Evrim & Dilek

Line 1: Woman = 1 NOUN-A

Line 2: Young, inexperienced = 2 ADJECTIVES-A
Line 3: Loving, producing, protecting. = 3 GERUNDS-A (verb + -ing)
Line 4: Man, money, kitchen, children = 2 NOUNS-A + 2 NOUNS-B
Line 5: Marrying, cooking, cleaning = 3 GERUNDS-B (verb + -ing)
Line 6: Tired, old = 2 ADJECTIVES-B
Line 7: Grandmother = 1 NOUN-B

TEMPLATE

Title of Poem
Author's Name

Make up your own examples, using simpler or more complex vocab-

ulary/topics, to
tailor this activity to your particular students' level.

2- FREE ASSOCIATION
Free association is a product of stream-of- consciousness technique,
it is a blur-of-writing. Tell your students to write as fast and as much as pos-
sible. The writing can be very "sloppy".
66 Dilek inan, Evrim Üsti'miüoğhı

Give your students an abstract noun/word such as SORROW. Tell

them to close their eyes and explore their feelings and jot down answers for
questions as such:
What colour would it be?
What shape would it be?
What things would it be?
What noise would it make?
How would it touch like?
How would it taste like?
What drink/food would it be?
What would it smell like?

Poetry means paying attention to your senses and exploring how your
sensory channels perceive the world you live in. Alternatively, you may bring
a basket of apples, give each student an apple, let them touch it, smell it,
feel it before they eat it. Let them think about the apple. Remind them that
the apple has gone through the hands of the picker, the packer, the unpack¬
er and the shopper. Tell them to jot down any words that come to their minds
non-stoppingly. Let them realise how ideas become poetry. So apple is the
poem. I'm the picker. I'm the packer. I'm the unpacker. Here, you've made
your students use their five senses in order to draw their attention to create
a perception.

3 - PERSONA POEMS
Description: A structured 8-line poem, biographical in nature.
Sample Analysis of a Persona-Poem

Line 1: Evrim = first name/nickname of the person in the poem

Line 2: outgoing, energetic, optimistic, intelligent = 4 adjectives which
describe the person
Line 3: friend of mine = X of Y formula, describing an important rela­
tionship to the person
Line 4: who loves music, books and ELT = 3 things s/he loves
Line 5: who is afraid of Nevin, spiders and heights = 3 things that
scare her/him
Line 6: who wants to see Latin America, the end of poverty and sum­
mer = 3 things s/he wants to see
Line 7: resident of this moment = resident of...+ place/time/concept
Line 8: Ustunluoglu. = last name of the person in the poem

TEMPLATE

Qustify right, centre or left for different effects)

Title of Poem
Connecting NLPAnd Poetry Writing 67

Author's Name

(first name/s)

of
who loves and
who is afraid of and _
who wants to see and
resident of
. (last name)

REFERENCES
Daniels, B. and D. Daniels. 1991. Fundamentals of English grammar.
Harper- Collins.
Edge, J. 1993. Essentials of English language teaching. New York:
Longman.
Edge, J. and K. Richards, 1993. Teachers develop, teachers research.
Heinemann.
Murcia. M.C. (1991). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.
Heinle Publishers. Boston.
Murphey, T. (1996). Teacher Talking to Teacher: Newsletter Of the Japanese
Association For Language Teaching. Teacher Education s16. Vol.4,
No 2, June 1996. P. 18-19
O'Connor. J; Mcdermott. I. (2001). NLP'nin İlkeleri. Sistem Yayıncılık.
Ankara.
http://www.teflfarm.com/teachers/reviews/winners/in-your-hands.htm
http://esi.about.com/library/lessons/braingym.htm
http://www.xtec.es/-jmaguire/nlp
http://www.lsci.com.ar/novedad.htm