Haiku Poetry Writing for EFL Learners

Raudya Ivadah Gunawan

raudyagunawan@student.ub.ac.id

Abstract

Writing skill is considered as one of the most

important skill in our daily life. It works as a
bridge for communicating among people in
community. However, many people especially
EFL learners assume it as one of the most
difficult skill in language skills. This article
aims to highlight the benefits of haiku poetry
writing as media in improving students’
writing skills to be more easy and creative.

Key words: Creative writing, EFL learners,

Haiku poetry

INTRODUCTION

English is considered as the most significant in

public education among many foreign languages taught in
Indonesia. In other hand, EFL learners still deal with some
difficulties to master the skill because of common
difficulity of acquiring English. This is because English is
not a language that they use in real life. According to
(Ariyanti, 2016) that structural and grammartical terms
and also style are some differences between Bahasa and
English. In this point, English ability is only required
mainly in school or through public education.
 However, learning English is not easy because it
will take time and most importantly, it requires some
efforts for EFL learners. Despite, they have been learning
English at least six years in middle and high schools, they
still find it difficult to acquire it.

Writing skill is one of language skills which is often

ignored in so many cases. In fact, writing skill is one of the
most important skills to be developed and enhanced for
EFL learners. In other hand, writing skill is regarded one
of the most difficult aspects of language learning. EFL
learners should pay more attention and effort to the
writting skill in order to prepare them to cope with the
communicative demands of real life situations.
Undoubtedly, the purpose of improving writing skill is to
make EFL learners good at writting.

There are some methods in order to increase

students’ writing skills, such as haiku poetry. Haiku poetry
is one of the poetry works. Haiku poetry is originally from
Japanese poetry. (McDonald, 2015) explained that haiku is
so approachable because it is short and has the certain
form of 5/7/5 syllables, that what makes haiku is easy to
write than longer and freestyle ones. Furthermore, it is
easy to find a subject of haiku because the theme or the
subject of it is close to the real life, it is about nature and
seasons.

Considering some factors, Haiku poetry can be

used as an effective and efficient teaching media to teach
English, especially writing skill. It is expected to give an
idea for the teacher to teach writing skill in more creative
way using a literal work as a media, which can be applied
in teaching and learning English to EFL learners.
DESCRIPTION OF HAIKU POETRY
Haiku poetry is a brief and has fixed form of poetry
that was originally from Japan. It is one of Japanese poems.
After world war II, it became popular in the United States
because American people who were living in Japan during
the occupation became interested in Japanese culture and
art.

Haiku means “game verse”. It represents the

Japan’s culture and it is so much in common with other
forms of Japanese art. The main subject of a haiku is
nature because it plays a large rare in Japanese culture. It
has three lines with seventeen syllables, it is written in a
5/7/5 syllable. It consists of 3 lines. The first and last lines
of a haiku has 5 syllables and the middle line has 7
syllables. (McDonald,2015) stated that different with
many poems, haiku does not required to rhyme.
Furthermore, it makes them very easy to write because
the theme or the subject of it is close to the real life, it is
about nature and seasons.

CREATIVE WRITING
Creative writing allows people to express their
imagination, expression and ideas into the creativity.
Creative writing cannot be seperated from the term
“creativity”. (Dawson, 2005) indicated that creativity
means the ability to create something with the use of
imagination which is from original ideas. Offering some
innovative ideas which is coming from every individual, so
they can express themeselves in unique way.

Furthermore (Dawson, 2005) stated that in school

creative writing works as a media where every students
can express their personality freely, through verbal
enunciation of their individual. The most important thing
from creative writing is imagination, which can be seen in
poetry writing that allows the creativity by putting down
their own ideas, feelings, impression, thought and also in
their own words.

TEACHING PROCEDURES
To improve students’ writing skills, this study uses
creative writing or haiku writing (to be exact) as a media.
Haiku writing works as media which is expected to help
students to write a paragraph writing more easy and
creative.

Pre-activity

First, students are asked to write a haiku poetry based on

the given topics, such as nature, friendship, seasons, or
love.

Example of haiku (Adapted from familyfriends.com)

By Alisha L Mead

Falling over you, again

I am over you.
Then my eyes meet yours once more,
and I fall in love...

Whlist-activity

After that, students are asked to develop a paragraph

based on the haiku poetry that they have made created
based on the given topics.
Example of a paragraph which is developed from
haiku poetry

I used to love someone. I loved him so much till the

point that I couldn’t let him go. Yet, he betrayed me. I hurt
so bad. I tried to forget him, to forget our memories. I did
forget him. Untill one day, I met him again in the night of
homecoming. He was so perfect that night. He wore a suit
and it made him more perfect. I couln’t help but falling
into him again.

Post-activity

Students are asked to do peer checking after they have

done the whilst list activity. This activity offers each other
constructive feedback for improving their writing and
communicating skills.

There are 4 aspects that have to be considered in haiku

poetry work, namely: theme, sound, imagery and rhytm.

Score of students’ capabilities in creating their haiku

poetry.

Classification Scores

Very good 100-81

Good 80-61

Poor 60-41
Very poor 40-21
The range of the scores were 81-100. Very good (100-81)
when all of the four aspects of poems can be found in the
students’ poems. Good (80-61) when the four aspects of
poems but still have minor mistakes. Poor (41-60) given
to students’ poems which are still missing one or two of
the aspects. The last category is very poor (40-41) given
to the poems of missing the four aspects.

There are 5 aspects that have to be considered in writing

paragraph, namely content, organization, vocabulary,
structure, and punctuation. Each aspect calculated for 20
points. Since, there are five aspects to be considered, a
score of 100 will be given to all of the five achieved
aspects. The score range is as follows:

Score of students’ capabilities in creating their writing

paragraph.

Classification Scores

Very good 100-81

Good 80-61
Poor 60-41
Very poor 40-21

CONCLUSION

In teaching writing for EFL (English Foreign

Language) learners is not easy. EFL learners still deal with
some difficulties to master the skill because of common
difficulity of acquiring English, specifically for writing skill.
In order to improve students’ writing skills, a lecturer
should know what the students needs and which
techniques that works the best and encourages the
students to write more easy and creative. Haiku poetry as
a media has many beneficial impacts in improving
students’ writing skills. It encourages the students to give
an idea for the teacher to teach writing skill in more
creative because the theme or the subject of it is close to
the real life, it is about nature and seasons.

References

Ariyanti, A. (2016). Shaping Students’ Writing Skills. The

Study of Fundamental Aspects in Mastering
Academic Writing. Indonesian Journal of EFL and
Linguistics, 1(11), 2503–4197. Retrieved February
21, 2019 from http://park.itc.u-
tokyo.ac.jp/eigo/KJEE/002/023-044.pdf

McDonald, P (2015). A Journal of Haiku Research and

Scholarship. The Haiku Foundation, 1(1), 2378-
6566. Retrieved Maret 16, 2019 from
https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/juxta/juxta
1_1.pdf 21

Dawson, P. (20015). Creative Writing and the New

Humanities. USA: Routledge. Retrived Maret 16,
2019 from
https://personal.ua.es/jalvarez/texts/review-
dawson.pdff