“The Road Not Taken”: poetry and personal insight in the EFL classroom and beyond

2016

Masteroppgave i engelsk- Universitetet i Agder, 2016 This qualitative study examines how Norwegian tenth graders show personal insight through the reading of the poem “The Road Not Taken”. The research is based on the responses from two English classes in a lower secondary school in Kristiansand, and the empirical material includes 39 responses. The data are analysed using literary terms from reader-response theory. Values and expressions embedded in Norwegian curricula are also discussed in relation to the data. My findings reveal that the adolescents perceive the poem in a fairly coherent way, while at the same time many of the respondents have doubts regarding the accuracy of their own p…