From Reading Nonsensical Jabberwocky to Proposing Topics for English Pedagogy

Abstract

Portrayed as a monster and villain, narrated in seven stanzas in an iambic tetrameter metrics, Jabberwocky is a phenomenal poem. This poem, loaded with “esoteric” and nonce words, was mostly researched in the realms of translation and psycholinguistics, leading to a dearth of studies in L2 pedagogy. The posed question was “What are some latent themes or topics for ELT material development that can be revealed from the discernibly nonsensical language of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky poem?” Descriptive phenomenological design suited this study’s purpose to delineate emic language pedagogical aspects of this poem. Thematic analysis was employed by performing a 6-step framework. This current study has yielded three main themes that propose Jabberwocky poem as an alternative source of English material development. The latent themes circumnavigate around morphology, syntax, and phonology. Morphologically, L2 learners could delve further to the two-word-formation processes, namely: portmanteau and coinage. Syntactically, Jabberwocky poem can hone the skill in detecting parts of speech. Phonologically, the concept of phonaesthesia fosters sound interpretation. This study rounds off by thanking Lewis Carroll for sharp-wittedly writing Jabberwocky poem and proposing an alternative to material developers as well as English teachers and practitioners to incorporate this work of art into their instructions.