Writing poems with target vocabulary and its effect on retention.

"The limits of your language are the limits of your world."(Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922) says Austrian Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his famous quote. Likewise we can say that "The limits of your vocabulary are the limits of your language". Vocabulary knowledge truly is the most solid indicator which determines the horizons of a language learner's freedom in target language. The expansion of vocabulary, therefore, is no doubt essential but as important is the ability to retain these words in long term-memory. For long-term retention of newly learned vocabulary, practice is necessary. This study was designed to investigate the effects of practicing new vocabulary by writing poems using them. Inspiration for the study came from an applied linguist H.G. Widdowson, for him the ideal task for language learners is writing poems because writing poems is tolerant of errors. In addition, his overarching ideas on 'use' and 'usage' claim to free language classrooms from textbook language and use a language natural to competent speakers of the target language ,guided this study(Widdowson cited in Davies,2011). The study was conducted at Bursa Police College in the spring semester of the Academic year of 2012/2013. Students, with no pre-existing academic differences, were randomly assigned to two experimental and two control groups. All groups, for two periods a week and in the same manner, studied vocational English for police. In addition to classroom studies, experimental groups composed poems using the newly words and phrases they studied in the class. The treatment continued for five weeks, subjects were tested before the treatment, immediately after the treatment and six weeks after the treatment. The results revealed that all groups significantly increased their scores from pre-test to post-test, due to the classroom studies, but experimental groups performed slightly better proving the positive effect of the treatment on the gain of the words. Six weeks later the delayed post-test was applied and the results showed that there was a significant drop in the mean scores of control groups. Experimental groups clearly outperformed control groups in the delayed post-test thus proving the clear positive effect of the treatment on the retention of the target vocabulary. As a result the findings of this study may serve as guide for other teachers of English to incorporate the study and production of poetry into the classroom or afterschool. Key Words: 1.Writing Poems 2.Vocabulary Gain 3.Vocabulary Retention 4.Literature 5.Language Teaching