Page 11 - FINAL RESEARCH PAPER THESIS 2020

Killander (2011, p.18-19) describes four challenges in teaching and learning English poetry in the

classrooms: Teachers and students should have extra thinking to get the meaning of the poems that
they read, they (teachers and students) get difficulty because of linguistic aspects, some learners

feel bored in reading poetry because they cannot get the benefits from that activity, teachers do not
have the confidence to struggle , bare all or take such chances in teaching. Student teachers also

face the challenges of finding and picking the right poems for a particular class (poems that will
speak to their emotions and philosophical concerns, poems that will both trouble and console

them). Additionaly, Cubukcu (2010, p.7886) explains that “poems pose a challenging cognitive

task. Readers must first have a basic understanding of a concept or emotion and than transform
that understanding into meaningful creative expressions by exproling and distilling complex

ideas.”This will be in comparison to our study which will only focus on student teachers who are

in training on how they perceive the challenges in teaching poetry in English Second Language.

Most of the studies that were consulted focused on literature in general. The study done by Simataa

and Mlambo (2017) who are national researchers on holistic approach in teaching literature as a
tool in nurturing learners. The study focused on all the genres of literature and not precisely looking

into one particular item poetry like this study will carry out. The researchers indicated that the
study emanates from a study that examined the views of ESL teachers on the impact of the study

of literature on Grade 11 and 12 learners’ academic writing in the Khomas region of Namibia. The

study was anchored on the learner centred approach which in turn falls under the umbrella of
communicative learning theory, an approach for language learning and teaching in Namibia. The

premise of this paper is to suggest ways in which literature can be effectively integrated in ESL
classrooms. The article suggests that literature should be taught in a holistic manner using an

integrated method that can prompt Namibian learners to think critically, thus reaping the full

benefits of their learning experiences in studying literature in an ESL classroom.

In Krishnamurthy’s study on literature and the teaching of stylistic (2012) she addresses in it that

the study combines both the study of Stylistics as a discipline, which is the pedagogy of Stylistics,
and the use of stylistics for teaching literature in general and poetry in particular. However, the

objectives of her study targeted a population of teachers already in the profession and learners. In

comparison to our study investigation which will only focus on student teachers who are in training
on the challenges they encounter in teaching poetry in English Second Language.

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