Page 21 - FINAL RESEARCH PAPER THESIS 2020

2.4 . Challenges experienced by student teachers in teaching poetry (i.e. limited
resources, lack of support, language barrier and time limitation )

Literature is one of the important things in the English Second Language classrooms. The
Killander (2011, p.18-19) describes four challenges in teaching and learning poetry in English as

a second language classrooms. For example, teachers and students should have extra thinking to

get the meaning of poems that they read, teachers and students get difficulty because of linguistic
aspects, some students feel bored in reading poetry because they cannot get the benefits from the

activity, teachers do not have the confidence to struggle, bare all or take such chances in teaching.
Teachers sometimes do not know the level of their students. They just give the material without

considering students’ level. Additionally, 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 then transform that understanding into meaningful creative expression by exploring and

distilling complex ideas”. It is difficult for students to know the meaning of poem because they
have to understand the basic concept of poem (Sugandi & Husnaini, 2015).

In addition, according to Widdowson (1980, in Brumfit & Carter, 1986, p.133) as cited by
Tevdovska (2016) in her study the issues regarding selecting and using poetry with foreign or

second language learners include the following: stimulating students’ interest in short lyrical

poems, is that they are so often so slight not to say inconsequential, in paraphrasable content. Prose,
fiction, drama, offer something substantial by way of characters and events: they tell a tale, which

survives in summary and in translation. Another difficulty is the abundance of literary and
historical references found in the works of great poets, which limit understanding greatly for both

native and non-native speakers.

The above discussed barriers or challenges by these different scholars or researchers are literally
the same as those faced by student teachers at UNAM main campus.

2.5 Solutions to overcome those challenges

There are some solutions to overcome those challenges. The solutions are teachers should create a

positive classroom to encourage their students and to improve learning process of literacy, teachers

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