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Students’ attitudes towards the use of poetry in second language classrooms

Ardeshir Danesh*, Servat Shirkhani**

* Faculty of Foreign Languages, Boroujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd, Iran.

** Faculty of Foreign Languages, Khorram Abad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khoram Abad, Iran.

Periodicity:April - June'2015
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.5.2.3406

Abstract

This study investigates learners' attitudes towards poetry in foreign language learning. 63 Engineering Students at Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch attended the study. The instrument used in the study was a questionnaire designed by the researchers for the purpose of this study. The questionnaire consisted of 12 questions regarding the subjects' attitudes towards poetry. The analysis of the data revealed that while the students are mostly interested in Persian poetry, only about one third are interested in English poetry. Therefore, their lack of interest in English poetry can be due to their problem in reading English poetry which has been confirmed by the analysis of their answers to a related item on the questionnaire. Based on the results of the study, the subjects do not strongly relate their inability in understanding English poetry to any of the reasons referred to in the questionnaire, i.e. containing a lot of new words, being based on a different culture, and not understanding Persian poetry. Despite their lack of interest and understanding in English poetry, a considerable percent of the students believe that English poetry helps the development of various aspects of the foreign language.

Keywords

Poetry, Language Teaching, Learner Attitudes, Literature

How to Cite this Article?

Danesh, A., and Shirkhani, S. (2015). Students’ attitudes towards the use of poetry in second language classrooms. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 5(2), 28-33. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.5.2.3406

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