Investigating the Teaching of Poetry in EFL Context

Abstract

The present work aims at investigating the teaching of poetry in the EFL context and the main challenges faced by students in studying English poetry. Therefore, to reach our research aims, the requirement of our investigation is based on a qualitative and quantitative research method. Consequently, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 08 teachers to gain insights about their experience toward the teaching of English poetry, and questionnaire was distributed to 40 third year EFL students from department of English at the IbnKhaldoun University-Tiaret in Algeria to collect data about their main challenges in studying English poetry. The results show that students faced a lot of challenges when studying English poetry with regard to language complexity, figurative language, cultural consideration, and interpreting poetic meter and rhythm. Finally, some effective solutions and methods are proposed to overcome those challenges.