Challenges English teachers and students face in teaching and learning poetry in Class VI of Rangaytung Primary School, Chhukha Dzongkhag

Abstract

The poetry question of class VI is marked out of 8 both in the mid-term as well as in the annual examination according to the English Curriculum Framework, Classes PP-XII, of which the poem should be from outside Reading & Literature, Class VI. After studying the marks scored by 14 students of class VI of Rangaytung Primary School, Chhukha in the mid-term examination, 2023, more than 75% of the students on average scored below 4. Therefore, the study found out what reasons students had for not fully understanding the poems taught in the classroom. The study also touched on the perceptions English teachers of class VI had on the partial understanding of poetry taught in the classroom by the students. The participants for the study were selected based on purposive sampling. The study adopted qualitative research design to collect data from the students and teachers. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to interpret the collected data. The findings of this study include difficulty in understanding the meaning of words because of the use of linguistics and taking the teaching and learning of poetry lightly by both the teacher and the students in the first place. As a consequence of this, students took less interest in learning poetry than other genres of literature. Teaching strategies used by the English teacher also played a vital role in making poetry learning interesting to the learners. Understanding of poetry was better when the teacher used simple sentences with appropriate examples to explain the poem. Moreover, poetry lesson were rarely repeated, which was actually necessary. Keeping all difficulties aside, the teacher played a crucial role in making poetry learning interesting to the children. Recommendations to English teachers of class VI are discussed separately towards the end of the study.