ATTITUDE OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TOWARDS POETRY IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Abstract

Several factors affect second language learning process including motivation, attitude, intelligence, age, gender and personality. However, attitude towards language teaching text carries vital importance in an ESL classroom(Garinger, 2002). This research paper attempts to measure the attitude of English as a second language (ESL) learners towards the text of poetry and its effect on the English-speaking skill of the learners. This was an experimental study employing a one-group Pretest-posttest research design.The respondents of the study were forty students from the faculty of social sciences, University of Malakand, Pakistan. An attitude questionnaire was circulated amongst the respondents after the intervention. The responses of the learners were analysed through statistical tests to find out their attitude towards poetry as language teaching materials. The results of the questionnaire showed that the students had a positive attitude towards the text of poetry as language teaching materials. The study also attempted to investigate the effect of the students’ attitude on their speaking skill while using poetry as teaching materials. To this effect, the scores of the students on the pretest and posttest were analysed through paired samples t-test andthe results indicated that the students performed significantly better on the posttest. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that poetry be utilized in ESL classrooms.