Journal of the Nigeria English Studies Association (JNESA) 14:1 92
TOWARDS EFFECTIVE TEACHING OF POETRY IN
NIGERIAN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Jimi Ogunnaike and Oluwole Akinbode,
Department of English,
Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ijebu-Ode.
Abstract
The authors examine the effectiveness of the teaching of poetry in
Nigerian Junior Secondary Schools. Using a 10-item questionnaire
to find out teachers’ interest and difficulties in teaching poetry, they
observed that 50% of the teachers interviewed found teaching poetry
difficult and boring. They also report that about 75% of the students
did not have the recommended textbooks for literature-in-English.
75% of the teachers agreed that English Language can be learnt
through Literature-in-English while 25% disagreed. The authors
conclude that the appreciation and criticism of various poems are
indisputable and essential skills in a meaningful and worthwhile
literary studies and students should be taught how to acquire them.
Key words:
literature in English, poetry, teaching, Junior
Secondary Schools
Introduction
Poetry is the genre of literature that deals with pieces of writing, arranged in
patterns of lines and of sounds, expressing in imaginative language some
deep thought, feeling, or human experience.
The practice of poetic
composition and performance is a specialist art. Poetry is differentiated from
prose as being marked by greater specialism. A poet’s tasks include
remembering, expressing and memorising the poem (Akinbode 2002, Ker
2007).
People rarely see poets at work. Even if one could watch a poet writing, one
would not be able to notice much action. The making of a poem is mostly a
solitary, mental activity. The only activity one might notice is the poet’s use
of speech. Poets are not usually silent while they work. They test what they
write by reciting it loud. To begin to understand what elements go into the
making of poem, it might help to think of the poet as an artist who is
creating something with words (Grieve 1957, Brinnin 1993).
A poet uses words the way a painter uses colours. Like painters, poets want
to share a special, personal vision of the world. To do this, poets create
images, or pictures. Poets also use figures of speech - language - which help
us to make startling connections between dissimilar things. Like a painter’s
colours, a poet’s words can put our imagination to work; they can make us
see the world in new unexpected ways (Brinnin, 1993).
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Like musicians, poets are also concerned with sounds. Imagine a composer
of music trying various patterns of notes on a piano in order to create a
pleasing melody. That will give you a good idea of what poets try to do with
words. Poets choose their words with great care. They revise them
repeatedly, trying to find the combination which will produce just the right
sound: perhaps a harsh sound, a musical sound, or a sound which matches
the gallop of a horse. A poet’s goal is to create sounds that will match the
feelings and ideas they want to convey.
Like sculptors, poets are also concerned with shape, or form. When they
write or revise, poets are chiseling their words to create the shape the
readers see on the page. Poets think about such things as how long their
lines should be and whether they should group them into units referred to as
stanzas. Some poets use forms that are based on strict rules that may be
hundreds of years old. Other poets may experiment with freer forms.
Whatever forms a poet chooses to use, his or her purpose is to give the words
a pleasing shape in the page and to help convey meaning (Egya, 2007).
Statement of the Problem
It has been observed (Akporobaro 2008) that some teachers of English
language find teaching of poetry a herculean task.
This study thus
investigated the reasons why the teachers find teaching poetry difficult. It
also recommends the instructional techniques which can make teaching of
poetry less burdensome and interesting.
Hypothesis
There is no significant relationship between teachers’ interest and their
performance in teaching poetry.
Methodology
A
10 item questionnaire was administered to twenty teachers of Literature-inEnglish in Abeokuta to find out teachers’ interest and difficulties in teaching
poetry. The teachers were randomly selected from five schools, based on the
recommendation of the individual school’s Head of Department of English.
The questionnaire was also used to collect information on teachers’ age, sex,
experience and qualifications. The teachers’ responses were analysed using
simple percentage data analysis technique. The table below reveals the
results of the investigation.
The table above shows the percentage of teachers’ responses to both Yes and
No options. All the teachers involved teach poetry thus, 100% Yes responses
were obtained. All these teachers also enjoy teaching poetry as 100%
responses were obtained in the second research question. 50% of the
teachers find teaching poetry difficult and boring as indicated in the
teachers’ responses to the third research question. 75% of the students do
not have the Literature-in-English recommended textbooks as shown in the
responses to the fourth research question. 75% of the teachers have
difficulty in deciphering the poets’ messages.
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All the teachers enjoy teaching prose and drama as well as shown in the
100% Yes responses to the eighth and nineth research questions. 75% of the
teachers agreed
Table 1: Teachers Responses to the Teaching of Poetry
S/n.
Question
Yes
No
1.
Do you teach poetry?
100% 0
2.
Do you enjoy teaching poetry?
100% 0
3.
Do you find teaching poetry difficult and boring
50%
50%
4.
Do your students have all the
textbooks for Literature-in-English?
recommended 25%
75%
5.
Do you have difficulty in deciphering the poet’s 25%
message?
75%
6.
Do your students enjoy your poetry class?
7.
Do you suggest that Literature-in-English be 100% 0
separated from English Studies curriculum in the
JSS?
8.
Do you enjoy teaching drama?
100% 0
9.
Do you enjoy teaching prose?
100% 0
10.
Are you of the opinion that students can learn 75%
English Language through Literature-in-English?
100% 0
25%
that English Language can be learnt through Literature-in-English while
25% disagreed as indicated by the responses obtained from the tenth
research question.
Discussion
In connection with Anderson, Brinins’ and Leggett’s (1993) principle of
making poetry teaching interesting and less burdensome, the following steps
are presented as guidelines for teachers of poetry.
Step 1
The
teacher reads the poem aloud at least once. He/She allows the students to
do the same thing. Both of them are to realise that a poem’s sense is linked
to its sound.
Step 2
The teacher guides the students to look for sentences and pays attention to
punctuation. The students are to stop briefly at semi-colons or after full
stops. They are to also pause at commas. The students further look for
sudden shifts in thought after dashes. They are instructed that if a line does
not end with a punctuation, they should not make a full stop: they should
pause only very briefly and continue to the end of the sentence.
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Step 3
The teacher lets the students know that they are to always read a poem in a
normal voice as if they are speaking to a friend. If the poem has a steady
beat, they should let the music emerge naturally. They should not ruin the
poem’s music by reading in a sing-song way.
Step 4
The students are to look up unfamiliar words. They should be guided that
poets choose words carefully. Sometimes words are used to mean more than
one thing in a poem. They should be told that each word adds to the poem’s
meaning.
Step 5
The
students are to learn that poets often describe one thing in terms of another.
They should be alert for such comparisons and let them work on their
imagination.
Step 6
Students are to be told that after a first reading, they should think about the
poem, examine especially its images, sounds and flow of emotions and ideas.
They should read the poem a second or even a third time. With each
reading, they will discover something new and the poem’s meaning will
become clearer.
Step 7
The
students think about the poem’s meaning – what message is being
transmitted from the poet to them? They will find that their response to
many poems will be: “It tells me something I always knew but I never
thought of it that way before”.
Songs and Repetition
Many
poems which begin as songs contain various kinds of repetition, which help
the performer to remember the lines. The commonest kind of repetition in
poetry is the rhythm. Rhythm refers to the rise and fall of our voices as we
stress some sounds more strongly than the others. The students are to be
taught that in songs, rhythm is usually regular. This means that the pattern
of stressed syllables or beats in one or more lines is repeated throughout the
song. When they sense that a poem is musical, it is the rhythm that they
hear and feel. (Mazrui 1967).
Another kind of repetition is rhymes. Rhymes repeat the sound of the
stressed syllable and any unstressed syllables which follow. The echoing
effect of rhymes helps us to remember a poem and it gives us pleasure.
Rhyme is particularly important in songs because it helps the performer to
remember what comes next.
A third kind of repetition found in songs is the refrain or chorus. A refrain is
a line or group of lines repeated at regular intervals. A refrain usually comes
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at the ends of the stanzas and draws the readers’ attention to important
ideas. All popular songs use refrain. In olden times, when all poems were
sung, the refrain gave the poet time to think about what came next.
Narrative Poems
Poems that are
written to tell stories are referred to as narrative poems. These story-poems
resemble short stories. They usually have a plot, characters and setting.
The students should be taught that through repetition, the narrative poets
make their stories sound like the old sung stories. They capture the old
power of the spoken word.
Responding to a Poem
The following poem is anonymous.
Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
“O bury me not on the lone prairie”
These words came low and mournfully
From the pallid lips of a youth who lay
On his dying bed at the close of day.
“O bury me not on the lone prairie”
Where the wild coyote will howl over me
In a narrow grave just six by three
“O bury me not on the lone prairie”…
“O bury me not on the lone prairie”
Where the buffalo raws o’er the prairie sea,
Where the buzzard sails and the wind goes free
O bury me not on the lone prairie…
But we buried him there on the lone prairie
Where the owl all night hoots mournfully
And the blizzard beats and the wind is blown free
O’er his lonely grave on the lone prairie.
Analyzing the Poem
Identifying Details
Which lines and stanzas of the song are spoken by the youth? Which lines
and stanzas are spoken by his companions?
Describe what is happening to the youth.
The poem describes the wild nature of the prairie. List details that it gives
about the prairie’s weather.
Do the youth’s companions honour his request?
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Songwriters often alter the pronunciation of certain words to make them fit
the rhythm pattern.
Read this song aloud. What words must you pronounce in non-standard
ways to create a regular rhythm?
Interpreting Meanings
Why do you think the youth does not want to be buried on the prairie?
Describe how the last stanza made you feel. Were you surprised at the way
the youth’s companions reacted to his request?
You may have sung this folk song. Sometimes song lyrics are effective
without music; sometimes they are not.
One poet has said that taking music from song lyrics is like “tearing the
wings from a bird”.
Do you agree or disagree? Explain the reasons for your opinion.
Applying Meanings
Many people feel happier in some settings than in others. Thousands of
people love the prairie and find it beautiful, yet the youth of the poem does
not name an area or setting which you instinctively like and the one which
you instinctively dislike. Explain the reasons for your feelings about these
places.
Writing about the Poem
A Creative Response
Extending the story. Although this song or poem seems simple, it has an
element of mystery. Write a paragraph in which you fill in the story’s gaps.
Be sure to answer the following questions. Who is the young man? Where
does he come from? What has happened to him? To whom does he speak,
and why do they not grant his last wish? Make sure your story fits in with
the details of the poem.
Analysing Language and Vocabulary Connotations
A word’s literal definition, sometimes called its dictionary meaning, is its
denotation. But the emotional effect of a word depends largely on its
connotations – the feelings and ideas associated with the word. The prairie
portrayed in this poem is lonely and hostile. Make a list of the words and
phrases in the song that suggest feelings of loneliness and danger. Then
think of several words which would create the opposite feelings of
companionship and safety.
Poetry in Language Teaching: The Oral Aspects
Poetry is basically oral literature since it is meant to be read aloud. The
rhyme and rhythm of verse can readily come to our aid in the teaching of
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oral language (Williams 1990). A poem that can be used to teach oral
practice is Edward Lear’s limericks which can be committed to memory by
the students through repetition, thus providing practice in the vowel and
consonant sounds in the end-rhymes.
One of the best aids in teaching the predominantly light-heavy stress in
English is poetry, especially when the poetry approximates to the natural
rhyme of colloquial speech. David Rubadiri’s “An African Thunderstorm” is a
good example. Although formally rhythmic, the poem sounds relatively
natural and colloquial. There is an easy, causal air about the lines and a
redundancy which matches natural speech. Whether the students listen or
recite, the poem is to be simply enjoyed, for its rhythm as well as its
imagery–as an excellent model of a stress-timed language (i.e. English) for
those whose mother tongues are syllable-timed (Williams, 1990).
Conclusion
Poetry is a very important genre of literature which plays a significant role in
the Junior Secondary Students learning of English, especially oral English.
Students should be taught how to appreciate and criticise various poems,
which are undisputed skills that are essential in meaningful and worthwhile
literary studies.
Recommendations
In
order to enjoy the teaching and learning of poetry in the Nigerian secondary
schools, students should be aware of the importance of Literature in English.
They should be encouraged to buy and read all the recommended textbooks
on Literature-in-English. Teachers of poetry should be keenly interested in
teaching poetry. They should be studious, imaginative, resourceful and
creative. Students should be encouraged to write poems. Teachers should be
encouraged to write Literature-in-English textbooks and they should be
involved in the book review exercise, periodically organized by the Ministry of
Education.
References
Anderson, R. Brinnin, J. M. and Leggett, J. (1993) Elements of Literature.
Harcourt
Orlando: Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
Akinbode, J. O. (2002) Language and Literature Methods. Abeokuta: Goad
Educational Publishers.
Akporobaro, F. B. O. (2008)
Introduction to Poetry. Lagos: Princeton
Publishers. Egya, S. E. (2007). “Wine as a Creative Trope in Maria
Ajima’s Poetry”. The Ker Review. A Journal of Nigerian a Literature 3
(1), 78-92.
Grieve, D. W. (1957) Adventure into Poetry for African Schools. Toronto:
Macmillan.
Ker, A. (2007) “Satiric Comedy in the World of Botwevi. An Assessment of
James T. Humbe’s Tar Homon U Botwev” The Ker Review. A Journal of
Nigeria Literature 3 (1) 61-77.
Mazrui, A. M. (1967) Abstract Verse and African Tradition, Zuka I, 47-50.
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Moody, H. L. B. (1978) Literary Appreciation. London: Longman.
Mphalele, (1968) “The African Image: African Literature and Propaganda”
The Journal of Africa 1,4, and 5, pp 19-23.
Williams, D. (1990) English Language Teaching: An Integrated Approach.
Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited.
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