Investigating Linguistic Challenges in English Poetry Analysis: A Quantitative Study of EFL Students at Seiyun University

الملخص

This study attempts to explore various linguistic, cultural, literary, motivational, and instructional challenges that EFL students face at Seiyun University. When teaching some poems in English classrooms, students encounter these challenges and find it difficult to analyzing them. In spite of using certain techniques in poetry classroom, students often complain of deep engagement with the poetic texts. The study surveyed 135 students using a validated, five-dimension questionnaire and analyzed responses using SPSS. Based on the study, the statistical results indicated that instructional and pedagogical challenges come foremost, closely followed by cultural and contextual barriers and language-related difficulties. Besides, literary analyses of poetic devices were prominent, whereas personal motivation was the least significant factor. The most cognitive obstacles were related to figurative language, cultural contexts, and unfamiliar structures in poetic texts. Gender differences were not statistically significant, suggesting that challenges affected the individuals regardless of demographic group.  The study recommends the urgent need for updating instructional approaches, incorporating culturally responsive support to develop poetry literacy through more engaging, student-centered techniques. Significantly, the study provides new insights in curriculum developers, language instructors, and policymakers to boost a superior responsibility of literature in EFL settings.