Actual poetry reading strategies by english as a foreign language learners

Abstract

Poetry, more than any other genre draws attentions of students and teachers. However, both students and teachers face challenges in reading and understanding poetry (Ebrahimi, 2011). Poetry for teaching English is widely adopted but understanding poetry is problematic. Reading strategies can address the problem. Therefore, this study investigated the actual strategies that students used when they read poetry. In this research, the most common strategies that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) post-graduate students actually used while they read poetry in English were studied. This study adopted the qualitative design in the analysis. The instruments for data collection included Think-aloud protocols to identify the actual strategies used while reading poetry. Ten participants were purposely selected based on convenience random sampling for the qualitative data collection. Results from the protocol showed that Global strategies were used more than the Support and Problem solving strategies. It is recommended that future research examines strategies for reading of poetry from different era.