An Analysis of the Students’ Difficulties in Understanding Poetry
1Mastura*
1*English Education Department, Universitas Serambi Mekkah, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Email: masturamastura23@gmail.com
Abstract
For Indonesian EFL (English as a Foreign language) learners, learning poetry in English is difficult. The purpose of this study is to know the difficulties in understanding poetry faced by students of the English Department of Universitas Serambi Mekkah. The total sample was 23 students from Semester 5 and 7 who had taken Poetry and Drama subject. This research is a descriptive method using a questionnaire and interview for the data collection. The finding shows that students have difficulties in understanding figurative language, proverbs, and the meanings of poetry. The interview data revealed the reluctance of the students in learning the subject. To conclude, the English Department students of Universitas Serambi Mekkah have poor English knowledge and low motivation towards learning the subject thus facing difficulties in understanding English poetry. It is suggested that the lecturer should use several strategies to make students motivated and ignite creativity among students when learning English poetry.
Keywords: Students’ Difficulties; English Poetry; Literature
A. Introduction
Language has a role as a means of cultural expression (Kramsch, 2014). Language as a means of expression has been proven capable of uniting and maintaining the extension of the nation itself, with a positive language building and positive cultural expressions as well. This is inseparable from the existence of loyalty in using language well and based on language proficiency.
Literature is reading or basic material that can be used as a reference in scientific writing (Paul & Criado, 2020). Usually, literature comes from books or scientific journals. Then, the contents can be used as reference sources. In English, literature itself can be in the form of drama, novels, or poetry, and acts as a form of expression in expressing one's thoughts and feelings. Its purpose is to create a language beauty that is set to become a work (Khatib et al., 2011).
Poetry is a literary work in which language is condensed, abbreviated, and given a rhythm with a cohesive sound and a choice of imaginative words (Hetherington & Atherton, 2020). The words in the poetry are very compact and chosen so that they are very beautiful to read. Waluyo (2010) says that poetry writing has been taught in elementary, junior, and high schools. The aim is to train students' abilities in expressing opinions, ideas, experiences, creativity; and to be able to write poetry correctly.
In this case, the previous study was conducted on an English education study program at Pakuan University. The study showed that the participants faced some difficulties in translating poetry. They are: first, the students had lack knowledge about translation and poetry; and second, the writing style of poetry uses figures of speech, symbols and ungrammatical structures (Sambiring, 2015).
The researcher would like to conduct a study, particularly in analyzing English Department students’ understanding of poetry. The researcher conducted this study because this study has never been studied and researched at the University of Serambi Mekkah. Therefore, the researcher is interested to conduct this research under the title An analysis of the Students’ difficulties in understanding poetry.
B. Method
The research used the descriptive method. The descriptive method is conducted to know the value of each variable, either one or more
variables independent in nature without making relationships or comparisons with other variables (Sujarweni, 2014). Then, in this study, the researcher described students’ difficulties in understanding poetry.
The population of this study was all English Department students at the University of Serambi Mekkah. Meanwhile, the sample was taken from the fifth and seventh-semester students. There are fourteen students in the fifth semester and thirteen students in the seventh semester.
Furthermore, the fifth-semester students of the University of Serambi Mekkah consist of 6 boys and 11 girls. For the seventh semester, students are 1 male and 12 females. Most of the students come from Banda Aceh, such as Lueng Bata, Batoh, and Darussalam. A minority of them came from outside Banda Aceh such as Aceh Besar, Aceh Jaya, Simeulue and Bireuen. Some of them went to the campus by private vehicles, some were picked up by their parents and some came home on foot because their residence was not too far from the campus.
There were two instruments used for the data collection. The instruments namely questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaire used in this study was close-ended where the respondents only had to tick one of the answers that were considered suitable for there. The questionnaire also included some open-ended questions where the participants could give responses on the course of Poetry and Drama in general. Then researcher used Google form in this study and distributed the questionnaire link via WhatsApp. The students filled in the questionnaire within the specified time. The researcher gave one day in filling out the Google form and if there were students who had not filled in the Google form, the researcher would contact the students directly to give a gentle reminder. The researcher used the Likert Scale as modelled by Sugiono (2016). The Likert scale is used for measuring attitudes, opinions, and perceptions of a person or group of people about social phenomena.
Then, with the Likert Scale, the variable to be measured was designed into instrument items in the form of statements. Meanwhile, the second instrument used by the researcher was an interview. In this method, the researcher met the respondent directly (face to face) to obtain information verbally by obtaining data and objectives that can explain the research problem. In this study, the researcher used guided interviews. A guided interview means that the interviewer has been provided with a complete and detailed list of questions. Guided interviewing aims to allow the
interviewer to control the flow of the interview, the climate, formality, and the direction of the interview, it is easy to learn, takes a little time, makes the interview easy for the interviewer to control, easy to imitate from one interview to the next. Based on the interviews used by researchers, interviews were conducted to find out the obstacles, weaknesses, and difficulties of students in understanding poetry.
Then, to find the percentage, the following formula was used as suggested by Sugiono (2010) :
Note :
P : The percentage of the respondents F : The number of respondents’ answer N : The number of respondents
100 : The constant value
Then, the researcher wrote what the interviewees said and answered in the interviews. The data were sorted according to the semester. Lastly, the researcher concluded.
C. Research Findings
Table 1 describes the percentage of the students’ responses of perception about the students’ difficulties in understanding poetry.
Table 1. The Students’ Difficulties in Understanding Poetry
No Descriptions Questions Answer Value
1 The Students’
Difficulties in Understanding Poetry
Have you ever read English poetry?
a. Never 16 69%
b. Rarely 7 31%
c. Often - -
d. Always - -
2 Which poetry
do you prefer
a. English poetry 5 21%
b. Indonesian 6 26%
c. Love both 12 52%
3 What are
your obticles in
understandin g poetry?
a. Difficulties in vocabulary
2 8%
b. Comfusing in grammar
3 13%
c. Proverb 6 26%
d. Figurative language is difficult to undertstand
9 39%
e. Other 3 13
YOU’RE MY SUNSHINE You’re my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy, when skies a grey.
You never know dear, how much I love you.
Please don’t take my sunshine a way.
I’ll always love you and make you happy.
If you will only say the same.
But if you leave me to love another, you’ll regret it all one day.
4 Can you understand the above poetry?
a. Do not understand 1 5%
b. Not really understand 2 8%
c. Understand 20 86%
d. Very understand - -
5 What are your obstacles when poetry at number (13)understanding the above poetry?
a. Difficulties in vocabulary b. Confusing in grammar
1 3
5%
13%
c. Do not understand the proverb
7 30%
d. Figurative language is difficult to understand
9 39%
e. Others 3 13%
The table above shows that 69% of students never read English poetry, but still 52% of students like English and Indonesian poetry. Then, 39% of students answered it was difficult to understand figurative language. Then, on item number 4, a sample of poetry was provided and the participant was asked to find out to what extent they understood the poetry. Then the researcher got the results from the data that 86% of students answered they understood the poetry. However, no one answered the test on understanding the given poetry well.
Then, the last question related to what obstacles they get in understanding the poetry shows that 30% of students did not understand proverbs.
The Result of the Interview about Difficulties in Understanding Poetry
The interview was done in the Indonesian language and then translated into English. Then, most of the students stated that figurative language and proverbs in poetry can affect students' difficulties in understanding poetry in the subject of Poetry & Drama. In this interview, the researcher herself asked five students majoring in English, and all of them were women. The researcher interviewed three students from the seventh semester, while the other two were students from the fifth semester.
This can be seen from the results of interviews with five students of the six questions that the researcher prepared, the results of interviews between researchers and students are as follows:
1. Q: What difficulties do you have when learning poetry in class?
From the results of the interview above, it can be concluded that students 1, student 4, student 5 find it difficult to translate the poetry and find the meaning of the poetry, and one of these students mentioned that he really disliked poetry, especially the subject of "poetry & drama". Then for students 2 and student 3, it was less difficult to learn poetry.
2. Q: Do you know the meaning of figurative language? So, do you think this figure of speech is one of the inhibiting factors in understanding poetry? Explain!
From the results of interview number two, it can be concluded that students 1 and student 4 said that figurative language can hinder understanding poetry. One of the factors they answered was the same answer because both of them were not interested in poetry or even in courses. Students 2, 3, student 5 said that the difficulty in figurative language depends on what kind of poetry is given by the lecturer. If the poetry is difficult, or many of them contain high figurative language, then the student's level of understanding of the poetry is difficult. Likewise, if the lecturer gives easy poetry, the student's level of understanding of poetry is easy to understand.
3. Q: Do you know what a proverb is? So the question is, what is the proverb a factor inhibiting you from understanding poetry?
Students 1, student 3, and 4 can be concluded that students have difficulty understanding proverbs. This difficulty, then it is true, will be an obstacle to understanding poetry. While students 2 and student 5, are more inclined to depend on poetry. If poetry is difficult, many proverbs with high meanings and vocabulary do not know their meaning then they will have difficulty.
4. Q: Can the uncomfortable classroom atmosphere prevent you from writing poetry?
From the results of the next data, the researcher can conclude that almost all students feel inhibited when they learn to write poetry in an uncomfortable class, such as being noisy, which is very affected. Only student 2 felt that they were not at all hampered, wherever they were, it would not be affected at all.
5. Q: If the lecturer asks you to do a poetry writing assignment, do you prefer to write someone else's work or create your own?
The results of the researcher's interview above, the researcher can conclude that if students are asked to do campus assignments by the lecturer to write poetry. So students prefer to write other people's work rather than create their own. Only students 2 and student 4 prefer to create their own. Even though they don't understand the figurative
language and proverbs. Because, according to them, creating their poetry, whatever the result will be a matter of pride for them.
D. Discussion
Based on the research findings above regarding the student's difficulties in understanding poetry, it can be generally concluded that English poetry is not something the students find interesting and easy, thus the course of Poetry & Drama also is not that favoured by the students.
According to the problem of the study; what are the English Department students' difficulties in understanding poetry, the researcher found that the student's difficulties are in understanding the figurative language. Secondly, the respondents' results related to the poetry that had been studied, said they claimed that they understood the poetry although the respondents did not give accurate answers. Meanwhile, from the list of results, regarding the difficulties of students in understanding poetry, it is found that “Figurative language and proverbs are parts of poetry that are difficult to understand.
Then, the results of this interview can be concluded that the researcher found three important points in students who had difficulty understanding poetry. The first is difficulty in figurative language, the second difficulty is proverbs, and the last and most difficult is students also find it difficult to understand the meaning of poetry.
This finding is consistent with what has been found by Sambiring (2015), in which Sambiring said that figurative language is hard to be understood. Not only that, but Sambiring also said that the students lack knowledge about translation and poetry and second, the writing style of poetry uses figures of speech, symbols and ungrammatical structures.
The instruments used by Sambiring are almost the same as the researchers themselves. The previous study used three instruments, they are questionnaires, interviews, dan documentation. Meanwhile, the researchers themselves only used two instruments, namely questionnaires and interviews.
The present study also covers the basic issue of Indonesian EFL learners, which is motivation (Lamb, 2007; Irnanda, 2021). As literature is very authentic linguistically in nature (Khatib et al., 2011; Ihejirika, 2014), the motivational issue faced by Indonesian EFL learners are doubled in
learning literature. Thus, more effective strategies should be discovered in the future (Floris, 2004).
E. Conclusion
Based on the results of data analysis and discussion, the researcher can conclude that the students have difficulties in understanding figurative language, proverbs, and the meaning of poetry.
The students were also found unmotivated in attending the course of Poetry and Drama perhaps due to the students’ poor English knowledge and incorrect approaches used by the lecturer. More studies should be directed to the invention of effective methods and strategies in teaching English literature in general, and poetry in particular.
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