UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
NAME: AGYENIM-BOATENG FOSTER
INDEX NUMBER: 7110060007
PROGRAMME: M. A. ENGLISH
COURSE TITLE: STUDIES IN WRITING AND RESEARCH
COURSE CODE: ENG 503
PROPOSAL
TOPIC
TEACHING POETRY APPRECIATION IN THE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY OF THREE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE TECHIMAN MUNICIPALITY

INTRODUCTION

Very few people are gifted with talents to understand or write poetry. The taste of poetry has to be cultivated with a careful handling of the subject failing which the poetry can results into irritating sign of neurosis on the students. Hence, there is great need of suitable curriculum as well as careful handling of the subject.

Despite the fact that, poetry is one of the highly specialized forms of language, its status is diminished. It is partly because of the curriculum and partly because of the English teachers who execute the curriculum of poetry [Robert Scholes, 2001]. Most teachers of literature in general and poetry to be specific have the tendency of rather relying too heavily on critical commentaries of literary works (Yenkson 1987). Yenkson further asserts that “these notes are written by Secondary School teachers with the sole purpose of helping students to pass their exams”. Many of these teachers think that the use of those notes will spare them and their students the agony of having to study their recommended text.
Apart from this, Senior High School English and Literature in English lessons are dominated by the need to prepare students for exams, hence in especially core English lessons the literature aspect particularly poetry is relegated to background since the literature forms a very minute part in the final exams mark. With Literature in English, teachers do not give the right techniques to students to be able to give their own interpretation of the