The Role of Poetry in Enhancing Learners’ Vocabulary Acquisition The Case of Study of Third Year English Students at University of Mohamad Seddik Ben Yahia, Jijel

Abstract

The present dissertation attempts to investigate the role of poetry and how it contributes to enhancing the students‟ vocabulary in the department of English at the university of Mohamad Seddik Ben Yahia, Jijel. A mixed research approach was adopted for this research that is aimed to show the relation between the two variables: poetry as an independent variable and vocabulary acquisition as a dependent variable. In order to verify the validity of our hypothesis, which requests that if the students are exposed to poetry and study poems in the EFL classroom, their vocabulary acquisition will be effectively enhanced. Two research tools were used in this study: a questionnaire and an interview. Students‟ questionnaire aimed to find out their attitudes towards studying poetry and its role in developing their vocabulary knowledge, whereas the teachers‟ interview aimed to investigate teachers‟ perceptions toward the teaching of poetry to enhance vocabulary acquisition. The results obtained from this research showed that both teachers and learners, consider poetry as an effective pedagogical tool to enhance students‟ vocabulary acquisition. On the basis of these results, the hypothesis that is put forward was confirmed. Based on the findings of this study, some pedagogical recommendations are suggested for the teaching of vocabulary using poetry.