Abstract:

Riordan (2009) opened a line of inquiry at 15th TESOL Arabia Annual Conference on the issue of teaching grammar and writing (G&W) through poetry. The pedagogical implications proposed by her shed light on the teaching G&W. However, she did not touch the hardships of poetry by its own to EFL learners especially in academic contexts where students are to study poetry specifically. This study investigated difficulties of teaching poetry in academic contexts in general and practical guidelines in eliminating existing barriers in particular. Data sources include 150 junior literature students and 10 teachers' perspective at Islamic Azad University, Parand. Participants shared their ideas via a semi-structured questionnaire and to delve the issue 25 students and 5 teachers were interviewed. The findings of this study indicate that number of new words; especially the out-dated ones as well as the structure and style of the poet make poem understanding hard. Moreover, students confess that lack of lexical knowledge and motivation highlights the problem. The researchers end the paper by some practical implications related to students' Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligence and hope to open a line of research in teaching poetry.