Teaching English Poetry through Social Media in the Classroom at Advanced Level in High Schools in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the extent to which social media could be used to teach English poetry at advanced level in high schools in Gweru District, of Zimbabwe. The study was done through a descriptive survey. The population of the study consisted of eight high school teachers of Literature in English from seven high schools which offered poetry at advanced level in Gweru district, Zimbabwe. A five point Likert scale type questionnaire with 23 items was used to collect data from the teachers. The research questionnaire was validated by the experts at Solusi University. The collected data was coded and analyzed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0. The descriptive statistics and factor analysis were employed. The study revealed that eight factors accounted for 77.843% variance in using social media to teach English poetry at advanced level. These were Email, Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, teacher innovation, teacher competence, class discipline and teacher attitude. The study revealed that teacher competence and teacher attitude were major challenges in using social media to teach English poetry at Advanced level in Gweru district, Zimbabwe. Based on the findings, recommendations were made.