A skills-based approach to the teaching of poetry

This paper examines the existing poetry syllabus in the KBSM Literature in English programme and aims to develop on and propose a more objective and manageable skills-based syllabus for the teaching of poetry in secondary schools. This skills based syllabus is developed based on Victor Neo's (1991) work on a skills-based approach to the teaching of literature in which he highlights three comprehensive skills namely, the perceptual skills, the decoding skills and the encoding skills as a basis to read and appreciate literary texts. The paper examines various approaches to the teaching of poetry before proposing the skills-based approach and tentative syllabus as an alternative. The writer believes that a skills-based approach would not only make the task of teaching poetry more manageable but would also aid students in appreciating poetry.