"The Song of Words": Teaching Multi-Word Units with Songs (original) (raw)

INVESTIGATING SONG-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING AND ITS EFFECT ON LEXICAL LEARNING

The present thesis addresses the following question: Can popular songs as they are currently used in second and foreign language classrooms benefit lexical learning? Lexical learning is defined as the acquisition of new vocabulary as well as the consolidation and further elaboration of familiar words and phrases. To answer this research question, three methodologically distinct studies are reported. In the first study an international questionnaire explored teacher cognitions as well as actual teaching practices involving songs. The responses of 568 informants in 41 countries indicate that a majority of respondents believe in the usefulness of songs for language learning and that many respondents utilize songs in class for clearly defined pedagogical purposes, including vocabulary learning. The questionnaire also elicited information from the respondents about the way they incorporate songs in lessons, including details about how often a song is played and what types of form- and meaning-focused activities are used to engage learners with the lyrics of a song. The second study investigated the lexical characteristics of teacher-selected songs and the vocabulary learning opportunities they afford. For this purpose, a corpus of 635 songs used for ESL/EFL purposes, comprising 177,384 tokens, was compiled and analysed. Results indicate that teacher-selected songs are short, repetitive and relatively undemanding as far as lexis is concerned compared to other authentic text genres. Knowledge of the 4000 most frequent word families of English provides 98% coverage of the running words in this song corpus. Little difference was found in terms of the overall vocabulary demands between songs intended for use with beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. The third study investigates whether participating in a song-based lesson results in higher verbatim text retention compared to a lesson based on a poem or a prose text. For the sake of ecological validity, the procedures and the materials used in the classroom intervention study were informed by the findings of the teacher questionnaire (study one) and the song corpus analysis (study two). Results indicate that a song-based language lesson but also a poem-based lesson result in significantly higher recognition and cued recall of verbatim text than a lesson based on a prose text. In response to the overall question, this thesis provides evidence that songs as they currently tend to be used by language teachers around the world indeed benefit certain aspects of lexical learning, perhaps in particular the entrenchment in memory of already (half-)familiar words in association with their phraseological patterning. It is argued that, while certain structural characteristics of songs (and poems) have the potential of rendering text (and the lexis therein) memorable, it is the way that songs tend to be exploited in the classroom that capitalizes on this mnemonic potential.

Enhancing Learners Vocabulary Skills by Means of English Songs – an Experimental Study

2020

In the core of teaching the four macro skills of a language, vocabulary is considered to be the panacea to achieve absolute mastery of the target language. It is considered to be the crucial rudiment towards learning a foreign language and if not mastered in the apt way may lead to a serious impediment on a learner. Therefore, in order to avoid this from happening songs could be considered as a solution to assist the learners’ from having low mastery of English vocabulary. In the day to day communication hearing the songs could be considered as a solution to increase the tendency of awareness in recognising English vocabulary. Hence, this proposed study has intended to examine the use of English songs on learners’ vocabulary mastery skills, which was conducted through an experimental design. In this research, there was one class each that were chosen as research samples. The first one was considered as an experimental group, while later was the control. Each class had thirty student...

The lexical profile of popular songs in English language teaching

System, 2017

Songs are popular among language learners and a text genre that is yet to be fully exploited in language teaching. Questions arise regarding their lexical demand and vocabulary-learning opportunities they afford. Two pop song corpora were analyzed to determine the vocabulary size necessary to comprehend 95% and 98% of words in pop songs. The first corpus comprised 408 songs listed in recent US billboard charts. The second corpus consisted of 635 songs selected by teachers for language-teaching purposes. Results of an analysis using RANGE and 20 BNC word-frequency lists showed that the lexical demand of charts songs is overall clearly lower compared to other written genres but similar to spoken genres, as the most frequent 3000 word families plus proper nouns provided 95.1% coverage of tokens, and knowledge of 6000 word families plus proper nouns was necessary to reach 98.2% coverage. Teacher-selected songs have a lower lexical demand: Knowledge of the most frequent 2000 word families plus proper nouns was necessary to reach 95.5% coverage, while a vocabulary size of 4000 word families plus proper nouns provided coverage of 98.2% of words in the pedagogical corpus. Implications for the use of songs in ESL and EFL classrooms are discussed.

Using Songs to Enhance Language Learning in The Classroom

Effect of rap songs on text recall and vocabulary expansion in second language acquisition CONTEXT Research on the use of songs as a pedagogical tool in the second language classroom has assumed greater importance more now than ever before. Viewing the use of songs in the classroom critically, Falioni (1993) states that the use of songs in second language acquisition has been relegated to recreation and entertainment. The intention to use songs in the classroom has often been met with ridicule and a cautionary statement that although students were enjoying class, they were not learning. So the researcher decided to conduct more empirical studies determining specific benefits of songs. As not much research has been done on using songs at the tertiary level in India, the researcher studies the use of rap songs to enhance vocabulary and aid in rote memorization. The researcher, therefore, decided to study the effect of rap songs on text recall and the occurrence of the din in the second language classroom. The significance of the present study would be to explicate regarding the melody-text integration in relation to memory. The present study would compare the occurrence of involuntary mental rehearsal, which may stimulate the language acquisition process by internal repetition of words and phrases and also provide students the opportunity to practice second language production through entertaining and culturally rich songs.

Using English Songs To Increase Early Students' Vocabulary

English Education Journal, 2017

Early childhood is a child in the age of 0-6 years. In this age, the development and growth of physical and mental of children develop rapidly. Meanwhile, the aspects developed in early childhood education are: religious and moral values, physical (consisting of gross motor, fine motor and physical health), cognitive (consisting of general knowledge and science, concepts, shapes, colors, sizes and patterns, number concepts, symbols of numbers and letters), language (consisting of accepting language, expressing language and script) and emotional social. Language skills are one of the aspects which are developed at this age. Therefore, researchers intend to examine the level of mastery of the language of children through the song. This study aims to improve the vocabulary of early childhood, where this result affects the children’s ability to speak a foreign language in the future. This study is a Classroom Action Research, which aims to improve the ability of children English by usin...

Improving Students’ Vocabulary Mastery Using English Song

PROJECT (Professional Journal of English Education)

This research is a Classroom Research Action. The research aims to improve the tenth grade students of SMK Wirasaba Karawang in mastering vocabulary using English songs. Songs can be trusted to help remember vocabulary and used the songs are interested in learning English. Memorizing song can be used to develop English vocabulary mastery so that the purpose of learning English as a communication tool can be achieved optimally. It can be seen from the students’ score on vocabulary test which increased from three vocabulary tests given in the Cycle I and Cycle II. In the students’ achievement Cycle I was 67.33 and Cycle II was 83.7. It can be concluded that songs have a significant impact on improving students’ vocabulary mastery. Keywords: English song, vocabulary mastery, CAR

Teaching English Vocabulary Using Songs to Developing Students’ Vocabulary Mastery

Kajian Linguistik, 2020

The purpose of this research is to find out whether songs can develop students vocabulary mastery or not and to find out whether songs can increase of students’ interest to develop the students’ vocabulary mastery in second grade students at SMP Negeri 3Merauke or not. The subjects in this research were second grade students at SMP Negeri 3 Meraukeconsisting of 30 students. This research was classified into qualitative descriptive research. The researcher was used pretest and posttest design and conclude the data using two instrument; vocabulary test and then questionnaire. Vocabulary test to measure development in the English vocabulary mastery, the test is multiple-choice test. While the questionnaire to find out the students attitude toward the using songs in teaching English vocabulary. The questionnaire test consist of 5 questions. Based on the results of vocabulary tests on pretest and posttest, there was significant development. This can be seen on the percentage value of eac...

Using Song to Improve Students’ Vocabulary Mastery

2017

Vocabulary mastery is one of the requirements for students to be able to communicate both in spoken and written. There are many ways to improve students’ vocabulary mastery used by the language teacher. This paper aims to examine the use of English song to motivate students in learning English. In addition, this concerns on the use of English song to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. The respondents were fifteen elementary students of community groups of orphans An-nur Surabaya. The data were taken by assessing the students’ vocabulary mastery through pre-test and post-test, and analyzed to identify students’ vocabulary mastery. The result shows that students responded positively to this activity and indicated improvement in their vocabulary mastery. Thus, the study suggests that the use of English song is an effective media to improve the students’ vocabulary mastery.