Using songs and poems in teaching English to motivate students at Van Noi High School Nguyễn Thị Thúy Hà Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Teaching Methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: Dr. Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa Năm bảo vệ: 2011 Abstract: This study aims at investigating how the use of songs and poems in teaching English can motivate students at Van Noi High School. The study with the design of a quasi – experimental method with two groups, was carried out in two classes (Class 10B and 10F) with 80 grade 10th students during the two months at the end of the second semester of the school year 2010 - 2011. The main instrument to gather data was the pre and post questionnaire. With the data obtained in the pre- questionnaire, Class 10B with lower learning motivation was treated as the experimental group and class 10F with higher learning motivation was the control group so as to make the result more comparable. The experimental group was additionally taught the five English songs and five English poems but the control group only followed the usual schedule. The findings of the data analysis from the post-questionnaire showed that there was an increase in learning motivation in the experimental group while the motivation in the control group almost stayed the same. The students in the experimental group enjoyed learning English through songs and poems. However, many of them liked this way of learning because of the relaxation that the songs and the poems brought about so they preferref songs that have easy, meaningful lyrics and beautiful, moderate melody. The most favorite poems were easy, funny, short ones. The activities they enjoyed most were gap – filling when listening to songs and doing vocabulary exercises. Based on the findings, some recommendations are made on how to integrate songs and poems in the curriculum of English at high schools as an effective motivational strategy in English learning and teaching. Keywords: Tiếng Anh;; Bài hát; Bài thơ iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of tables viii List of abbreviations ix PART A: INTRODUCTION. 1 1. Rationale 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Method of the study 2 4. Significance of the study 2 5. Scope of the study 2 6. Design of the study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1. Motivation 4 1.1.1. What is motivation? 4 1.1.2. Motivation and attitude 4 1.1.3. Motivation in second language learning 5 1.2. Learning English through songs 6 1.2.1. Reasons for using songs in the language classroom 6 1.2.2. How can songs be used in language teaching? 7 1.2.3. Choosing suitable songs and teaching procedure 8 1.3. Learning English through poems 10 1.3.1. Reasons for using poems in language classroom 10 1.3.2 How can poems be used in language teaching? 11 v 1.3.3. Choosing suitable poems and teaching procedure 12 1.4. Previous studies in ULIS and difficulties to apply the idea of teaching English through songs and poems in high schools 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15 2.1. Setting of the study 15 2.2. Research Questions 16 2.3 Research Methodology 16 2.4. Participants 17 2.5. Instruments to collect data 17 2.5.1 Questionnaires 17 2.5.2 Students’ Reflections 18 2.6 Data Collection Procedure 19 2.7. Methods of Data Analysis 20 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 21 3.1. Pre – questionnaire data and analysis 21 3.1.1. Students’ Motivation and Attitudes to Learning English before the treatment 21 3.1.2. Students’ Attitudes towards Learning English through Songs and Poems before the treatment 23 3.2. Changes in Students’ Motivation and Attitudes 24 3.3. Attitudes towards learning English through songs and poems after the treatment 26 3.4 Songs and poems that students like to learn 28 vi 3.5 The Degree of suitability of songs- and poems-based activities as ranked by the students 30 3.6 Students’ reflections on learning through songs and poems. 31 3.6.1. Students’ worksheets 31 3.6.2. Students’ sayings about learning through songs and poems: 31 3.6.3. Students’ collections of their favorite songs. 32 PART C: CONCLUSION 34 1. Major Findings 34 2. Pedagogical Implications 35 2.1. Integration of songs in the teaching English in high schools. 35 2.1.1 Choosing the song for the topic of the unit that the song is taught along with 35 2.1.2 Designing tasks for the songs 36 2.1.3 Procedure to teach a song 36 Integration of poems in the teaching English in high schools. 37 Choosing the poem for the topic of the unit or for the pronunciation or grammar items in the unit that the poem is taught along with: 37 Designing tasks for the poems: 37 Procedure to teach a poem (These steps are quite like the ones to teach a song) 38 3. Limitation of the study 38 4. Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES 40 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale It is commonly believed that motivation is key to a student’s success. Therefore, one of the teacher’s responsibilities is to find ways to motivate the students. In the motivation literature, a variety of motivational strategies have been suggested, but scholars also advise teachers to apply those strategies selectively taking into consideration the learner variables such as their age, their level of proficiency, the type of the language teaching course, etc. Therefore, a quasi- experimental research was conducted in Van Noi High School to test the hypothesis of using songs and poems to motivate students to learn English. 2. Aims of the research The research aimed: - To find out how the use of songs and poems in teaching English enhances the students’ motivation in learning English. - To find out what kind of songs and poems can make high school students motivated - To find out which class activities are suitable for using songs and poems at a high school. 3. Method of the study With the aim to investigate the extent to which the use of songs and poems help to motivate the grade 10 th students in learning English, a quasi – experimental method was employed with two instruments to gather data, questionnaires (the pre- and post-treatment questionnaire) and students’ reflections. The pre-questionnaire was used to measure students’ motivation and attitude to learning English and leaning English through songs and poems at the beginning of the research. Data obtained from the questionnaire were used as the criteria to determine the experimental group and the control group to make the research more comparable. The post- questionnaire was administered at the end of the research to see if there was any increase in students learning motivation and what their favorite songs and poems as well as their preferred learning-English-through-songs-and-poems activities were. 4. Significance of the study The study provides information about whether the use of songs and poems in the classroom helps to increase the students’ motivation in learning English, and if songs and poems are useful, how classroom activities can be designed with songs and poems. This could be a contribution to the understanding of the value of songs and poems as a motivational strategy. 2 5. Scope of the study With the scope of a quasi-experimental using two 10 th grade classes, extraneous variables could not be controlled. Therefore, the research results do not have high generality and may only match the situation at Van Noi High School. With the limited time of two months, no more than five songs and five poems have been taught to experimental group along with their English curriculum. The data collection instrument was only using questionnaires, which may lead to insufficient research results. This research focused only on the aspect of motivating students by using songs and poems. The other factors of using songs and poems to teach English will be not discussed here. 6. Design of the study The study is organized around three parts with three chapters: Part A- Introduction- consists of the rationale of the study, aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, research methodology and design of the study. Part B- Development- is divided into three following chapters: Chapter 1 – Literature Review - provides a review of related literature, in which the definition of motivation, the role of motivation in language learning are discussed first. It then deals with the reasons and the way to use songs and poems in EFL class. Chapter 2 – Methodology - presents the situation of learning English through songs and poems in Vietnam, the research questions, the research methodology, the participants, the instruments and method of analyzing data. Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussions - provides the findings and discussions through an analysis of all data collected by means of pre and post – questionnaires and students’ reflections Part C- Conclusion - summarizes the main findings in the study, and made some recommendations on how to use songs and poems in class to motivate students. It also discusses the limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research. 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents a review of related literature, in which the definition of motivation and motivation in language learning are discussed first. It then deals with the reasons for and the ways of using songs and poems in EFL class. 1. 1. Motivation 1.1.1. What is motivation? There is always a drive or need for one to know what is happening around oneself. What motivates someone’s drive or intention to satisfy one’s needs is a topic of interest in motivational psychology. The evolution of motivation as a theoretical construct was established in the early twentieth century. Behaviorist psychology in the middle of the twentieth century stresses “reinforcement as the primary mechanism for establishing and maintaining behavior” (Brophy, 1998:3). 1.1.2. Motivation and attitude Many teachers in their experience of teaching “recognize that motivation is important for learning and therefore want to have motivated students” (McCombs & Pope, 1994:9). In the eyes of social psychologists, there is more involvement in second language learning. The student’s attitudes, his readiness to identify and his orientation to the learning process are the keys to the success in mastering a foreign language (Gardner & Lambert, 1972). 1.1.3. Motivation in second language learning According to Lightbown & Spada (2002), motivation in second language learning can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community. This study especially focused on “intrinsic motivation” referring to “motivation to engage in activity for its own sake” by Pintrich and Strunk (2002:245). The pre and post questionnaires used to measure the students’ motivation before and after the treatment were designed with statements that show students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation based on the definitions above. (See Appendix 3, 4) 1.2. Learning English through songs 4 1.2.1. Reasons for using songs in the language classroom There are a number of reasons for using songs in the classroom. Firstly, music brings enjoyment to the language classroom. Many language teachers like to use music in their language classrooms as music brings enjoyment and fun to people’s lives. Secondly, songs motivate language learning. Murphey (1990) & Davanellos (1999) state that music and songs are highly motivating and relaxing. Thirdly, songs also sustain students’ interest in learning. Davanellos (1999:13) pointed out that “Songs are highly memorable”. The pleasurable learning through songs experience enables students to practice pronunciation (Monreal, 1982), rhythm and stress, syntax and vocabulary as “a good teacher will take precautions to ensure that the language which the song reinforces is natural and useful” (Bechtold, 1983:181). 1.2.2. How can songs be used in language teaching? Automatic usual and simple answer to this question could be: “A word-gap-fill.” However, the answer is not so single valued. And hopefully, the selected list of Tim Murphey(1992: 9-10) (and references to other sources of activities) will be convincing enough to prove that the answer can be much longer. From the list, it can be seen that songs can be used in various ways. All the skills such as listening, reading, writing and speaking can be practiced, the same way as linguistic areas starting with vocabulary, grammatical structures, and ending with rhythm, stress, fluency and pronunciation. 1.2.3. Choosing suitable songs and teaching procedure For teenagers or adults in the intermediate or advanced level, it is better to use more meaningful or popular songs, which not only review or introduce grammar points but also reflect cultural aspects (Horner, D, 1993). At the primary level of singing the song, the prosodic features of the language is emphasized. At the higher levels, where the practice of grammar points is at the foreground, songs can be used with several techniques. The following procedure to teach a song by Eken, D.K. (1996) in an English teaching forum seems to be suitable for high school teaching: After deciding the grammar point to be studied, and the song and the techniques to be used, the teacher should prepare an effective lesson plan. Since songs are listening activities, it is advisable to present them as a listening lesson, but of course it is necessary to integrate all the 5 skills in the process in order to achieve successful teaching. When regarding a lesson plan, as a pre-listening activity, the theme, the title, or the history of the song can be discussed. By directing the students toward specific areas, problem vocabulary items can be picked up in advance. Before listening to the song, it is also beneficial to let the students know which grammar points should be studied. In the listening stage, some of the techniques listed above can be used, but among them gap filling is the most widely used technique. Through such gaps, the vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation is highlighted. In the follow-up, integrated skills can be used to complete the overall course structure. 1.3. Learning English through poems 1.3.1. Reasons for using poems in language teaching. In fact, poetry is terrific material for EFL class. As we know, most of the materials written for EFL class are centered on some topics for grammar or for communicative competence. Poetry can turn the dullness into excitement, for it can offer “many pleasures pleasures of sound and meaning, of image and symbol, of speech and feeling and thoughts.” (DiYanni, 1998) With the teaching of poetry, students can be motivated not only to learn English but also to appreciate the deeper dimension and exquisiteness of the language. 1.3.2. How can poems be used in language teaching? Poems, like songs, contextualize a grammar lesson effectively. Since poetry is often spoken, repeated, dealt with, and considered, it acts as an effective tool for practicing a specific grammatical structure. Like songs, poems exaggerate the rhythmic nature of the language. Thus it is an important aspect to be taught, since English is a syllable timed language with stressed syllables being spoken at roughly equal time pauses, even in everyday speech. 1.3.3. Choosing suitable poems and teaching procedure In the selection of a poem, the teacher should first consider the grammatical structure to be presented, practiced, or reviewed, then the level and the age of the students, next the theme and the length of the poem and its appropriateness to the classroom objectives. It is advisable to select a poem from 20th century poets. Poems, which reflect cultural themes, universal features, 6 humanistic values, or emotional aspects, will be more relevant to the foreign language learners. Finally, through taking the classroom objectives into consideration, a teacher should effectively benefit from poems as teaching aids. At the teaching stage of a poem, it is not advisable to talk about the meaning of the poem in advance. At the pre-reading stage, students might be motivated through some enthusiastic talks about poetry or the poet. Some necessary vocabulary can also be handled at this stage. At the reading stage, in order to create images and stress the prosodic features, the teacher may want the students to close their eyes while he/she is reading the poem. After the poem has been read at least twice, it is better to elicit the primary responses of the students about the poem. Next, after distributing the poem to students, students may be asked to read it either loudly or silently. In order to practice the determined grammar point, students may be asked to paraphrase the poem. Through transforming the verse into prose students get acquainted with the structure. CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 2.1. Setting of the study 2.2. Research Questions 1. Does learning - English - through - songs - and - poems increase motivation in the ESL classroom? 2. What is the most suitable time to use songs and poems in the English lessons of at high school? 3. What kinds of songs and poems are high school students’ favourite ones? 4. What class activities are suitable for teaching songs and poems to high school students? 2.3. Research Methodology To answer these above research questions, a quasi – experimental research was carried out in Van Noi High School during the two months at the end of the second term of the school year 2010 – 2011. This is a nonequivalent groups pretest-posttest design (Gibbons, Barry & Herman, Joan, 1997). 2.4. Participants Eighty grade 10 students from two classes participated in this study. Class 10B acted as the experiment group while Class 10F as the control group. 2.5. Instruments to collect data [...]... research questions  Songs and poems have good affective effect on students learning English  English songs, especially pop songs, and poems, especially short and funny poems, with simple language seem to help the students to become more intrinsically motivated to learn English 2 Pedagogical Implications  Teachers are encouraged to use songs and poems in the classroom 9  Songs and poems should be carefully... gap – filling or choosing the right words or ordering the lyrics  Step four: Reading aloud the full lyrics  Step five: Translating the songs into Vietnamese to have better understanding of the songs (This can be optional)  Step six: Singing along  Step seven: Singing on their own 4.1 Integration of poems in the teaching English in high schools 4.1.1 Choosing the suitable poem for the topic of the... poems that are short, no more than five stanzas with two or four lines per stanza 4.1.2 Designing tasks for the poems: 10  Gap – filling when watching the video poem  Reordering mixed lines when listening to the poem  Practicing pronouncing words, and stress, intonation by reading aloud the poems  Drawing the picture to describe the poem  Translating the poems into Vietnamese 4.1.3 Procedure to. .. learn English more often and harder With the hopeful result for increasing students intrinsic motivation, the researcher believed that the way to integrate songs and poems into usual English curriculum was reasonable However, at the beginning of the research, the teacher met a lot of time difficulties to finish all the tasks of both song - or poem-lesson and the usual lesson The songs and the poems. .. poems should be carefully selected to raise the students motivation  Songs and poems can be used to develop students vocabulary, listening and reading skills, and pronunciation if activities are appropriately designed 3.1 Integration of songs in the teaching English in high schools 3.1.1 Choosing the suitable song for the topic of the unit Firstly the song must suit the topic of the unit Secondly, the... 10F students liked to have more pair work and group activities For their attitude towards English songs and poems, the experimental group enjoyed singing English songs, and really wanted to learn English through songs and poems more than the control group That was the reason why the researcher chose Class 10B to be the experimental group Having been taught the five chosen English songs and five English. .. questionnaire and and post – questionnaire) were used together with and Students reflections (including the worksheets, some of their thoughts and feelings towards learning English through songs and poems, their collections of favorite songs to learns) to collect data in this study 2.6 Data Collection Procedure  Step 1 Giving a pretest:  Step 2 Treatment:  Step 3 Giving Posttest  Step 4 Data analysis and. .. taught at the beginning of a lesson to warm up the class, bring the English environment to the class or at the end of the lesson to consolidate the grammar or pronunciation points of the lesson or as the fill - up Students enjoyed learning both English songs and poems but they preferred English songs to poems Among the five songs were taught, they really enjoyed the pop songs with the popular, meaningful,... practiced singing along the karaoke version together in the classroom They found it more relaxing and refreshing to learn in a new environment Singing brought them more satisfaction that affected their motivation in learning the language than any other activity in the lessons Singing has been identified by the students to be the most important element that determines their motivation in learning PART C:... extrinsic motivation than intrinsic motivation in learning English but there was a larger capacity for the experimental group to increase their intrinsic motivation in their learning The two classes were found to be different in their learning behavior The experimental group was more passive than the control group in terms of their willingness to participate in class activities 10B students liked to work . of songs and poems in teaching English enhances the students motivation in learning English. - To find out what kind of songs and poems can make high school students motivated - To find out. Using songs and poems in teaching English to motivate students at Van Noi High School Nguyễn Thị Thúy Hà Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Teaching Methodology;. conducted in Van Noi High School to test the hypothesis of using songs and poems to motivate students to learn English. 2. Aims of the research The research aimed: - To find out how the use of songs