USING ENGLISH SONGS TO HELP EFL 10th GRADE STUDENTS IMPROVE PRONUNCIATION KNOWLEDGE

Here are some ideas onhow to use songs with pronunciation lessons: Listen and… • put the verse in the right order; • put the underline words under the right column according to …pronunci

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THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NGOC LAC ETHNIC BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INNOVATION

USING ENGLISH SONGS TO HELP EFL 10th GRADE

STUDENTS IMPROVE PRONUNCIATION KNOWLEDGE

Writer: Đinh Văn Thiện Position: Teacher Topic in the fields of: English

THANH HOA 2018

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INDEX

Page

INDEX ……… 2

A INTRODUCTION ……… 3

I Reasons to choose the theme ……… 3

II Purposes of the research ……… 3

III Subjects of the research ……… 3

IV Methodology of the research ……… 3

B CONTENTS ……… 4

I Theoretical basis of the study ……… 4

II Reality of the issue ……… 4

1 Advantages ……… 4

2 Shortcomings ……… 5

III The practical basics of the theme ……… 5

1 Solutions ……… 5

2 Suggested solutions to run “pronunciation part” using English songs in Basic English 10 6 IV The assessment of experimental results ……… 17

C CONCLUSION ……… 19

1 Experience lessons ……… 19

2 Proposal ……… 19

REFERENCE ……… 20

CONVENTIONS OF ABBREVIATIONS ……… 20

A INTRODUCTION

I Reasons to choose the theme

Generally, in language learning process, the learners have to master four basic skills of language, which include the language components such

as grammatical structure, vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation Among these components, pronunciation is one of the most difficult aspects to master when it comes to learn a new language, but in fact there is no lesson which focuses on pronunciation Indeed, pronunciation can increase the quality of students' speaking as Harmer stated (2001:183) that

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pronunciation teaching not only makes students aware of different soundand sound features, but also improve their speaking immeasurably.

Practically, the students would become not interested in learningpronunciation if the technique used was monotonous which made thelearning process not effective However, there is a great way which canstrengthen the students’ learning motivation – utilizing music In fact, musichas become part of our life We listen to music every day and we all knowthat music has a great impact not only on our mental health but on ourcognitive abilities also As an integral part of our language experience, it can

be of great value to foreign language teaching Naturally, when we learnEnglish songs, we will tend to repeat the songs again and again And hence

we will enjoy practising English instinctively

Because of the reasons above and stimulated by the inner urge ofproviding readers with deeper insight into this issue, I would like to carry

on this study entitled “Using English songs to help EFL 10 th grade students improve pronunciation knowledge.” Hopefully, the results will

serve as a useful source of reference for those who are concerned teachingand learning English

II Purposes of the research

This research endeavors to demonstrate the value of English songs inELT in general and English pronunciation teaching in particular

III Subjects of the research

Therefore in this topic, I studied generally the value of English songs in ELTand ways of exploiting an English song in each pronunciation part in English10

IV Methodology of the research

This study was conducted at a public high school that teaches ESL:Ngoc Lac ethnic boarding high school, Thanh Hoa province The participantswere 10th grade students In total, 90 students from 3 classes took part inthis study

This main methodology used in this method was experimental.Students experience the learning process in which English songs areapplied for teaching English pronunciation Then, a standardized test isconducted at the end of the second semester to assess the influence of thismethod During the process of researching, the author also consults withthe other English teachers for useful assistant, corrections, and comments

B CONTENTS.

I Theoretical basis of the study

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We can surely become bored out of our mind by repeatedly listening

to a narration, dialogue or a even sentence as we attempt to understand themeaning of a new word or phrase in context Unsurprisingly, popular songstouch the lives of us and are connected with our various interest andeveryday experiences We listen to music to reduce anxiety, to stay positive,

to relax The rhythm and melody of songs enable us to listen to them overand over again That’s why we need music to boost our motivation inlearning English

In the same vein, Purcell (1992) states that students can becomebored with repeatedly listening to a narration or dialog as they attempt tounderstand the meaning of new words or phrases in context In contrast,when the students are supposed to sing the song along with the recording or theteacher line by line, they can improve listening skills with practice listening

to different forms of intonation and rhythm (Педагогика, 13.02.2017) Also,Murphey believes that music has the power to engrave itself into our brains,stating that “songs work on our short-and long-term memory” and aretherefore adequate tools for using in the language classroom (1992, p 3)

What activities should we do when teaching English with songs? Toanswer this question, a great deal of researchers indicated a large number

of activities applied in language teaching process Here are some ideas onhow to use songs with pronunciation lessons:

Listen and…

• put the verse in the right order;

• put the underline words under the right column according to …(pronunciation transcriptions)

• complete the blanks with the words in the box;

• choose the right word;

• check the words that you hear;

• reorder the letters;

• correct the words/mistake;

In the same vein, activities for exploiting songs can certainly beemployed isolation that the students require to situate the song by listeningactivities within a coherent framework These activities are classified intothree stages of framework: the pre-listening stage, the while listening stageand the post-listening stage This thesis focuses upon activities for the whilelistening stage Similar activities have been in circulation in EFL classrooms for

a number of years, yet they remain new to teachers participating in workshopsand training programs that the author has facilitated

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II Reality of the issue

1 Advantages

Although many problems directly affect to the teaching and learningprocess, our teachers and students have overcome the difficulties and havegradually improved the quality of teaching and learning English to meet theconstantly changing requirements of the textbook programs

• For teachers:

- They have absorbed initially to new teaching methods

- They have constantly improved knowledge as well as have learnedexperiences from each other to promote the quality of teaching

• For students:

- Most of them participate regularly and positively in learning English

- They are always interested in learning new teaching methods

2 Shortcomings

We easily see boredom, lack of dynamism and inefficiency in the

“Pronunciation” part in “Language focus” lesson This is what my colleaguesand I have devoted special attention To find out the factors that lead to thisproblem, we carried out a survey and perhaps below are the major causes:

• For teachers:

- They apply new methods in their teaching inconstantly

- Many of them are not interested in listening English songs

- Many of them do not make a sufficient preparation for every

“Pronunciation” part, some even ignore it because of their own reasons

• For the students:

- Most of them did not use to listen English songs before

- Their background knowledge is limited

- Their listening skills are at the beginning level

- Their vocabulary is not available

III The practical basics of the theme

1 Solutions

Pronunciation is one of the most important things that students have

to master in order to communicate appropriately and fluently

Despite lasting around five to seven minutes in each forty five-minute

“language focus” lesson, the activities of the “Pronunciation” section give thelearners opportunities to master the sound of the language, or phonology;stress and rhythm; intonation and includes the role of individual sounds aswell as segmental sounds ( Richards, J 1969) How can we achieve our goal

in such a short time? There are many factors that affect directlyeffectiveness and excitement in pronouncing strategies, in which theteacher with his teaching skills and the students’ preparation are twoextremely important ones

1.1 What should teachers do in pronouncing teaching part?

An exciting atmosphere in learning often stimulates the teacher andstudents to rush into the lesson (Gabriel, B 2007) Therefore, motivation in

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study is the first essential factor that needs to be created In order toachieve this goal, the teacher needs to have the following qualifications inthe class:

• Joviality

• Good sense of humor

• Good language skills

• Appropriate teaching method

• Enough patience and enthusiasm

Especially, the teacher’s preparation for the lesson is decisive aspect

to the success of language teaching process in general and pronouncingteaching part in particular Beside teaching aids and syllabus, an Englishsong which is appropriate to the topic and contain phonemes of wordsintroduced in the pronunciation part is useful for the lesson

1.2 What should students do in pronouncing teaching part?

Basically, the learners are centered subjects in teaching process Thus,the success of language learning is depended significantly on their efforts.Specifically, in order to implement a pronunciation lesson effectively, besidethe teacher’ efforts, students’ responsibility to it is really essential Firstly,preparation for the lesson is helpful to the students in a pronunciationlesson The sound, stress, rhythm as well as intonation of new words andsentences introduced in this part can be strange to them and sometimesinterfere them to master If students make sufficient preparation before thelesson, they can be more confident and easy to discover more new thingsrelated to the content by the teacher’s help and other students’ assistance.Secondly, students should not sing along the recorder during it playsbecause it makes noise and obscures the ordered sounds in the song.Finally, students try to do the tasks in brief ways In such a short time of thispart, they should not raise more questions to the teacher or give too manytheir comments about the song

2 Suggested solutions to run “pronunciation part” using English songs inBasic English 10

Generally, there are two or three transcriptions of vowel or consonantpronunciation and six sentences including these phonemes in each of the

“Pronunciation” section in English 10 curriculum Practice reading thesesentences is necessary but sometimes boring Instead of pronouncing thisway, teachers should use an English song to make the learning atmospheremore enjoyable and effective

However, the song used in the lesson is not spontaneity It should be apopular song lasting not more than four minutes with understandablewords or expressions, simple tunes and a number of its words have to beconcerned with the pronunciation mentioned in each lesson Thus, a songshould be considered to choose appropriately before exploiting in eachlesson If the song is too long, the teacher should choose one part which iseasy to listen and has the sounds introduced in the lesson Typically, the

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more familiar to students the song is, the more effective pronouncingteaching is

Moreover, there are normally some different levels of the students inthe class Teachers should design tasks flexibly and suitably for averageones to exploit the song As a result, students’ replies with simple words aswell as structures, not only easy for the other students to understand butalso the teacher can easily manage the situation in a short time

In addition, as mentioned above, the performance of a pronunciationteaching part used a song contains three stages of framework In each stage,activities should be conducted quickly to control the allowed time

In the pre-listening stage: Students engage in activities that activate schema orbackground knowledge of a song’s main theme This step may consist ofseveral warm-up questions to be discussed with a partner, the introduction ofsome key vocabulary items and sounds or prediction activities (Gravenall, B.1945)

In the while listening stage: Students listen to the song and complete an

assigned task In the post-listening stage: Students analyze new phonemes;

some can also repeat some sentences or even sing the song again if they areready to perform

Sixteen English songs with suggested implications to exploit in sixteen

“Pronunciation” sections in English 10 curriculum are the following

UNIT 1: / i: / and / i / The song exploited: Say You Will

Task 1: Teacher introduces the transcriptions and read aloud the words given in the book

Task 2: Teacher introduces and plays the song then orders students to listenand find out the sounds:

- Find out words which have the phoneme / i: /

Suggested answer: keep, feel, deep, lead, need

- Find out words which have the phoneme / i /

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