Listening skills in English as a foreign language

CHAPTER II Motivation in learning English as a foreign language
2.1 Songs in learning English as a foreign language
The previous chapter discussed the students’ motivation and how it plays an important role in learning listening skills. The current chapter will explain how to awaken the students’ motivation to develop their listening skills in the foreign language class. It will focus on songs as an interesting, motivating activity that paves the way to successful learning of a foreign language. Due to the challenging nature of listening, teachers should find alternative methods of teaching to make the class stimulating and thought -provoking. Thus, the students will be stimulated and not be frightened or worried when they practice listening (Arevalo, 2010, p. 124). On a daily basis, people hear songs everywhere. Most enjoy listening to music and seek it, making songs the perfect listening exercise teachers can use in the classroom to teach English as a foreign language. This possibility has been actively considered since the last two decades as songs have many values of a language learning (Arevalo, 2010, pp. 124-125). There has been also an increasing interest among researchers in the impact of out of school activities, including listening, to music on the process of language acquisition and, particularly, in learning modern foreign languages (Falk & Bella, 2014; Mora, Fuentes &Wermke, 2011; Sundqvist, 2009). Besides, there is an urge among scholars (Cook, 1996; Gardner, 2000; Gee, 2004; Legg, 2009; Woodrow, 2006; Woolfolk, Hughes & Walkup, 2008) to consider the learners’ needs and interests when choosing the content and methods of teaching in the process of education in order to improve motivation. Research shows that music education benefits students notably by its positive effects on the brain’s functions. Findings point to several educational benefits of music for students by increasing self-expression, cognitive abilities, language development, and swift responsiveness. Music is unique in its ability to affect more than a single brain hemisphere, incorporating both the right and left sides of the brain. While music listening has marked physiological benefits, playing an instrument or taking vocal lessons offers benefits related to memory, language, and cognitive development (Willimek & Willimek, 2011).
This chapter will discuss in detail aspects of using songs as a teaching and learning method in foreign language class. It will start with a definition of “song”, followed by a discussion of its importance and purpose in the foreign language class. Also, it will tackle the different types of songs and the relation between songs and the brain. Also, the relation between songs, listening skills and motivation will be highlighted. In addition, theories that are linked to the use of songs such as Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory and the VAK theory will be discussed. Definition of music and song It is quite difficult to establish only one definition for this term, as the concept of “music” is something very subjective and can vary from one place to another, from time to time and even from person to person as it is related to their feelings. According to Wynton Marsalis “music is sound organized in time.” (Marsalis, 1995). However, Michael Linton describes music as “the organization of sound and silence into forms that carry culturally delivered meaning”. Luciano Berio, meanwhile, says, “music is everything one listens to with the intention of listening to music” (San Martín, 2013, pp. 6-7). Dictionary.com (2018) provides seven entries under the headword music. The first says, “music is an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color”. The definition emphasizes music’s role to describe emotions, citing four essential features, which characterize it. The second definition says that music is “the tones or sounds employed, occurring in single line (melody) or multiple lines (harmony), and sounded or to be sounded by one or more voices or instruments, or both” (Dictionary.com, 2018). In fact, this explanation is all about instruments and voice. Simply put, music is instruments or voices (or both) that people hear (Kuśnierek, 2016, p. 22). Considering these definitions, the researcher would suggest the following definition of music: “Music is the sound that a human being listens to and accordingly moves his emotions positively or negatively”
It is clear from the previous definitions that music is an emotion shaper. It moves feelings and affects perceptions. Songs in particular play this role effectively as the lyrics provide meaning to music. This is extremely relevant and beneficial to language learning. In fact, a song can be a great language package that bundles culture, vocabulary, listening, grammar and a host of other language skills in just a few rhymes. It can also provide a relaxed lesson and form the basis for many lessons. According to Hornby (1990), a song is a piece of music with words that is sung. He redefines song as a short poem or a number of verses set into music and intended to be sung. There are some other definitions of a song from different sources such as Jamalus (1988, p. 5), who states that songs can be considered as art works if they are sounded (sung) with the accompaniment of musical devices. The Encyclopedia of Americana (1998) defines song as a short musical work set to a poetic text, with equal importance given to the music and to the words. It may be written for one or several voices and is generally performed with instrument accompaniment. From the definitions of song above the researcher concludes that a song is a kind of art that can be sung either with or without instrumental accompaniments and can also be used to address language educational goals.
Elements of Songs Listeners usually do not only focus on the lyrics of a song, but rather they enjoy the melody, harmony and expression. According to Jamalus (1988, p. 7), a song is a unity of elements, consisting of different elements: main and expression. The main elements consist of rhythm, melody, harmony and lyrics. Rhythm or tempo is the regular, repeated pattern of sound while melody is the arrangement of these patterns and harmony is the unity of two or more tones playing together. Lyrics, meanwhile, are the words accompanying the musical sentences. On the other hand, expression elements show how musicians express their feelings through sound dynamics and voice color. Importance of songs in teaching and learning a foreign language Music and songs not only provide tools to strengthen and reinforce vocabulary, comprehension, listening, speaking and writing, but also enhance the foreign language learning experience. Along with grammatical variations, songs as auditory stimuli encourage brain activity and the imagination. Learning English through music and songs entails complex interactive roles, positively motivated students to engage and learn. Action research supports a connection between language and song, as well as the propensity of songs to actively engage learners in stimulating activities and discovery
Utilization of visual and auditory tools is effective in strengthening the learning process. Using these tools in the class environment not only enables students to acquire the desired information more quickly, but also makes the information acquired more permanent. According to Çakır (2006), it is a well-known fact that audio-visual materials are a great help in stimulating and facilitating the learning of a foreign language. They have positive contributions to language learning as long as they are used at the right time and in the right place. The more the multimedia material appeals to the human senses, the greater the improvement in the level and the quality of lingual skills (Tarcan, 2004), thus leading to a better quality and more quantity of the language skills output. From this point of view, songs, which are auditory tools, are important resources for students while developing lingual skills
Studying music proves to be advantageous to language learners. Harmer (2000) states that music is a powerful stimulus for student engagement as it speaks directly to the student’s emotions while allowing the brain to analyze it. According to a report of Art Education Partnership (2011), music affects capabilities of young students to develop essential skills in academic subjects and may affect further learning processes. It sharpens attentiveness and prepares students for achievements. The report also states, “musical training develops the region of the brain responsible for verbal memory, the recall and retention of spoken words which serves as a foundation for retaining information in all academic subjects” (p. 4). The interest in the correlation between listening to music and memorization of words has been growing since the last decade, which may be explained by growing numbers of people learning foreign languages. It seems that what attracts the listener primarily is the combination of rhythm, melody and lyrics (Fonseca-Mora, Toscano-Fuentes & Wermke, 2011). According to Ahlbäck (2004), the cue to memorization of the lyrics may lay in the link between the structure and the syntax of the melody and that of the language: “in vocal music, lyrics may easily serve as a more forceful structural cue than pitch and rhythmic structure” (p.468). He compares melody to a language that all people understand but in their own individual ways. That individuality of the perception of music may serve as a key role in the joy of the activity when a person seeks and finds their own identity in connection with a certain community of the target language
The emotional aspect of music turns language acquisition into an enjoyable activity for both children and adults (Fonseca-Mora et al., 2011; Sundqvist, 2009). Beasley & Chuang (2008) investigated the impact of listening to music on learning English in a web-based learning environment. The results suggested that repeated listening to a song increases motivation to learn English and has a positive impact on the outcome of learning.
Beasley & Chuang (2008) underline the importance of the content of the lyrics, saying that listener’s interest in the words of a song will contribute to repeated listening to it. Repetition is argued to be important in incidental second language acquisition as it contributes to deep knowledge (Beasley & Chuang, 2008; Falk, Rathcke & Dalla Bella, 2014; Sundqvist, 2009). Another interesting aspect are out-of-school activities. Sundqvist (2009, pp. 144, 146) suggests that the participants of the research she conducted spent more time listening to music than other extracurricular activities that helped with English learning. She argues that the respondents had improved their oral proficiency and vocabulary in English as a result of a number of out-of-school activities including listening to music. Similarly, listening to songs in French by teenage learners of French as a modern second language acquisition (SLA) had, according to Legg (2009, p. 10), a positive effect on memorizing words and phrases in context. The positive effect of repetition on SLA corresponds with the suggestion put forward is by Beasley and Chuang (2008), Falk, Rathcke& Dalla Bella (2014), Sundqvist (2009), Sylvén (2004), Webb, Newton & Chang (2013). Moreover, repetition is also considered important in the methodology of SLA that leads to deep learning (Cook, 1996, SavilleTroike, 2012, Beasley & Chuang, 2008; Sundqvist, 2009)
When designing lessons and teaching materials to further develop listening comprehension skills, students need to be motivated and stay motivated. This is best accomplished by determining the most suitable kind of listening material such as the use of song as authentic material. The use of song stimulates and motivates students to comprehend the content of materials
The possibility of using songs in English as a foreign language class has been actively considered for the last two decades. It is considered because songs have many values of language. Orlova (2003) suggests that the use of songs in class has many purposes, namely: Practicing the rhythm, stress and the intonation patterns of the English language, teaching vocabulary and grammar, developing listening comprehension, writing skills, and speaking. For this last purpose, songs and mainly their lyrics are employed as a stimulus for class discussion. There can be distinguished affective and cognitive rationale for playing a song during a lesson. In fact, affective reasons are connected with Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis. It gives an explanation why some learners learn and others do not. The crucial thing is that students need to develop a positive attitude towards learning (Eken, 1996, p. 46). Krashen (1982) stresses, “For optimal learning to occur the affective filter must be weak. A weak filter means that a positive attitude toward learning is present. Because of the casual learning environment used when singing, songs are one method for achieving a weak affective filter and promoting language learning” (p.228)
Hence the teachers’ task is to provide a positive atmosphere favorable for learning. In this aspect music and songs may be one of the methods for obtaining a weak affective filter (Eken, 1996, p. 46). Accordingly, Eken (1996, p. 46) enumerates eight reasons for the use of song in a language classroom. Firstly, a song may be used to present a topic, new vocabulary or a language point. Then, it may also be used as a practice of lexis. Also, songs can be used as a material for extensive and intensive listening. Some teachers may use them to focus on frequent learner errors in a more indirect way. Not to mention that songs are a perfect source for stimulating discussions about feelings and attitudes. Additionally, songs may arrange a relaxed classroom atmosphere and contribute to fun. Finally, songs may be said to encourage the use of imagination and creativity during foreign language lessons.
Songs also give a chance to develop automaticity, which is the main cognitive reason for using songs in the classroom (Schoepp, 2001). Automaticity is defined as “a component of language fluency which involves both knowing what to say and producing language rapidly without pauses” (Gatbonton & Segalowitz, 1988, p. 473). To put it in other words, songs may help automatize the language improvement process of the students to use the target language in a communicative way. Benefits of using music and songs in the foreign language classroom Some teachers are not aware of possibilities of using songs in the classroom. They may feel that such activities are not appropriate for classes, causing discipline problems. However, many scholars including Stanislawczyk &Yavener (1978, p. 60) are of the opinion that a song is an advantageous tool and a teacher should take advantage of it during linguistic practice. They also emphasize the importance of the engagement learners get when listening to songs or creating their own lyrics. There are essential benefits of using songs and music in the foreign language classroom such as, increasing motivation, creating positive atmosphere, acquiring cultural and historical knowledge, learning linguistic knowledge, and lowering affective filter. Each benefit will be further explained:
Experiencing films, television, computer games and popular music seems to be highly motivating. Accordingly, concentrating on popular music in English foreign language classroom would surely increase learners’ motivation as in class tasks which reflect on their knowledge and when there is a focus on the vocabulary they already know from the songs (Baoan, 2008). 2. Creating a positive atmosphere Creating favorable conditions for learning is a very important factor for learning a foreign language. The use of music and song can produce a positive atmosphere, where the learners can flourish and feel secure and comfortable. Murphey (1992) believes “the use of music and songs can stimulate very positive associations to the study of a language, which otherwise may only be seen as a laborious task, entailing exams, frustration, and corrections” (p. 6). Music, then, can relax students and defuse tensions since some of them may not feel at ease to use the new language. The mother tongue of the students, which is the basis of their communication, is in some classes forbidden to use and learners may feel lost or helpless (Griffee, 1992, p. 4). Instruments playing silently in the background make students feel more secure when doing the task at the same time.