May 2021
SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
cars, and literally everywhere for those who discovered the world of CD players, MP3 players, and
mobile phones with high capacity memory. Another important characteristic, ‘The song stuck in our
head’ phenomenon, as Murphy calls the echoing in our minds of the last song we heard after leaving
our car, a restaurant, etc., and which can be both enjoyable and sometimes upsetting, suggests that
songs work on our short-term and long term memory. One of the great advantage of using songs as a
teaching aid is that very often the students learn without realizing it!
Here are some of the reasons that may justify an increased and systematic use of songs and chants.
•Songs help learn vocabulary, grammar and syntax.
Learning with songs really works as children hear whole sentences and absorb grammar and syntax
subconsciously. It’s an easy way for them to learn and remember words and phrases.
•They can use meaningful language in context.
Children hear vocabulary and phrases in a natural and meaningful context and no longer as isolated
words or sentences. The songs we teach include a range of sociolinguistic situations appropriate to
the age and needs of the pupils such as greetings, everyday life-situations, requests and any language
items necessary for basic classroom functions and routines.
•Songs can be catchy and re-usable.
Unlike a listening comprehension a song is catchy and fun and students will be happy hearing it
many times over several months, as long as they are not played to death in a single lesson.
•Songs improve listening skills.
Naturally listening to any English song helps listening skills as long as the language is within the
grasp of the learner.
•They improve speaking fluency with the natural rhythms of language.
When using songs for language teaching that are performed by native speakers’ children hear the
natural rhythms and stresses of English and this helps their pronunciation and speaking fluency.
•Integrating music and actions makes the lesson appeal to wider learning styles.
Along with the music, melody and rhythm actions can be found to go with the song. Actions may
be used with any song and not just with obvious ‘action songs’ like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.
This immediately pushes the boat out to reach more pupils by encompassing a variety of learning
styles in class. Especially very young learners enjoy action songs. They tend to memorize the words
easier if an action is associated with the words of the song.
As mentioned earlier, there were other positive aspects of this method. The atmosphere during
the lessons was better than during ′ordinary′ lessons. The students were more focused and more
interested. Some pupils expressed their interest in searching and working on more lyrics of their
favorite songs. Some pupils even started to work this way on their own, which is probably more
important achievement than the marks themselves because it added another dimension to their
language learning process.
To sum up, this method is highly effective if the song used is the students’ favorite. Taking into
consideration all points given above, we can come to the conclusion that students` learn better with
the auspices of innovative and interactive methods than learn from their coursebooks.
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