Teaching listening with songs

2.2 THE CRITERIA FOR SELECTING SONGS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

As I mentioned before, songs are important sources to be used during language teaching. Besides positive effects, there are of course drawbacks of using songs in language teaching. Terhune (1997: 8) counts these difficulties that learners encounter as follows:

1. Pop songs are not scientific. Therefore, some teachers and students do not think that they are effective tools in education.
2. As each student has a different way of learning, some students may have difficulty in studying through music.
3. Lack of efficient sound systems in schools may cause problems while listening to songs.
4. The types of music chosen by teachers may not be equally favored by students
5. Some songs such as, not grammatical or those involving complicated sentence structures may confuse students.
6. In some songs, there may be explicit lyrics that cannot be explained to students.
7. Repetition of a limited number of words may cause the song to seem boring or ineffective.
According to Jensen (2000), most teachers lack adequate musical understanding, and teacher-training programs do not include any instruction on how to integrate music in language education. Another disadvantage of employing songs is the inability to slow down the tempo of the song when a linguistically difficult part is being played, or to speed it up when particular parts are being repeated (Miller, 2002). Furthermore, while some teachers may believe they are unable to sing, utilizing songs in the classroom for this purpose does not necessitate any prior knowledge of the subject. Teachers can sing along with the song while it's playing or when students don't want to sing it alone. When utilizing a song in a class environment, the language of the song, the students' age and language level, and the teacher's and students' interests should all be taken into account. A certain amount of attention is required in order to use music effectively. According to Sarçoban (2000), songs with frequent repetitions, a tale, or interpretations of life or cultural elements should be used.
So, how can we select the right song to utilize in language teaching? Below are key factors to consider :

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