SONG IN ENGLISH

(ANDI TENRI HARDIYANTI/1252040011/ENGLISH EDUCATION A)

A. INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, English becomes a common useful language in the world.

According to some statements that have found in www.Funeasyenglish.com, there are

over 500 million speakers of English as a second or foreign language. English also

becomes an international language since it used to unite all people in the world to

discuss about politics, science, technology, education, health and many other things

with people globally. In Indonesia, many people learning English. Even the students

start to learn English since in elementary school. English has chosen as the first

foreign language that be taught in the school.

There are many ways to increase the student’s English acquisition. It is

with theory, assignment, use a media such as games and picture. But so far, the

teachers still have problems to make the students influence in English.

According to Kristin Lems (2001) “Music can be used in the adult ESL

classroom to create a learning environment; to build listening comprehension,

speaking, reading, and writing skills; to increase vocabulary; and to expand cultural

knowledge”..

According to Hornby (1990), song is a piece of music with words that is

sung. Song is also a great language package that bundles culture, vocabulary,

listening, grammar and a host of other language skills in just a few rhymes. Songs can

also provide a relaxed lesson on a hot boring day. Considering this fact, the teacher

can use music in the process of learning. It will give a positive effect for the students

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Music in this era is developing so fast. Many singers from abroad are loved

by people in Indonesia. Sometimes, they also concert in here. For the song, the

teacher can access it easily. Even the western song is really easy to get. We can buy it

in the store or we can download it and it’s free. That’s why using music in the

learning process of English class will be easy.

The analysis of this paper focuses on using music in English. It includes

using song in teaching English, the example of song in teaching English and the

reason why using English in teaching English.

B. DISCUSSIONS

1. How to use song in English classroom

a.) Listen to the song

Start things off by just listening. It’s important to remember that

this is supposed to be a fun activity; don’t make it too serious or boring. As

an alternative, you can show a video clip if you have. Ask learners if

they’ve heard it before, and don’t overload them with tasks at this point;

simply let them enjoy the music.

b.) Ask some question about the titles

Here are a couple of examples of the types of questions you can

ask:

For John Lennon’s wonderful ‘Jealous Guy’:

‘What is a ‘jealous guy’?’

‘What are three things a jealous guy might do?’

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‘What kinds of jealousy are there?

For Queen’s classic ‘We are the champions’:

‘What is a champion?’

‘What kinds of champions are there in the world?’

‘What activities have champions?’

Such questions tend to work really well as conversation starters,

so group three or four learners together and then get feedback from each

group on their thoughts. If you think it would help, make this your first

step, i.e., before the initial listening.

c.) Listen the song again, this time with lyric

This time, you should give learners the chance to read the lyrics to

the song. At this point you might do one or more of the following

activities:

Learners can just read the lyrics while they listen. They can possibly

highlight unknown words for later discussion.

You can make a lyric worksheet as a gap fill; learners fill in the gaps

as they listen.

You can make cut-out strips of selected missing words and again

make a lyric worksheet as a gap fill; this time learners match the

word strips to the gaps as they listen.

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d.) Focus on a particular verb tense or aspect grammar

Virtually every song centers on a particular verb tense. This is too

good an opportunity to pass up in terms of uncovering the grammar. There

are suggestion is to start with questions such as these:

How many examples can you find of the past simple in the lyrics?

Why did the writer of this song choose this verb tense?

This acts as a springboard for discussing the function of a specific

tense, as well as examining its form. Furthermore, it often tends to raise

awareness of grammatical flexibility and ‘poetic license’ in the

construction of song lyrics. Students often expect songs to obey the

grammatical rules that have been drummed into them.

e.) Focus on vocabulary, idioms and expressions

We’ve noted that many songs bend the rules of grammar. It’s also

useful to focus on the creative and artistic use of vocabulary we encounter

in lyrics. Start with questions like these (again, for Queen’s classic song

‘We are the champions’):

What does ‘I’ve paid my dues’ mean?

What does ‘my share of’ mean?

What does ‘I’ve taken my bows’ mean?

Go through the meanings, illustrating with other examples if

necessary. Songs often serve as really good contexts for phrases and

idioms, but it’s good to make sure that the meaning is clear.

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f.) Round things off with some creativity

Creativity is an important part of maintaining motivation but

it shouldn’t be limited to the teaching approach. Here are a few examples

of things you can do to get the creative juices flowing:

Write another verse of lyrics, maintaining the same mood and style

as the original. This can be done individually or in groups. These

new lyrics can be presented to the rest of the class. Perhaps several

groups can work on this to come up with a completely new set of

lyrics for the whole song.

A song tends to give you the perspective of the singer. Write a

response (this can be a paragraph, i.e., not necessarily in lyric form)

from the point of view of the person the song is being sung about, or

any other protagonist.

Have the learners plan a music video for the song. In groups they

decide the location, the characters, and what happens. Then each

group explains their idea to the rest of the class and the learners vote

on the best one. The results can be surprising, as they frequently

come up with an interpretation that hadn’t even occurred to you!

Write a diary entry for a character in the song. Get learners to

examine the thoughts and feelings that inspired the story being

played out in the lyrics.

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2. Activities in learning English by song

According to KristimLems (2001) there are several activites in learning

English:

a.) Listening and oral activities

Songs contextually introduce the features of supra-segmentals (how

rhythm, stress, and intonation affect the pronunciation of English in

context). Through songs, students discover the natural stretching and

compacting of the stream of English speech. For example, the reduction

of the auxiliary have to the sound /uv/ can be heard in the song by Toni

Braxton “You’ve Been Wrong for So Long: (2000). Similarly, the change

of word final t + word initial y to /ch/ can be heard in a line from the

Tracy Chapman song, “All that You Have is Your Soul” (1989), where

the singer says, “Don’t you eat of a bitter fruit.” Moriya (1988) points out

the value of using songs for pronunciation practice with Asian learners

because of the many phonemic differences between Asian languages and

English. However, students from any language background can benefit

from a choral or individual reading of the lyrics of the songs mentioned

above, practicing the natural reductions that occur in spoken English.

Students may summarize orally the action or theme of a song or give oral

presentations about a song or musician, playing musical selections for the

class. To involve the whole class, students can fill out response sheets

about each presentation, answering questions about the featured topic,

something new they learned, and something they enjoyed.

b.) Reading and Writing Activities

Students can fill in the blanks before, during, or after listening to a song,

and then check to see whether their word choices made sense

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semantically, even if they did not pick the exact word used. This

helpsbuild the important skill of forming hypotheses based on context

(predicting). This activity, called cloze,is usually created by deleting

words at predetermined intervals, e.g., every 5th or 7th word.

However,words can be deleted instead to practice a target grammar point,

such as past tense verbs, prepositions, orcompound nouns, or to identify

key words (Griffee, 1990). example, in the popular Enya song,

“OnlyTime”(2001), the auxiliary “can” could be omitted. (“Who can say

where the road goes, where the dayflows, only time. And who can say if

your love grows, as your heart chose, only time.”)

One popular activity is to cut the lyrics into lines and have students put

them in the correct order as theylisten to the song. This can be done

individually or in small groups. It may be necessary to play the

songseveral times. After the lines of the song have been put in order, the

song can be played once more asstudents read or sing along.

Alternatively, the class can be divided into teams with identical sets of

stripsand compete to see which group can put the strips in the correct

order first.

For short songs, students can work in small groups to write the words of a

song. The process of puttingthe lyrics together as a group involves

making decisions about word order, verb tense, and parts ofspeech. It also

builds the teamwork skills so important to the workplace and community.

When the lyricsheet is handed out, the groups can compare what they

heard and wrote with the actual words.

Adult students enjoy writing responses to songs, either in class or at

home. Possible responses includetopics comparing music in the students’

homeland with music in the U.S. This assignment draws uponthe

knowledge and experiences that adult ESL learners bring to language

learning and provides a knowncontext for comparing and contrasting,

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often a difficult skill for beginning writers.Many songs tell a story, and

these stories can be rewritten or retold to practice narrative or

summarizingskills or direct and reported speech. Students can also

complete writing prompt or answer a question fromthe point of view of

the narrator or other characters in a song. For example, the Nancy Wilson

song,“Guess Who I Saw Today,” (1960) is sung by a wife catching her

husband having a romantic lunch withanother woman. The prompt could

require the students to respond to the accusations in writing, sayingwhat

the husband might say.

c.) Vocabulary building activities

Pop songs are written to be easily understood and enjoyed. As discussed

above, they tend to use high frequency lyrics that have emotional content.

This makes them strong candidates for word study or for reinforcing

words already learned through written means. If a series of songs is to be

used, students can be paired and given a song to teach the class.

However, the songs may also have idioms in them that might be difficult

to explain, depending on the level of the students. For example, Cat

Stevens’ rendition of “Morning Has Broken” (1975) may appear initially

to be a solid intermediate- level song that practices the present perfect

tense. On closer examination, the expression “morning has broken” can

be confusing to English language learners and may need to be discussed

prior to listening to the song.

3. Example of the songs

a.) Alphabet

- The ABC Rap – The Gum Rappers

-  Letter Blender – Music Movement & Magination

- Letter Sounds A to Z – Jack Hartmann

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b.) English Grammar and a Systematic Approach to Learning English 

-  Make New Sounds (Digraphs) – Jack Hartmann 

-  Phrasal Verbs and the Imperative – Learning English Through Song 

- Popcorn Words (High-Frequency Words) – Jack Hartmann

c.) Language and Grammar Songs Especially for Children

- Fiddle with a Words –  Intelli-Tune

- Funny Rhymes (Long Vowels) – Ron Brown

- Helper Verbs – Learning by Song

-  Let's Compare (word endings 'er' and 'est') –  Intelli-Tunes

4. The significance of song in learning English

a.) Improve students listening skill

Students perceive the song through listening to it. When students

listening to the music indirectly, they will practice their listening skill.

b.) Improve students vocabulary skill

One of the elements of the song is vocabulary. Students will acquire

new vocabulary in the song that they listen. When they found the new

vocabularies, they want to know more about that vocabulary by

searching the meaning of the words.

c.) Improve students pronunciation

Listening to the music in one of the best way to improve students

pronunciation. Because students will be often repeat the song and in

directly they practice pronouncing new words.

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d.) Foster students motivation

Song is one of interesting way to get students attention in learning

english. Since it is considered as interesting material, students tend to

be motivated.

5. The reason of learning English by using song

a.) It’s fun

The sheer volume of music out there means there will always be

something suitable for the lesson you’re planning and allows for

interesting changes of pace in the classroom. Music also goes a long way

to establishing a positive learning environment while additionally serving

to energize learning activities. Music adds the element of fun while

helping maintain – or even provide – the focus of the lesson. Songs help

create a nice atmosphere as they don’t feel like typical classroom work;

rather they promote the kind of authentic activity which learners engage

in outside the lesson. Music serves as a great lesson warmer because it

stimulates the learners’ imaginations.

b.) Music leads to better retention of language

The natural melody, rhythm and repetition can encourage retention: these

elements collaborate together as an effective teaching and learning tool.

Indeed, learners who have language difficulties can particularly benefit

from the introduction of music into the classroom. Think about how you

find yourself singing songs randomly in your everyday life. This process

is invaluable in language learning: learners’ language retention is

increased when the language is taught as part of a song.

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c.) Its accessible

Now that most music is accessible to almost anyone anywhere, either

through radio, CDs, DVDs and downloads from the Internet, learners can

enjoy songs from all corners of the globe (Lems : 2001 addapted from

http://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr09/less01.htm)

d.) Language learning

In a world where non-native speakers of English are likely to produce the

majority of songs in English, learners have the opportunity to listen to

pronunciation in a wide range of varieties of the language. Songs will

help learners become familiar with word stress and intonation, and the

rhythm with which words are spoken or sung also helps memorization.

Again, this will enable learners to remember chunks of language which

they can then use in conversations or in writing. As language teachers, we

can use songs to practice listening, speaking, reading and writing.

e.) Cultural literacy

Using song in class can shed light on interesting musical traditions in

countries, but can also teach teens, young adults and adults to appreciate

other cultures. For adult learners they can be “a rich mine of information

about human relations, ethics, customs, history, humor, and regional and

cultural differences (Lems : 2001 addapted from

http://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr09/less01.htm)

f.) Music motivates and involves learners

Music is a great motivator: songs enable learners to actively participate in

the learning experience. Because music helps to enhance learner

involvement, they therefore develop improved attitudes toward class

itself. This also improves their overall view of the language and their

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feelings about learning English, as they are more willing and able to take

in new information.

g.) Music can improve student’s English skill

When we teach student with song they can learn vocabulary,

pronunciation, intonation, the rhythm of the language, the grammar, and

listening skills.

h.) Physical development

Songs provide a great opportunity for young learners to move around.

Clapping, dancing and playing instruments stimulate memory, which

makes it possible for learners to hear chunks of language as they sing and

use them in different situations later. Older learners can also benefit from

clapping, dancing, rocking, tapping, and snapping their fingers to music

and songs.

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C. CONCLUSION

The writers can draw conclusion in this part.Using song in the classroom

can be used as the tool for teaching. There are some kind activities in using song

such as, listening and oral activities, cloze, reading, translating and writing the

opinion about the song.

This method can help the teacher in learning process. Besides it can build the

student English skill such aslisteningcomprehension, speaking, reading, writing

skill. Also, it can increase vocabulary and expand cultural knowledge.

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D. REFERENCE

Adam, 2013.4 great resons to use songs in language

teaching.http://www.teachthemenglish.com/2013/08/4-great-reasons-to-

use-songs-in-language-teaching/(Access on October 7th)

Dr, Ross W & AZ, Chandler. 2012. Using song to promote learning.

http://www.songsforteaching.com/esleflesol.htm (Access on October 8th)

Hornby, A. S. (1990). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford:

Lems, Kristin. 2001.Using Music in the Adult ESL Classroom.National-Louis

University

Lom, Hans. 2009. Using songs in the English classroom.

http://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr09/less01.htm (Access on October 8th)

Press, Oxford University. 2011. Why should songs be used MORE in the young

learners classroom?.http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/05/11/why-

should-songs-be-used-more-in-the-young-learners-classroom/ (Access on

October 7th)

Simpson, Adam J. 2015. How to use songs in the English language classroom.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-use-songs-english-

language-classroom (Access on October 7th)

Oxford University Press

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