4. English Music... by S. M. Jyothirmayee

Introduction

Language is perhaps the most important function of the human body. All languages have a system of sounds, words, and sentences that can adequately communicate the content of culture. English is the linguistic engine that drives the global economy. It is one of the international languages, a tool of communication between countries, cultural groups, various companies and organizations, communities and friends. It is the fourth most widely spoken native language in the world, it is also the most spoken official language in the world and it is referred as, the "lingua franca" of the modern era. The English language has official status even in nations where it is not the primary spoken language. India having been ruled by the British for over two centuries has given Indians an easy access to master the language. Even in India, English has become the link language because people going from North and South for education, business, and tourism mostly communicate in English. Some of the states of India are witnessing popular increase in public demand for teaching of English language from the primary classes. Many of the schools in the country have English as the sole or additional medium of instruction. English language is our window to the world.

Swami Vivekananda is the best example who addressed the gathering in impressive English at the world conference of religions in Chicago in 1893. It has become an effective means of promoting Indian view of life, and strengthening our cultural identity in the world.

Conventional method of teaching English and its impact on ESL learners:

It is evident from various research studies that the teaching/learning of English as a second language in India with special reference to the professional courses in Andhra Pradesh, has still been focusing on content based approach rather than skill based approach. As a result, learners’ communicative competence in second language is limited to their ability to produce formal discourse. Despite the basic language competence attained relatively early in life, learners do not always exhibit their competence due to poor exposure towards the culture of the second language and oral practice. Mismatches exist between common learning styles of professional course students and traditional teaching styles of professional course professors. In consequence, students become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly on tests, get discouraged about the courses, the curriculum, and themselves, and in some cases they tend to drop out of English classes. In addition to this, some students tend to use their mother tongue in classroom setting, because they are afraid or ashamed of making mistakes.

Solution to motivate students to learn English:

According to BPS Research Digest, as sighted in the May 2008 addition of Psychologies Magazine, the answer to the age old question of learning a language, "might lie in a song...The researchers concluded that we find it easier to remember words if they're set to music, partly because it's more emotionally engaging, but also because the words are structured in a way that makes it easier for us to 'segment' the information and store it in our memories".

With the advent of globalization, learning English in India has been mushroomed. It has become one of the mandatory subjects in secondary education. However, the interest in English has brought a great interest in Western cultures, particularly music. English music has become very popular. It is a powerful and innovative tool for language learning and retention. Whether it's classical background music, traditional songs, pop tunes. Music motivates students and develops language skills.

The Role of Music in teaching/learning English:

When one thinks of music, the first thing comes in mind is enjoyment. Its entertaining function is widespread in many human activities, individually and collectively. It is incredible to see human survival without music. It generally manifests in tune, melody, rhyme, and lyrics. Songs are extremely unforgettable and motivating. it plays a vital role in language acquisition. Teachers must switch on to English songs to enhance the learners' desire to learn the language.

A good thing about songs is that teacher can expose the students to many different kinds of English like British English, American English, Caribbean English etc; and a variety of types and formats of Western Music like Gospel music, Soul music, Rhythm and blues(R& B) Pop music, Rock and roll, Reggae, Jazz. Through these varieties, teacher can introduce not only various accents but also vocabulary and its usage. English has thousands of words. To speak good English, one needs to learn collocations, idioms, commonly-used expressions, and phrasal verbs. English music has a great impact on language learners.

Here is the list of advantages of teaching English through music.

• • Music motivates to learn

  • Listening to Song Lyrics Improves Comprehension Skills.

  • Singing Songs Develops Good Pronunciation

  • Singing Songs Increases Vocabulary and Speech Patterns

  • Music Aids Memory

  • Music Brings Culture Alive

  • Music acts like a stress buster

  • Music saves time

Teaching/Learning English with help of English music and songs:

In order to progress in a foreign language, learners need to be able to understand what they are listening and reading. That is, the input must be comprehensible in order to be useful and meaningful to the learner and help with acquisition (Krashen, 1982).Learners should have sizable portion of the vocabulary. It is one of the most important components in learning a foreign language. Students need to learn words, phrases, and idioms, and they need a tremendous amount of explicit vocabulary instruction in a relatively short time. Vocabulary is as equally important as grammar in learning a foreign language. According to Hulstijn, 1992; Folse, 1999, learners need multiple encounters with words. The most important point in teaching and learning vocabulary is the number of times the learner has to retrieve the word, a factor which the teacher can influence through classroom activities.

It is important for the teacher to keep the pace of the activity brisk to maintain student interest. The goal of these activities is to increase desire towards the target language. Students learn better when they have the feeling that they are making progress. This happens when the atmosphere in the classroom facilitates it. There is a variety of activities that create this kind of atmosphere. Listening to songs is a great opportunity to repeat the material in a way which is encouraging and not intimidating. If the teacher adds the element of challenge and competition into it and caters to the needs of a larger range of students and learning techniques which suit them; the outcome will be great achievements. Here are some of the activities which can be implemented in the classroom.

Activity-1:

Songs sung by native English speakers are of great value to the teaching of speaking and listening. Teacher should select a song which is quite comprehensible and of students’ choice. Students should listen to that song first, to have a feeling for the song and music. A song can be used to teach the following aspects of language acquisition.

1) Vocabulary

a) Synonyms

b) Antonyms

c) Syntactical meanings

d) Connoted and denoted usages

e) Learn the formal/informal/slang/ collocations of English Language

f) Ponder over word origins and their inflections

2) Learn Cultures and their inter-disciplinary discourses

3) Teach phonetics

4) Stress/rhythm/intonation

5) Connected speech

6) Phrasal verbs/idioms/phrases

Have the entire class sing the song in group and identify the list of expressions aloud in the target language. This is good for group pronunciation. Knowing a word involves knowing its pronunciation, spelling, part of speech, phrasal verbs, usages, and collocations.

Eg: (1)

If we take the initial lines of Uk National Anthem:

“God save our gracious Queen

Long live our noble Queen”

Collocation- The word ‘Noble’ always go with ‘grace’, Pronunciation- Diphthong /eI/ in the word ‘gracious’ may not be the same in the word ‘grand’.

Eg: (2)

If we look at the song ‘American Pie’ by Don Mclean

‘Did you write the book of love,

And do you have faith in God above’

The expression ‘book of Love’ in fifth stanza can be used to explain the literal meaning of love and the figurative meaning of ‘book of Love to the Bible’. The same instance can be taken to discuss the literal, connoted, figurative and probably metaphorical meanings of words.

Activity- 2:

Step:1-Read a list of phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions at random from different songs and ask students to identify the title of the song and context of the song .

Step:2-Ask the students to use them in own sentences. This helps the students to think in the target language.

Activity-3:

Identify the content words in the selected songs and ask students to write syn­onyms or antonyms to the given word.

Activity-4:

Ask the students to substitute the content lyrics with appropriate synonyms.

Give students a worksheet on a song with the blanks and ask the students to listen the song carefully to fill it up.

Activity- 5:

Giving practice to word form is important. So ask students, questions about the word forms in the song like

• • Which word ends in –z?

  • Which words start with a vowel letter?

  • Which words start with a vowel sound?

  • Which of these is the shortest word?

  • Which word has the most syllables?

  • Which word is a past tense word?

  • What word is the most difficult for you to pronounce?

  • What is the best idiomatic expression?

Activity 6:

Students are provided with lyric sheets for songs. Also provide a glossary of difficult words or phrases. Ask the students to sing along as the teacher play the song for two or three times. It helps them to articulate the IPA of English language.

Activity 7:

Have students to select a song of their own and ask them to work on enunciation and the inner meaning of the song, and then have them present their choice in groups to the class. This interactive learning style helps students feel self-directed and can deepen their interest in English.

Activity 8:

Mini Project on English music:

• 1. Teacher can assign innovative projects on music by instructing students to collect songs according to themes such as songs about inspiration, friendship, wars, racial discrimination, nature, love, motivation, life, religion, sports, military etc.

  2. Ask students to select two different nation band singers and instruct them to present a comparative study on their albums.

Activity 9:

Teacher should select a song and play it twice with out providing lyrics to the students. After that, teacher should show the lyrics either through LCD or OHP or by writing on the blackboard. Then let the students see the lyrics. Finally let all the students sing together. Attention can be drawn to different varieties of English dialects and accents from various English speaking countries such as America, Canada, Australia, Ireland etc.

Limitations:

In spite of the numerous advantages of this effective and innovative tool, it has few limitations.

• 1. Mother Tongue Influence: Teaching English to vernacular students in the colleges of A.P is tiresome job because students are hardly exposed to listening and speaking. One of the main problems that teachers encounter is students' use their mother tongue in class which is so frequent and common. When students wanted to speak in English, most of the students first think in their mother tongue and then try to translate into English to do the job that is asked to him. These kinds of situations are really impediments and obstacles for those who want to learn the English language.

  2. Lack of infrastructure: Most of the professional colleges in A.P would give step mother treatment to the English Department in procuring the required audio and video equipment. As majority of the colleges are located in the suburbs of the city/urban/rural areas, there is a chance to have power fluctuations which in turn hinders the teaching process. There is no formal approach to introduce music into the EFL curriculum in private and public institutions. Providing handouts or worksheets or photocopies to all the students is also one of the impediments.

  3. Teachers’ Interest: Teaching English through music in A.P is still at an embryonic stage. Teachers need a lot of time in searching worksheets on music which will fit their students’ choice. Majority of the teachers are handcuffed of ideas in implementing this innovative tool as there is no proper training programs conducted on this concept. Research on the role of music in second language learning is surprisingly still in its embryonic stage.

Conclusion:

Finally, for many people from all around the world, the first exposure to English is through popular-songs. Music offers a multifaceted way to look at the language and can be used to reinforce and enhance speaking, listening comprehension, vocabulary and phrasing. TV, radio, music and movies are all great ways to listen the language it supplements tapes, tutors, teachers and other speakers of the language.

Though music has been an important aspect of language learning, its role in language learning has not received great attention in educational research. But it is highly valued by teachers and students of English in teaching speaking, listening, reading and writing. It is argued that music, particularly songs, is an encoding of cultural values and ideology which need to be viewed critically if foreign music is used in teaching a second language.

Free latest English music and English pop songs are widely available on the internet in mp3, wma, real and many other formats. One can download old and new songs which are also available in their remix and instrumental versions. Even karaoke music, music videos, song lyrics, or classical western country music is available. Most of these sites offer their services for free though it is always safer to pay. Most English music sites also provide us with the option of listening to the songs online or watching the videos online. Most of the English music hitting the market today belongs to America or the UK and since the beginning of the 20th century has become a rage across all countries. Artists like Elvis Presley,The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, had a cult following like never before seen, belonged more to the country music, rock and roll, and blues genres. The artists today focus on heavy metal like Pink Floyd or rap like Eminem or soft rock like Bryan Adams. The sound track of movies like ‘The Sound of music’ is popular even today.

Here is the list of website addresses which will enable the teachers to access wide range of songs.

• 1. http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_rb-songs.html This site helps to select 100 popular Rock, Blues, Jazz, classical and all the sub-genre R&B/Soul songs and song lyrics too

  2. http://www.emp3world.com/mp3/a/1/ for free and swift download of the songs

  3. http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Britain/Music/Pop.htm for wide collection of British pop groups or musicians from different generations.

  4. http://www.esl-galaxy.com/music.htm for printable worksheets on music and movies readily available in PDF formats.

  5. http://www.isabelperez.com/songs/gottafeeling.htm for readymade exercises on vocabulary, grammar etc;

  6. http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/index-ex.htm designed especially for EFL/ESL learners

  7. http://www.esltower.com/VOCABSHEETS/music/music.html for printable worksheets on various vocabulary exercises.

  8. http://www.educationalrap.com/music/grammar-goodies This site contains collection of various educational rap songs and custom-made grammar worksheets, puzzles for different levels of students.

1. http://www.songsforteaching.com/esleflesol.htm

   1. http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/nov/music.htm a fun place for ESL learners