Song Lyrics Analysis: An Innovative Way to Teach Grammar

“If we expect to encourage creative learners, we shall need creative teachers”-Maley and Kiss-

In teaching a foreign language to young learners, teachers need to be creative and innovative in choosing teaching media. According to a statement of Adair (2007), creativity is the faculty of mind and spirit that enables us to bring into existence, ostensibly out of nothing, something of use, order, beauty, or significance. Being creative and innovative is important for teachers in order to get student's attention and increase students’ motivation to learn. In their article, Maley and Kiss (2018) stated “if we expect to encourage creative learners, we shall need creative teachers”. A creative teacher tends to provide interesting, accurate, and relevant input at a level appropriate for the learners and to challenge learners to go beyond their present level of competence. Using literature works specifically songs in the teaching of grammar in English language classrooms is said to have a considerable number of advantages. For instance, students will regard English songs as part of entertainment rather than work and thus find learning English through songs amusing and relaxing.

Since meaning is an essential device in teaching grammar, it is important to contextualize any grammar point. Literary works could be an attractive learning medium for students. Song is one of the most enchanting and culturally rich resources that can be used in language classrooms. Song is a literature work in the form of poetry which provides authentic and meaningful material. Collie & Slater (1987, as cited from Picken, 2007) believe that literature is arguably motivating in this sense because students should be able to relate the ‘fundamental human issues’ that literature deals with to their own lives and experiences. Besides that, the ‘dominant’ feature of a poem draws the reader’s attention to the language it uses (Hall, 2005), literature works with their unique and complex words could motivate students to learn more. The use of music to create a mood to achieve more effectiveness in learning has received some attention in recent years. Using English songs in EFL classrooms can successfully bring about affective learning through providing a harmonious classroom atmosphere, reducing students’ anxiety, fostering their interest, and motivating them to learn the target language (Roslim, N., et al, 2011).

The exploitation of songs for grammatical analysis can be illustrated through several methods. For examples:

1. Students are provided incomplete lyrics and asked to fill out the blanks with appropriate words it could be base on the tenses or types of words.

2. Students are asked to find out noun clauses and/or adjective clauses in the song lyrics.

3. Students are provided song lyrics with some grammatical errors. Students are asked to identify and correct the errors.

4. Students are asked to listen to the songs and fill out the missing words, mainly for pronunciation or listening drills.

In using songs as the teaching media, the teacher needs to look at the relevancy of the songs with the student's background and the course objectives. For instance, in teaching senior high school students it is better to use songs with the theme of friendship, life journey, love, or environmental issue. In this case, I personally will choose the method in which students are asked to find out noun clauses and/or adjective clauses in the song lyrics. These are the steps to implement the method:

1) Teacher plays a song in front of the class to engage students and introduce the materials that will be discussed: noun clause and adjective clause

2) Teacher gives instruction to the students to pick two songs about friendship and life journey

3) Teacher allows the students to listen to the songs and search the lyrics

4) Students are asked to find noun clauses and/or adjective clauses in the song lyrics

The song-based learning activities should aim at getting students to think, visualize, and relate what they have learned with their lives and local environment. According to data from research and development by Tamaela (2016) found that from the operational field test it is clear that students’ comprehension towards the content of the song-based materials are good, since the comprehension level of 47 students ranges between 86% — 100% with an equivalent of 4=A, while the comprehension level of 25 participants ranges between 71%-85% with an equivalent of 3=B.

In summary, using English songs in teaching EFL classrooms can bring effectiveness in increasing students’ interest and motivation to learn, give a sense of relaxation, reduce students’ anxiety and improve students’ grammar comprehension as well. The teachers can choose various ways to apply song-based materials in teaching English grammar as well.

Sources:

Picken, Jonathan D. (2007). Literature, Metaphor, and The Foreign Language. Palgrave Macmillan.

Hall, Geof. (2005). Literature in Language Education. Palgrave Macmillan.

Adair, John. (2007). The Art of Creative Thinking: How to be innovative and develop great ideas. Talbot Adair Press

Maley, Alan and Kiss, Tamas. (2018). Creativity and English Language Teaching from Inspiration to Implementation. Palgrave Macmillan.

Roslim, Norwati., Azizul., Aini F., Zain, Mazira M. (2011). Using Songs in Enhancing the Teaching of Grammar. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, Vol.2(2).

Tamaela, Leonora Saantje. (2016). The Development of Environmental Song-Based Materials Using a Scientific Approach for Teaching English. Journal of Education and Practice, Vol.7(10).