ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS: USING MUSIC TO ENHANCE THE LISTENING ABILITIES OF GRADE ONES by CATHARINA ALETTA HORN submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION in the subject INCLUSIVE EDUCATION at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SUPERVISOR: PROF A J HUGO FEBRUARY 2007 PREFACE I have been fortunate in my teaching career to have taught young learners both in learner home language and in a second language in that order. This has led me to realize that home language learners have a great advantage over their second language counterparts in acquiring education in general. This phenomenon instilled in me the inspiration to seek a deeper understanding of the relationship between second language education and learning proficiency also using my background of music education to instill the use of music as a valuable communication medium. One of the earliest written accounts of European encounters with African music may be found in The Periplus of Hanno, by C.
Simonedes, which describes a naval expedition down the coast of West Africa by Hanno the Carthaginian in about 500 B.: “Having taken in water, we sailed thence straight forwards, until we came to Freater Gulf, which the interpreter said, was called Hespreron Keras (the Horn of the West). By night we saw many fires burning, and heard the sound of flutes and cymbals, and the beating of drums, and an immense shouting” (Petersen,1981:1-2). Hearing this musical message, which Hanno interpreted as hostile, he ordered the fleet to avoid the island. Many circumstances, in which music had and has been used as a tool of communication, have arisen since Hanno’s expedition.
The essence of this form of communication is the stimulation of the hearing sense by a sound produced by an instrument specifically created for this purpose. Universal recognition of messages conveyed thus had become possible. ii “Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and a life to everything.” Plato iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study would not have been possible without the assistance of following people, and my heartfelt thanks go out to them: ¾ my husband, Chris, for his tireless support and belief in me to complete this research.
¾ Prof AJ Hugo, my supervisor, for her expert guidance and patience throughout this research. ¾ Mrs Helene Muller, Statistical Department of the University of South Africa, for analysing and presenting the research statistics. ¾ Dr JC Huebsch, for the language facilitation and editing of this work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS: USING MUSIC TO ENHANCE THE LISTENING ABILITIES OF GRADE ONES.
1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION .1 The role of home language proficiency in second language acquisition .2 Music to enhance the learning of a second language.2 Motivation of the research.3 Statement of the problem .4 Aims of research .5 Research methods and design .3 Data collection techniques.6 Clarification of concepts .2 English second language .3 English second language learner .7 Plan of study. 21 USING ENGLISH AS MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION TO TEACH ESL GRADE ONE LEARNERS .2 English as second language for South African learners .3 The role of home language proficiency in second language acquisition. Multiculturalism and multilingualism .5 Approaches and methods in second language teaching .2 Total physical response approach .6 Universal language structures.7 Factors that influence second language acquisition .3 Empathy and attitudes.5 Personality and individuality .8 Home Language: a natural process.9 Difficulties experienced by second language learners. 42 THE PROFILE OF THE ESL LEARNER WITH REFERENCE TO THE ESL GRADE ONE LEARNER .1 The ESL learner’s background .1 Socio-economic status of the parents.2 Pre-school attendance.2 Characteristics of a young learner .3 The ESL learners’ family life .4 The Grade one learner as a total being.
53 THE AFRICAN ESL LEARNER AND MUSIC .3 African music in South Africa .4 The rhythmic sense of the African .1 Characteristics of African songs .2 Songs used for moral lessons .5 Music of the Nguni and Venda .6 Music in the curriculum of SA schools .7 Music and the young learner.8 Relation between music and language .9 The use of music to teach ESL in Grade one .10 Purpose for which music could be used in the ESL class .4 Vocabulary and creativity .5 Relaxation and motivation .6 Expression of joy .11 Multicultural approach in music teaching.12 Repetition song for young learners.13 Therapeutic qualities of music in the learning environment.14 The use of music in psycho-motor growth .15 Discovering the body through music activities.16 Music and movement.17 Physical movement-gross motor.1 Types of movement .2 Varieties of movement.4 Creeping on all fours .6 Movement according to the drum .7 Musical patterns in movement .18 Eye-hand coordination .1 Drum-like playing.19 Musical games reinforcing listening skills .22 Parts of the body.23 Fine motor development.2 The story song.3 The game song. 110 USING MUSIC TO DEVELOP THE LISTENING SKILLS OF GRADE ONE ESL LEARNERS .1 Principles of listening skills .2 Dynamic levels in music listening skills .1 Loud and soft.2 Fast and slow .3 Sounds from instruments.4 Auditory skills to help learners in language acquisition .1 How to listen to music.3 Rhythmic speech patterns .1 Auditory figure/ground perception .1 Echo singing/Call and Response in learning a language.7 Speech as a melodic determinant in African song. 149 METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN .2 The research problem and aim .4 Research design and methodology.4 Evaluation of the Grade one learners’ listening skills .5 Evaluation of the Grade one ESL learners’ phonic skills .6 Listening as in the reading ability test of the Grade one ESL learner .5 Analysis of the data .1 Statistical packages used .2 Biographical variables created and included in the research.3 Analysis methodology, techniques and interpretation of analyses results.1 One way frequency tables .2 Two way frequency tables .3 Calculation of pre- post-test differences for listening, reading and spelling results .5 Analysis of variance and multiple comparison of means on the three sets of learning skills difference marks .6 Testing of anova assumption of homogeneous variances. 195 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Proficiency in the home language.2 Approaches and teaching methods in ESL.4 Factors that influence L2 learners in English language learning .5 The Grade one learner as a total being .4 Recommendations for the Education Department .5 Recommendations for schools.6 Recommendation for parents. 228 x TABLE OF EXHIBITS Exhibit 3.3 Development of the whole learner .1 Kundi Harp Cycle.8 African greeting song .9 Greeting song with names .10 Raise your hands above your head .12 Pictures for new songs .14 Up and down.15 Expression of joy .19 Zulu Song Bonke! Bonke! .21 Learning to move .24 Creeping on all fours.26 Kalamazoo, the kangaroo .27 Skip to my lou .28 Musical patterns to move .29 Action verbs on cards .30 Knee-slapping patterns .31 Question and answer .32 Freeze-game picture cards .33 Own space bubble-walk around the room.34 Head, shoulders, knees and toes .35 Parts of the body.36 Five little chickadees.39 Cobbler, Cobbler: Mend my shoe .1 Hearing at birth .2 Four overlapping vocabularies.3 Vocabulary and concentration .4 The grocery store.5 Loud and soft sounds .6 Louder and softer.7 Thula, Mntwana lullaby .8 Fast and slow.9 Faster and slower .10 Recognising voices and sounds .11 Going over the sea .12 Speech patterns with a falling 3rd .13 Rhythmic speech patterns with names .14 Rhythmic speech patterns with names .15 Rhythm patterns with names .16 Clap my hands-ways of making sound .17 Rhythmic speech ostinato.18 Sequence of sounds .19 Sequence of sounds .20 Question and answers .21 Question-and-answer: new vocabulary.22 Question and possible answers with body percussion.23 Melodic questions and answers.27 Come to the school-English translation of Tlong Tlong 146 xii TABLES Table 4.1 Reinforcement of physical development.3 Home language according to two main regional language groups .4 Pre-school attendance/language .5 Economic status of parents .6 Sing at home? .7 Gender by group.9 Home language by group .10 Monte Carlo estimate for exact test .11 Economic status of parents by group .12 Monte Carlo estimate for the exact test .13 Sing at home by group .14 Sing at home .15 Overall means for the entire sample.16 Listening skills: Means with regard to experimental or control groups .17 Box plot: Listen vs. differences: listen, read, spelling: expm/contrl groups .18 Means with regard to economic status .19 Means with regard to gender .20 Box plot: Reading vs. differences: listen, read, spelling: expm/conrtl.21 Experimental/control groups .22 Box plot: Spelling vs.
differences: listen, read, spelling: expm/contrl groups .23 Economic status of parents .25 Spelling skills: experimental/control groups.26 Economic status of parents .28 Box plot:Listen vs. spelling: economic status of parents .29 Box plot: Read vs. differences: read, spelling according to parents economic status.30 Box plot: Spelling vs. differences: listen, read, spelling according to parents’ economic status .31 Summary of final analyses of variance results .32 Differences between pre- and post-tests .192 xiii SUMMARY Music is a form of language and uses tones and rhythm as its media of universal language.
Language development and music development have many similarities. Both are communicative modes, aurally and orally transmitted, containing phonetic, syntactic, and semantic components, develop early in life and are socially interactive media. The researcher has noted the important role that music plays in the teaching of English as a second language. To be able to learn, understand and experience music and language, the learner should have well-developed listening skills.
The aim of this research is to investigate the use of music and movement to develop the listening skills of the ESL learner. To provide activities to develop listening and concentration through music and movement, the researcher aims to prove that music and movement should be used to develop ESL learners’ language. Keywords: Grade one learner, home language, English second language, music, movement, hearing, listening skills. xiv ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS: USING MUSIC TO ENHANCE THE LISTENING ABILITIES OF GRADE ONES CHAPTER 1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 1.1 Introduction The mastering of a home language is behaviour based on acquisition.
Children are not born with language knowledge, but learn it through exposure to the language itself. Language, speech and communication can be described as consisting of “…a shared system of verbal symbols and rules, an oral expression of language and a sharing of thoughts, ideas and feelings respectively.” Language is a crucial means of gaining access to important knowledge and skills (Le Roux 1993: 146). Literacy in home language is not enough because it could be argued that multilingualism is a prerequisite for empowerment and recognition as a member in the global community (Mahabeer, 2003: 1). Because of rapidly advancing technology in international communication, it is thus also necessary that the people of the world should be literate in respect of a globally recognized language.
Listening, speaking, reading and writing are central to all human’s intellectual, social and emotional development (Rose, 2006:28). Cummins (1996: 224) states that educators “…concerned with preparing students for life in the 21st century must educate the learners for global citizenship.” He also is of the opinion, that it is the monolingual, monocultural graduate, who is “culturally illiterate” and therefore, ill-equipped to prosper in the global economy. Many African countries where English is not the home 1 language of the majority of the people but the language of education, commerce and economy, experience the same problems as most of the developed countries of the world where people and many learners use English as their second language. Learners, whose command of English is known as Limited English Proficiency (LEP), are learners who lack strong language skills in their mother-tongue and lack the Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) required to carry out the higher cognitive operations in academic concepts and terminology.
This study uses the term English Second Language (ESL), that explains the learner whose education is based on the premise that a learner still has to acquire a second language apart from the mother-tongue which becomes their medium of instruction.