VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ----- ----- VŨ THỊ HỒNG VÂN PRINCIPLES OF USING ENGLISH SONGS IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY CÁC NGUYÊN TẮC SỬ DỤNG BÀI HÁT TIẾNG ANH TRONG GIỜ DẠY TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH M. MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60. 10 Hanoi – 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ----- ----- VŨ THỊ HỒNG VÂN PRINCIPLES OF USING ENGLISH SONGS IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY CÁC NGUYÊN TẮC SỬ DỤNG BÀI HÁT TIẾNG ANH TRONG GIỜ DẠY TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH M. MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.
Tô Thị Thu Hương Hanoi – 2012 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENT. iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES .vii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Method of the study. Design of the study. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Reasons why English songs should be used as teaching materials. Materials in foreign language learning and teaching. Principles of developing teaching materials. Materials should achieve impact.
Learner’s attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the input. Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the target language to achieve communicative purposes. What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful. Materials should take into account that learners differ in learning style and affective attitude.
Materials should help learner feel at ease and develop confidence. Previous studies on using songs to teach English. 14 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Teaching speaking, writing and reading.
16 CHAPTER 2: A STUDY ON USING SONGS AS TEACHING MATERIAL IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO FIRST YEAR SUTDENTS AT HUI AND SUGGESTED PRINCIPLES OF USING SONGS TO TEACH ENGLISH. Research approach and questions. Data collection instrument. Procedures of data collection.
Results of data analysis. Suggested principles of using songs in teaching English. 24 CHAPTER 3: PRINCIPLES OF USING SONGS IN TEACHING ENGISH TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HUI: AN APPLICATION AND EVALUATION. Putting the principles into use: teaching English to first year students at HUI.
Some description of the pilot classes. The application of the principles of using songs. A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN. Evaluation of the feasibility and suitability of the proposed principles in teachingEnglish at HUI.
Procedure and data collection instrument. Data analysis and discussion. Error! Bookmark not defined. Limitation of the study.
Suggestions for further study. X v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Pie chart 1: The usefulness of English songs in language teaching Pie chart 2: The frequency of using English songs in language classroom Pie chart 3: The effect of teaching English with songs on students‟ language proficiency Pie chart 4: The effect of using English songs on students‟ learning motivation Pie chart 5: The degree of language improvement thanks to the use of English songs Table 1: Aims of using songs in language classroom Table 2: Activities with songs Table 3: Difficulties when using songs to teach English Table 4: Language components and skills improved thanks to the use of English songs vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale As a result of the globalization, English nowadays is playing a more and more important role in helping people to communicate with others from all over the world. As the common language of the whole world, English is an essential requirement for those who want to study abroad, work in a foreign country or company, or even to find a good job in local companies.
English is also the key for our country to integrate into the world and to catch up with developed countries in terms of economy, education, science and technology. Being aware of this importance of English, all schools in our countries are putting more and more emphasis on teaching this language. Like other universities, English is being taught at our university as a compulsory subject; therefore English counts for as many credits as the majored subjects. Right when entering the university, freshmen are required to take a placement test to classify the level of English, and then they will be placed in different classes according to their English level, namely A1, A2, basic English 1, basic English 2.
Among those, A1 and A2 take 90 periods for each class, basic English 1 takes 60 periods and basic English 2 counts for 45 periods. For students whose result at the placement test is below mark 5 will have to study from the lowest level - A1. This means they have to study at least 285 periods. Contrary to the long duration of learning English is the lack of motivation as well as interest in learning English of the students at our university.
This is quite easy to understand because most of the students at our university are non-majored English students. Their English proficiency is quite low as a result of the passive, test-oriented learning style at their high school that is just focusing on the main subjects taken in the entrance examination to the university. In addition, teaching and learning method is also a cause of the students‟ demotivation of learning English. Regarding the teaching methods, most of the English teachers still keep the traditional teaching approach which focuses on grammar and translation.
Not many communicative activities are organized in 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The traditional class – teacher centered still remains, hence students just sit silently and listen to teachers. The English lessons are said to be boring, tiring and sometimes even tense. Being aware of this negative learning and teaching condition, many teachers in our university are trying to change their teaching method by integrating different teaching approaches and using more interesting teaching aids such as pictures, flashcards, PowerPoint, games, stories and songs.
Among those, songs seem to be the most popular to students and also more frequently used by teachers than others. However, the effectiveness gained through using songs is still not high as expected. Although songs have been proved to be a very interesting teaching materials and have been applied in teaching in many European countries, this method still seems to be a new one for Vietnamese teachers in general and the teachers at Ho Chi Minh University of Industry (HUI) in particular. Most teachers still meet difficulties in working out the way to exploit the maximum benefits of songs in English classroom.
It seems that teachers just spontaneously use English songs as an entertaining tool to relax students not a teaching aid. Teachers fail to set a particular pedagogical aim or follow a specific rule of using songs. Generally, songs are often played at the end of the lesson when teaching and learning is finished and students are sitting to wait for the bell rang. Sometimes teachers also let students listen to English songs at break time; hence not all students pay attention to the songs.
Sometimes songs are also put in the course books as an extra task such as listen to the song and fill in the blanks. However, teachers tend to have different ways of carrying out this task. While some teachers ignore this task and just let students sit and enjoy the music, other explain the instruction and let students listen to the song, get them to finish the task and then check as an exercise. They rarely explain what students can learn from the songs or have no further activities or tasks for the students after having students listened to music.
Therefore students often forget the song right after listening or even if they are interested in the song, they do not know what to do with it. In short, for most of the students at my university, they just regard songs as 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com a means of entertainment not a useful tool/source of learning English. For teachers, most of them have not succeeded in exploiting the pedagogical benefits of English songs except for the entertaining and relaxing benefits. As a teacher of English at the university, I am also very interested in using songs as a teaching aid in English lessons.
Learning that at present, songs are not effectively used in teaching English at HUI, I myself realize that in order to get optimal benefits from using English songs as a teaching tool, there should be some principles of using songs to teach English to guide teachers. Aims of the study The study aims at helping teachers to exploit the pedagogical benefits of English songs to teach English at HUI. To achieve this aim, the research is designed to obtain the two following objectives: (1) setting out the principles of using English songs to teach English to first year HUI students through empirical research, i. HUI English teacher survey and student evaluation; (2) finding out the feasibility of applying these suggested principles of using songs to teach English to first year students.
Scope of the study The study mainly focuses on finding out the principles of using songs to teach English to first year students at Ho Chi Minh University of Industry. It, therefore, does not focus on exploring the effectiveness of the principle application. Method of the study The study followed qualitative approach and used mixed methods to collect data. The following data collection instruments were used: 1.
Evaluation questionnaire for students The questionnaire was designed for 20 English teachers from the Basic Science and Technology Department at Ho Chi Minh University of Industry. The evaluation form was designed to elicit the evaluation from 100 first year students 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com at HUI who had involved in the English classes with the teachers applying the principles to use songs to teach English. The data collection process lasted 2 weeks (teacher questionnaire) and in the last week (student evaluation) during the first term of the academic year 2012- 2013. Design of the study This study contains three main parts as follow: Part A is the introduction in which I would like a present the rationale of choosing this topic, the aim of the study, the scope of the study and the methods to be applied.
Part B is the development which includes three main chapters: Chapter 1 is about the theoretical background related to the purpose of the study Chapter 2 deals with investigating the situation of using English songs in teaching at HUI and finding out the principles of using songs to teach English for first year students at Ho Chi Minh University of Industry Chapter 3 is concerned with applying the proposed principles of using songs in teaching English at HUI and then evaluating the feasibility of these principles when applied in real teaching at HUI. Part C is the summary of the major findings in Part 2 and suggestions for further study. This part also contains the List of References and Appendices. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Reasons why English songs should be used as teaching materials. According to Larry M.