ENGLISH SONGS TO MASTERY OF VOCABULARY

INTODUCTION

Vocabulary is basic component to study language and to developing our language skill.

The main problem with vocabulary teaching is that only a few words and a small part of what

is required to know a word can be dealt with at any one time. This limitation also applies to

incidental learning from listening or reading, but it is much easier to arrange for large

amounts of independent listening and reading than it is to arrange for large amounts of

teaching. Teaching can effectively deal with only a small amount of information about a

word at a time. The more complex the information is, the more likely the learners are to

misinterpret it (Nation,1997:1). Vocabulary is very important to study English. Without

sufficient vocabulary, students will difficult and cannot communicate effectively to express

their ideas. If student having limited vocabulary is also a barrier that prevents students to

learning English.

Vocabulary can be learned in a variety of ways, the most common of these is through

song. As we know that almost everyone loves songs and have been a part of our life. We are

often hear the English song everywhere, such as in the television, radio, theatre, movies or in

our hand phone and make we want to singing. So, if you want to sing a song in English,

usually we need know what the song about and of course the lyrics too. So, while you are

singing, we are able to read the lyrics and indirectly make we to learn new words. If we can

hear many English songs every day, it is possible to mastery vocabulary in the simple way.

Through songs, we can improve our speaking, listening, writing and of course to repair our

pronunciation that we don’t know before.

 Based on description above, I want to make essay about “English Songs to Mastery of

Vocabulary”, because there is so many function of songs for improve our skill in English. In

this essay, I will make deeper explanation about song and English, how to teach English

through songs, Function of Song in English Language Teaching

A. Song and English

Songs are precious resources to develop students’ abilities in listening, speaking,

reading and writing. They can also be used to teach a variety of language items such as

sentence patterns, vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm, adjectives and adverbs. Music offers a

versatile way to look at the language and can be used to reinforce and improve speaking,

listening comprehension, vocabulary and phrasing. using music in the beginning of a lesson

is a great way to introduce new vocabularies to students and get them thinking in the right

direction, meaning that they will know what the lesson will be about (Abidin at all,2011:3).

So, study English will be easier with songs. You can choose your favorite songs and

study in depth, what the meaning, how to pronunciation and how process of writing of the

songs.

B. How Teaching English Through Songs

As language teachers, we should always save in our mind that our main

responsibility is not to teach singing skill, but to teach the target language. Following is a

simple three stage framework recommended for general listening activities, which is easily

and effectively transferred to songs ( Lorenzutti, 2014:14-15) :

1. The pre-listening stage:

Students engage in activities that activate schema or background knowledge of a

song’s main theme. This step may consist of several warm-up questions to be discussed

with a partner, the introduction of some key vocabulary items, or prediction activities.

2. The while listening stage:

Students listen to the song and complete an assigned task and answer the questions.

If the students cannot hear clearly, the teacher can repeat it for twice.

3. The post-listening stage:

Students analyze new vocabulary; they also discuss lyrics and the songwriter’s

intended meaning. They may engage in speaking or writing activities.

In teaching vocabulary through songs, teachers can choose simple and easily understood

lyrics and have link with a topic or vocabulary that students are studying in the class.

C. Function Of Song In English Language Teaching

Listening is the way of learning the language. It gives the learner information from

which to build up the knowledge necessary for using the language. When this knowledge is

built up, the learner can begin to speak. The listening-only period is a time of observation and

learning which provides the basis for the other language skills.( Nation & Newton,2009:38).

Functions of songs in English language teaching are:

1. To enlarge vocabulary background of children

Songs, have many word that familiar or unfamiliar for the students. If students can

hear some songs and can know the meaning, it is means that the students can get more

vocabulary every day.

2. To develop pupil’s listening and speaking skills

 Songs can student’s skill in listening and speaking. If student’s can hear all of the

lyrics in a song, the students can develop their speaking skill through the song.

3. To improve children’s pronunciation

In a song, student can hear the singer sing their song. If the students always hear the

song, indirectly the students will following the singer and can improve their pronunciation

in English.

Conclusions

Vocabulary is basic component to study language. To have much vocabulary, the

students need to listen and written something. Through songs, students can develop their

vocabulary more easily. Songs can make students felt happy and fun about their study.

Student can develop their pronunciations and speaking too with songs.

Children in gesture paired with music condition made significantly greater gains in

learning and transference of new vocabulary word than did those in the gesture only or the

no-rehearsal conditions (Schunk, 1999:114).

REFERENCES

Nation, I.S., & Newton, J. (2008). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking.

Routledge
 Nation, P., & Newton, J. (1997). 19 Teaching vocabulary. Second language vocabulary

acquisition: A rationale for pedagogy, 238

Abidin, M. J., Pour-Mohammadi, M., Singh, K.K., Azman, R., & Souriyavongsa, T.

(2011). The effectiveness of using songs in youtube to improve vocabulary competence

among upper secondary school studies. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2011, 1.11:

1488-1496

Lorenzutti, N. (2014). Beyond the Gap Fill: Dynamic Activities for Song in the EFL

Classroom. In English Teaching Forum (Vol.52, No. 1, pp. 14-21). US Department of State.

Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of English Language Programs, SA-5,

2200 C Street NW 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20037

Schunk, H. A. (1999).The Effect of Singing with Signing on Receptive Vocabulary

Skills of Elementary ESL Students. Journal of Music Therapy, 36(2), 110-124.