USING SONGS AND GAMES

IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR YOUNG

LEARNERS
By
Hikmatul Ula
1110231044

English Department
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
Muhammadiyah University of Jember
2014
 Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1.Background
English is international language. Almost of country in the world placed English
as a compulsory subject at their educations. My country is one of country which is
put English on it. In my country, English as foreign language. So there are many
English courses here.
In learning English there are four skills and three components that must be
taught by the teacher. The skills are listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Those
three components are grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. Something that
must be remember by the teacher is she/he have to differentiate between teach
adult and children. The material, the treatment and the technique should be
different. Why? Because they both stay in different age and they both have their
own skill.
As my experience when I taught English the third and fifth grade of elementary
school. It is the same case with most of my friends experience when they also taught
their students. I know it because we share together. Most of my students were
dislike English. They don’t have enough knowledge about English and they look very
lazy to learn it. I try to ask them why they dislike English and one of them answer
that English is difficult. Just like Cameron(2005) said that children are less able to
keep themselves motivated on task when they find difficult.
The difficulties that they face are the teacher’s job. Here we need something that
can improve education of English. Make it easier for students So, teacher have big
role for students when learning English. As a good teacher, the first thing that must
be searched is what difficulties they faced. So, if the teacher knows what the
difficulties are.
Actually the failure of teaching learning process is happen cause the teacher
him/herself. She/he chooses wrong techniques when convey the material. Why do I
say this? It caused I had already taken little research from my experience. After my

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 students say that they dislike English. I have motivation to variety the activities for
them. According to David Paul (2003:49) when playing, singing and learning are
integrated in to a total learning experience, the combination will be powerful. Based
on Shophie Ioannau say that children enjoy songs and the positive feelings and
attitudes created in the language classroom transfer to the learning experience as a
whole and to create, strengthen, maintain positive attitudes to learning English and
they are fun so they motivate learners. Another way is using games. According to
Wright(1996:1), games help and encourage many learners to sustain interest and
work. If we use games to teach English, students not only will enjoy their learning
but also they can get knowledge. Games also can be a motivation that gains the
instructional objectives. Games will reduce feeling of boring caused they do not feel
that they are learning.
From those statement, I am very interesting with teaching learning process
English using games and song.

1.2. Problematic Statement

Teaching is not as easy as we thought. When we teach English, there are many
problems that will appear. It can be suddenly problem or problem that we had already
presumed before. According to Lynne Cameron (2005), Children are often
enthusiastic and lively as learners. However, they lose interest more quickly and are
less able to keep themselves motivated on task when they find difficult. How to make
them able to keep themselves motivated when learning English?. That is the problem
that we must find out the solution.

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 Chapter 2
Review of Related Literature

2.1.Definition of Songs and Games

- Games

Game is an activity with rules, a goal and element of fun. There are two kind of
game. Competitive and co-operation game (Jill Hadfield, 1990). From the statement
we know what the game is and know the kinds of game. Based on it, we can take
conclusion that game has some rules that must be do when we use game in our
class. It have goal, it means every game have its own goal or objective such as
guessing word games is have goal to make students easy to remember some
vocabularies etc. And it also have element of fun, it means games have something
fun that will arouse students interest.

Now, we will discuss about the kinds that I had already mention above. Those
are competitive games and co-operative games.

1. Competitive games
Competitive games, in which players or team race to be the first to reach the
goal. (Jill Hadfield,1990). It means the competitive games here are we need divided
some team or some players, after that they must race using the game to find the
winner. Actually, from the word “competitive” itself, we can guess the meaning of it.
To make sure we understood or no with this kinds of game. Let’s look some
example of it below.
- Picture guessing
Divide the children into two teams with each team having a few pieces of
paper. It is best if each team sits in semicircle. One of the children from each
team races to a table that is the same distance from both teams and turn over
the top card of a pile of flash cards, or is shown it secretly by the teacher or

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 another child. These cards can be pictures, words or sentences. She then runs
back to her team and tries to let the other children know what the card is by
drawing on one of the pieces of paper. The other children try to guess what it is.
When they answer correctly, another child from the team runs to the table
or child in the center to guess the next card. A team gets one point for each corret
guess. With small classes, the game can be played noncompetitively with just one
team.

Alternative
One child from each team races to the central table, turns over a flash card and
then returns to her team and mimes the picture, word or sentence on the card for
the other member(s) of her team to guess. After they guess successfully, another
child from the team races to see the next card.
*adapted from Teaching English to Children in Asia by David Paul
- Noughts and crosses
In class
 Divide class into team A and team B. put a noughts and crosses grid (9
squares) up on the board and make sure that everybody knows the rules of the
game.

Someone from team A comes and puts a cross in one of squares. Then
someone from team B comes and puts a noughts in another square. The aim of
the game is to get a row of three noughts or crosses in any direction.

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  Now draw this grid on the board:

Some A few Any

Much A lot of Too much

Many Several A pair of

 Tell team A they get 20 second to choose a particular square and produce a
correct sentence using the word on that square. If they take longer than 20
seconds they lose their turn. If they produce a sentence, ask team B to say
whether it is correct or not. If team B’s judgement is correct accept it and if it is
wrong correct it. If team A’s sentence is correct, give them a cross in the
corresponding square.
 Team B then plays in the same way, with team A judging their sentence and
you the correctness of team A’s judgement. As the game develops the teams
are forced to try and make sentences with the more difficult words in the grid.
*adapted from Grammar Games by Mario Rinvolucri
2. Co-operative games

Co-operative games, in which players or team work together towards a common

goal (Jill Hadfield,1990).here the players or team work together suitable with the
objective that the teacher had already provided. I also put some examples of co-
operative games to make clearer from explanation above.

Some examples of co-operative games:

- At the zoo
o Materials: picture of animals and dice
o Organization: whole class
o Aim: to practice or revise animal vocabulary and to produce simple description.
o Description: pictures of animals from the zoo are put on the board and
numbered 1-6. Children take it in turns to throw a dice. The number thrown

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 corresponds to an animal on the board, and the child must make a sentence
about the animal.
o Preparation: you will need pictures of zoo animals to put on the board.
Ensuring they are big enough for the whole class to see. Clipart is a good
source, or you can draw the animals yourself.
Procedure:
1. Before playing the game, revise the numbers 1-6 names of some animals,
and some adjectives to describe the animals.
2. Put the pictures of the animals on the board and give each animal a
number from 1-6.

3. Ask a volunteer a throw the dice. When the dice lands on a number, the child
must say which animal corresponds to that number. The teacher(or the child)
writes the name of the animal on the board under the picture:

4. Another volunteer throw the dice. If the number lands on the same number,
the volunteer must say something about the animal(example: it is big). The

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 teacher can write this on the board. If the number is different, the volunteer
names a different animal. The text might look something like this:

5. The game continues until all the animals are named and have been
described. The number of sentences you write for each animal depends on
the level of children.
6. Once all texts are on the board, erase key vocabulary to create a gap fill.
Ask for volunteers to read out the texts and fill in the gaps.

- Brown bear ,brown bear

o Materials: brown bear, brown bear story book, flash card, sets of black and
white pictures, blank booklet for each child.
o Organization : whole class
o Aim: to develop listening and speaking skills trough story telling.
o Description: the children listen to the story and then join in. they then do a
series of activities to help them to remember the story.
o Preparation: you will need a copy of the book(see website below), a set of
flashcards of the animals, a set of the animal in black and white for each child
and a blank booklet (two pieces of A3 paper folded and stapled together). You
can download the pictures of animals at this wonderful website (which also has
lots of other ideas for useful activities):

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www.dltk-teach.com/books/brownbear/index.htm
It is a good idea to stick the pictures on to card so that they last longer.
Procedure:
1. Show the back of the book(a picture of brown bear)and ask the children about
it. What other bears do they know? Have they seen a bear? (this can be done
in the children’s first language).
2. Read the story, showing the pictures as you go.
3. Read the story again, this time pausing before saying the next animal and
colour so that the children can join in. then close the book, say the name of
an animal to see if children can remember the colour(and vice versa)
4. Divide the class in to ten small groups. Give each with one animals/people on
it red bird, yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, white dog, black
sheep, gold fish, mother, group of children. Stick the picture of the brown bear
on the board.
5. With the children, face the board and chant ‘brown bear, brown bear, what do
you see?’ the group with the first animal from the story (red bird) answer the
chant, ’I see a red bird looking me’. The story continues until all the children
have had the chance to chant their animal/people.
6. Give each child a black and white set animals/people cut in to individual
sections. Children put the animals/people in the right order(they can listen to
the story again if it helps). Children can colour in the animals/people.
7. Give each child a paper booklet or children can use their exercise book.
Children write the title on the front and draw the brown bear(if this is too
difficult, you can make sure the booklet already have the title on them or you
can go around the class helping children to write, or you can give them
another black and white picture of the title for them to cut out, colour and
stick). Children then stick their animals/people in the book in the right order.
8. Children take their books home to show and read to their parents.
*Adapted from Teaching English British Council edited by Fiona Copland and
Sue Garton with Monika Davis

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- Songs
According to Cullen (in Mustafa Sevik 1998, 1999), songs are significant
teaching tools in teaching ESL/EFL because, as most teachers find out, students
love listening to music in the language classroom and they often hold strong
views about music. From that statement we know that song can help the teacher
and the students during teaching and learning process. except it can make
someone relax and enjoy, it can be very useful in learning other language.
In addition songs also help the students to pronounce the words well. so, here
songs not just for relax, from the song we can know how to pronounce the word
in English. Example the song “twinkle-twinkle”.
The kinds of game, we can divided it into two. Those are songs as pedagogical
and songs as task.(according to Neil T. Millington)
- Songs as pedagogical
Songs can be used for a number of purposes and there are many reasons why
songs can be considered a valuable pedagogical tool. So, songs can be a
pedagogical tool in learning English.
 In listening
Some songs, such as Hello, contain common expressions and can be
used as good listening activities. For example, the teacher could sing the
first three lines of the song below, and students could respond with the
following three lines.
Hello,
Hello,
Hello, how are you?
I’m fine,
I’m fine,
I hope that you are, too.
 In speaking
on the other hand, can allow young learners to practice a new sound.
When students sing, they will recognize some sentence that they can use
it when speak.

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  In reading
When the students song, of course they will be shown the lyric, from that
students have to reading it first.
 In pronunciation
If students sing a song, they will know the correct pronunciation of word or
sentence in that song.
 Vocabulary
They will get new vocabulary from the song that they sing at school.
- Songs as a task
According to Cameron(2001, p. 31),a list of defining features of task for use in
teaching foreign languages to children:
Classroom tasks for children learning a foreign language
• Have coherence and unity for learners
(From topic, activity and outcome)
• Have meaning and purpose for learners
• Have clear language learning goals
• Have a beginning and an end
• Involve the learners actively
So, here the teacher make the song become a task. It can be like put blank in the
lyric the song.
2.2.Using Songs and Games for Teaching English to Children
The successfulness of teaching learning process is affected by the model of
teaching which will help the students to have an easy way in understanding the
material and also feel enjoyable in teaching learning process. So the teacher should
be able to choose the appropriate model of teaching. After getting the appropriate
model of teaching, teacher should think the way to present the material in learning
process. If we want to use games or songs, we must consider some criterion.
According to Susan Halliwel(1992), children’s instinct for play and fun. So, try to
make students fun during the teaching and learning process.
1. Using games

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 If the teachers want to use games in our class, there are some preparations that
they must consider. Those are:

1. Teacher should choose the appropriate games for students. According to David
Paul(2003:52-53), one way of looking at our role in the games is to see it having
seven main aspects:
- Designing games
- Getting the pace right
- Answering questions
- Extending the children ability
- Cheating creatively
- Giving all children chance
- Taking part
2. The teacher should make preparation for the games.
Preparation here is after the teacher choose a game, he/she must collect some
material that needed when use the game. Don’t choose a game that have
material which is difficult to get. Don’t forget if teacher choose game that has
dangerous material like scissors to always monitoring them during the game.
3. The teacher should read the rules of the games and try to understand how to
play it.
4. Be sure that the games, which the teacher select is within the range of the
students’ ability. It means we must know the level of our students first then we
can conclude if it out from the ability of our students or not. Don’t choose the
game that not appropriate or not suitable with the level of children.
2. Using songs
Most children enjoy singing songs, and they can often be a welcome from
the routine of learning a foreign language using songs with them. For the
teacher, using songs in the classroom can also be a nice break from following a
set curriculum that very bored and might be full of tense. Songs can be taught to
any number of students and even those teachers with the most limited resources
can use them effectively. Songs can play an important role in the development of
language in young children learning a second language or as foreign language.

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 According to Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou, For learning, and especially
language learning, songs offer an invaluable resource with a range of benefits:

 Songs lower any anxiety the children might have and help to create a safe
atmosphere in the classroom.

 Children enjoy songs and the positive feelings and attitudes created in the
language classroom transfer to the learning experience as a whole and to create,
strengthen and maintain positive attitudes to learning English.

 They are fun so they motivate learners.

 Songs enable access to authentic language input and exposure to pronunciation

, stress and intonation patterns.

 Using songs can add variety to a lesson, and can vary the pace. This helps to
keep children interested and focused.

 Songs are memorable and often include patterns and repetition, which helps
children learn language more easily.

 Authentic (non-EFL) songs and rhymes are also a vehicle of culture and thus
promote awareness of the foreign culture.

Something that also must get pay attention from the teacher is how to choose
songs that will we use in the teaching learning process. here according to Shophie,
select songs:
 you like
 are timely
 are interesting for your students
 which have suitable lyrics
 which are comprehensible (in their literal and metaphorical meanings)
 carry significant aspects of culture
 might have authentic uses of your target language (vocab. Grammar, etc.)

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 Chapter 3
Findings and Discussion

When we teach children, we should differentiate it with teaching adult. It very

gives influence for the students. The explanation above gives us enough knowledge
about the problematic statement. According to Lynne Cameron (2005), Children are
often enthusiastic and lively as learners. However, they lose interest more quickly
and are less able to keep themselves motivated on task when they find difficult.
How to make them able to keep themselves motivated when learning
English?.From Cameron statement, we can take benefit from the enthusiastic of
students itself. if they enthusiastic, they will very like something fun and fresh like
games or songs that we introduce to them. According to Jill Hadfield, Game is an
activity with rules, a goal and element of fun. From that statements, we can take
conclusion that something that there is element of fun inside, it will be make
students interesting and then motivated when learning English. According to Susan
Halliwel(1992), children’s instinct for play and fun. Here we also can get some idea
that children will interest and will not face difficult if they feel play and fun when
teaching learning process. And it will be solve when we use games or songs when
teaching English. we also can solve it using songs. how it can be? According to
Sopie Iannou say that songs have benefit “They are fun so they motivate learners”.
songs also bring something fun and enjoy in the class. And it can motivate children
to learn English. so, from all of the statements from expert, we know that songs and
games can motivate children when learning English.

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 Chapter 4
Reflection

From this paper, I got some new knowledge. First, I don’t know how to motivate
my students when learning English, now I know it and I can apply it in my class in
the future. Second, I also get knowledge more about songs and games. In the past
time, I just think that songs for relax and not for learning. May be I just see the
usefulness in the song “A,B,C or Sunday, Monday”. for another songs I am not sure
about it. But, from this paper I can say that another song like “twinkle-twinkle” also
takes a part of learning. From the song(twinkle-twinkle) our students will learn how
to pronounce well. I also learn how to choose song that will we use in the next
meeting, the benefits of songs for teaching children and the meaning of songs itself.
it is also happen in the case of game. I learn the meaning of games, the kinds that I
don’t know before, it benefit in teaching learning process, and the view of some
expert about games. Actually before I did this paper, I very interesting with games.
Why? Because my students in very like English when I bring a game to them. So I
try to find out and collect some of games. Because this paper, I have more and
more games and I can choose it based on some consideration when we want to
choose game for our students because not all games are suitable with our students.
I expect that all of my knowledge from this paper is useful for us in the future.

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 Chapter 5
Conclusion and Suggestion

Games and songs can help us to motivate young learners(our students) in

learning English. Both of them are have its own characteristics and benefits. We just
choose the appropriate one for our students. Don’t forget to differentiate between
teaching adult and teaching children. the songs and the games has aim by itself.
there are many songs and games that we can use in teaching learning process of
English to make children engage. Children more enthusiastic but less motivation
when they faced a difficulties. We can take benefit from the enthusiastic of children.
they will very like something new and something fun like games and songs. Make
sure that our games or songs that we use in the class is suitable with our students.
Make them fun and enjoy during the teaching learning process using its. Actually if
the teacher can bring him/herself understand what the young learners want, children
will interest and enjoy. So, all is depends on the effort and creativity by the teacher.
To be a good teacher is not easy but as long as we try and learn for our students, I
think nothing be wasted away.

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 Reference

Halliwell, Susan.1992.Teaching English in The Primary Classroom.Longman Singapore

Publisher pte Ltd.
Cameron, Lynne.2001.Teaching English to Young Learners.Cambridge University
Press 2001.
Use of Songs, Rhymes and Games in Teaching English to Young Learners in
Bangladesh by Shaheen Ara.
Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou, sophiecy@yahoo.com
Hadfield, Jill.1990.Intermediate Communication Games.Addition Wesley Longman Ltd.
Rinvolucri, Mario.1984.Grammar Games.Scotprint Ltd:Musselburg, Scotland.
Using song effectively by Neil T. Millington. Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan.
Paul, David.Teaching English to Children in Asia.2003.Pearson Education Asia
Limited:Hongkong.

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 Chapter 6
Rubric
ENGLISH FOR YOUNG LEARNERS FINAL PROJECT

No Criteria Max. Points Points

I Identity

1 Name 5
2 Project Performance 5
3 Concepts being presented 10

II Organization

4 The paper is complete and well- 15

organized

III Content

5 Cover numbers of concepts relevant 10

the topic
6 Relevant problems to the topic 10
7 Give relevant suggestions to the topic 10
8 Describe students’ personal view and 10
understanding toward the topic
9 Summarize the topic in brief 10
10 Indicate student’s reflection toward 15
the topic.

Maximum Score 100

Rubric is adopted from Indrawati, SE (2003)

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