Using songs and poems in teaching English to
motivate students at Van Noi High School

Nguyễn Thị Thúy Hà

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Teaching Methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10
Người hướng dẫn: Dr. Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa
Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: This study aims at investigating how the use of songs and poems in teaching
English can motivate students at Van Noi High School. The study with the design of a
quasi – experimental method with two groups, was carried out in two classes (Class 10B
and 10F) with 80 grade 10th students during the two months at the end of the second
semester of the school year 2010 - 2011. The main instrument to gather data was the pre
and post questionnaire. With the data obtained in the pre- questionnaire, Class 10B with
lower learning motivation was treated as the experimental group and class 10F with
higher learning motivation was the control group so as to make the result more
comparable. The experimental group was additionally taught the five English songs and
five English poems but the control group only followed the usual schedule. The findings
of the data analysis from the post-questionnaire showed that there was an increase in
learning motivation in the experimental group while the motivation in the control group
almost stayed the same. The students in the experimental group enjoyed learning English
through songs and poems. However, many of them liked this way of learning because of
the relaxation that the songs and the poems brought about so they preferref songs that
have easy, meaningful lyrics and beautiful, moderate melody. The most favorite poems
were easy, funny, short ones. The activities they enjoyed most were gap – filling when
listening to songs and doing vocabulary exercises. Based on the findings, some
recommendations are made on how to integrate songs and poems in the curriculum of
English at high schools as an effective motivational strategy in English learning and
teaching.

5. Scope of the study
2
6. Design of the study
3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
4
1.1. Motivation
4
1.1.1. What is motivation?
4
1.1.2. Motivation and attitude
4
1.1.3. Motivation in second language learning
5
1.2. Learning English through songs
6
1.2.1. Reasons for using songs in the language classroom
6
1.2.2. How can songs be used in language teaching?
7
1.2.3. Choosing suitable songs and teaching procedure
8
1.3. Learning English through poems
10
1.3.1. Reasons for using poems in language classroom
10
1.3.2 How can poems be used in language teaching?
11

3.1. Pre – questionnaire data and analysis
21
3.1.1. Students’ Motivation and Attitudes to Learning English before the
treatment
21

3.1.2. Students’ Attitudes towards Learning English through Songs and Poems
before the treatment
23
3.2. Changes in Students’ Motivation and Attitudes
24
3.3. Attitudes towards learning English through songs and poems after the
treatment
26
3.4 Songs and poems that students like to learn
28 vi
3.5 The Degree of suitability of songs- and poems-based activities as ranked
by the students
30
3.6 Students’ reflections on learning through songs and poems.
31
3.6.1. Students’ worksheets
31
3.6.2. Students’ sayings about learning through songs and poems:
31
3.6.3. Students’ collections of their favorite songs.
32

40

1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
It is commonly believed that motivation is key to a student’s success. Therefore, one of the
teacher’s responsibilities is to find ways to motivate the students. In the motivation literature, a
variety of motivational strategies have been suggested, but scholars also advise teachers to
apply those strategies selectively taking into consideration the learner variables such as their
age, their level of proficiency, the type of the language teaching course, etc. Therefore, a quasi-
experimental research was conducted in Van Noi High School to test the hypothesis of using
songs and poems to motivate students to learn English.
2. Aims of the research
The research aimed:
- To find out how the use of songs and poems in teaching English enhances the students’
motivation in learning English.
- To find out what kind of songs and poems can make high school students motivated
- To find out which class activities are suitable for using songs and poems
at a high school.
3. Method of the study
With the aim to investigate the extent to which the use of songs and poems help to motivate
the grade 10
th
students in learning English, a quasi – experimental method was employed with
two instruments to gather data, questionnaires (the pre- and post-treatment questionnaire) and
students’ reflections. The pre-questionnaire was used to measure students’ motivation and
attitude to learning English and leaning English through songs and poems at the beginning of

deals with the reasons and the way to use songs and poems in EFL class.
Chapter 2 – Methodology - presents the situation of learning English through songs and
poems in Vietnam, the research questions, the research methodology, the participants, the
instruments and method of analyzing data.
Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussions - provides the findings and discussions through an
analysis of all data collected by means of pre and post – questionnaires and students’ reflections
Part C- Conclusion - summarizes the main findings in the study, and made some
recommendations on how to use songs and poems in class to motivate students. It also
discusses the limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research.

3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents a review of related literature, in which the definition of motivation
and motivation in language learning are discussed first. It then deals with the reasons for and
the ways of using songs and poems in EFL class.
1. 1. Motivation
1.1.1. What is motivation?
There is always a drive or need for one to know what is happening around oneself. What
motivates someone’s drive or intention to satisfy one’s needs is a topic of interest in
motivational psychology. The evolution of motivation as a theoretical construct was established
in the early twentieth century. Behaviorist psychology in the middle of the twentieth century
stresses “reinforcement as the primary mechanism for establishing and maintaining behavior”
(Brophy, 1998:3).
1.1.2. Motivation and attitude
Many teachers in their experience of teaching “recognize that motivation is important
for learning and therefore want to have motivated students” (McCombs & Pope, 1994:9). In
the eyes of social psychologists, there is more involvement in second language learning. The
student’s attitudes, his readiness to identify and his orientation to the learning process are the
keys to the success in mastering a foreign language (Gardner & Lambert, 1972).

1.2.3. Choosing suitable songs and teaching procedure
For teenagers or adults in the intermediate or advanced level, it is better to use more
meaningful or popular songs, which not only review or introduce grammar points but also
reflect cultural aspects (Horner, D, 1993). At the primary level of singing the song, the
prosodic features of the language is emphasized. At the higher levels, where the practice of
grammar points is at the foreground, songs can be used with several techniques.
The following procedure to teach a song by Eken, D.K. (1996) in an English teaching
forum seems to be suitable for high school teaching:
After deciding the grammar point to be studied, and the song and the techniques to be used,
the teacher should prepare an effective lesson plan. Since songs are listening activities, it is
advisable to present them as a listening lesson, but of course it is necessary to integrate all the

5
skills in the process in order to achieve successful teaching. When regarding a lesson plan, as a
pre-listening activity, the theme, the title, or the history of the song can be discussed. By
directing the students toward specific areas, problem vocabulary items can be picked up in
advance. Before listening to the song, it is also beneficial to let the students know which
grammar points should be studied. In the listening stage, some of the techniques listed above
can be used, but among them gap filling is the most widely used technique. Through such gaps,
the vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation is highlighted. In the follow-up, integrated skills
can be used to complete the overall course structure.
1.3. Learning English through poems
1.3.1. Reasons for using poems in language teaching.
In fact, poetry is terrific material for EFL class. As we know, most of the
materials written for EFL class are centered on some topics for grammar or for communicative
competence. Poetry can turn the dullness into excitement, for it can offer “many pleasures
pleasures of sound and meaning, of image and symbol, of speech and feeling and thoughts.”
(DiYanni, 1998) With the teaching of poetry, students can be motivated not only to learn
English but also to appreciate the deeper dimension and exquisiteness of the language.


1. Does learning - English - through - songs - and - poems increase motivation in the ESL
classroom?
2. What is the most suitable time to use songs and poems in the English lessons of at high
school?
3. What kinds of songs and poems are high school students’ favourite ones?
4. What class activities are suitable for teaching songs and poems to high school students?
2.3. Research Methodology
To answer these above research questions, a quasi – experimental research was carried out in
Van Noi High School during the two months at the end of the second term of the school year
2010 – 2011. This is a nonequivalent groups pretest-posttest design (Gibbons, Barry & Herman,
Joan, 1997).
2.4. Participants
Eighty grade 10 students from two classes participated in this study. Class 10B acted as
the experiment group while Class 10F as the control group.
2.5. Instruments to collect data

7
Two questionnaires (the pre - questionnaire and and post – questionnaire) were used
together with and Students’ reflections (including the worksheets, some of their thoughts and
feelings towards learning English through songs and poems, their collections of favorite songs
to learns) to collect data in this study .
2.6. Data Collection Procedure
 Step 1. Giving a pretest:
 Step 2. Treatment:
 Step 3. Giving Posttest
 Step 4. Data analysis and findings: .
2.7. Methods of Data Analysis
The main method of analysis used in this research is comparing the mean scores. The data in
the questionnaires for both classes were tallied and converted into mean scores and percentages
for comparison.

points of the lesson or as the fill - up.
Students enjoyed learning both English songs and poems but they preferred English songs
to poems. Among the five songs were taught, they really enjoyed the pop songs with the
popular, meaningful, cheerful, and quite easy to understand lyrics. Among the five poems, they
liked the short, funny, easy ones.
Students also enjoyed doing tasks designed for learning through the songs and poems.
Among many activities to exploit the song lyrics and poems, students found most of them really
helpful and they liked gap-filling and vocabulary exercises most. They found learning more
motivating when they practiced singing along the karaoke version together in the classroom.
They found it more relaxing and refreshing to learn in a new environment. Singing brought
them more satisfaction that affected their motivation in learning the language than any other
activity in the lessons. Singing has been identified by the students to be the most important
element that determines their motivation in learning.
PART C: CONCLUSIONS
1. Conclusions
 Research results answered research questions
 Songs and poems have good affective effect on students’ learning English.
 English songs, especially pop songs, and poems, especially short and funny poems,
with simple language seem to help the students to become more intrinsically
motivated to learn English.
2. Pedagogical Implications
 Teachers are encouraged to use songs and poems in the classroom

9
 Songs and poems should be carefully selected to raise the students’ motivation.
 Songs and poems can be used to develop students’ vocabulary, listening and reading
skills, and pronunciation if activities are appropriately designed.
3.1. Integration of songs in the teaching English in high schools.
3.1.1. Choosing the suitable song for the topic of the unit
Firstly the song must suit the topic of the unit. Secondly, the lyrics should be easily

poems
 Drawing the picture to describe the poem
 Translating the poems into Vietnamese
4.1.3. Procedure to teach a poem (These steps are quite like the ones to teach a song)
5. Limitations of the Study
The sample size was not large enough to be representative and the data collected was
limited. The amount of time is not enough to sustain students’ interest in different types of
learning skill.
6. Suggestions for Further Research
Use an experimental design to study the effect of songs and poems on more diverse groups of
students, e.g. grades 10, 11, and 12. 49

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