The Use of Songs in the ESL / EFL Classroom as a Means of Teaching Pronunciation: A Case Study of Chilean University Students

Abstract

In this thesis, I set out to investigate whether the use of songs can help L2 speakers learn to better perceive and produce suprasegmental phenomena. Effective pronunciation skills are necessary for successful communication and as such can greatly impact one’s personal, social, and professional life. Studying the use of songs for teaching pronunciation is interesting because as a linguistically rich material, songs can enhance learning due to their positive affective, social, and cognitive influence in the L2 classroom. Using songs to teach pronunciation within a Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) framework constitutes a novel approach to an underexplored area of classroom research. In order to learn how using songs might help native Spanish speakers learn English suprasegmentals, I conducted a mixed methods exploratory short-term case study of Chilean university students studying English Language and Literature at the Universidad Católica de Chile. Using three groups: a control, songs, and no-songs group, the pre- to post-course progress was measured first with the two treatment groups combined and then with them separated. In this way we were able to measure the effectiveness of songs compared to other materials as well as to no intervention whatsoever. After two weeks of instruction, we found that using songs can significantly help in the production of the schwa when reading a text and of thought groups when speaking freely. Results obtained in listening tests were not statistically significant. However, closer examination of the performance of individual songs- group participants showed not only a greater than average progress in different suprasegmental areas in both listening and speaking, but also an appreciation of songs as an effective and enjoyable means of learning pronunciation. It would be advantageous for future research to explore the effects of teaching the pronunciation areas using the same methodology but for longer periods of time with delayed post-course testing to determine whether the effects are long-term. In addition, further exploration into the relationship between pronunciation perception and production could provide insight for the development of more effective teaching techniques.