Songs in EFL: Vocabulary gains and attitudes of adolescent learners and teachers in Cyprus

Abstract

Although many teachers across the globe agree that including music and songs in the foreign language classroom is beneficial for learners (Tegge 2018), it is frequently emphasised that this idea lacks academic and empirical support (Engh 2013; Davis 2017; Tegge 2018). Research investigating the effects of song-based instruction has primarily focused on young learners (Davis 2017). Previous studies on song-based teaching conducted in Cyprus examined public primary school students’ grammatical and vocabulary development related to the arousal of learners’ positive emotions (Diakou 2013) as well as vocabulary acquisition by teenage learners in the private sector (Metaxa 2013). The researchers concluded that songs are valuable tools for EFL vocabulary instruction and that learners would benefit from the incorporation of songs in the English language curriculum. However, songs are not yet established as educational materials and the scarcity of official song-based resources still hinders EFL teachers’ incorporation of songs in the classroom (Tegge 2018). The present mixed-method study addressed the gap in the literature with respect to adolescent learners in Cypriot public secondary education and examined 1) the effects of song-based teaching on vocabulary learning by adolescent EFL learners (N=38) in a Cypriot public high school, 2) the adolescent learners’ attitudes towards learning L2 English vocabulary through songs, 3) teachers’ views regarding the efficiency of teaching vocabulary via songs and their actual practices regarding the use of songs in their EFL classrooms. The research design integrated quantitative and qualitative methods; the results stemmed from a quasi-experiment, the quantitative analysis of a questionnaire on the students’ attitudes and a qualitative analysis of 11 interviews with EFL teachers. The results are in line with previous research (Metaxa 2013; Shakerian et al. 2016; Diakou 2013; Davis 2017; Tegge 2018) as they suggest that songs are effective tools for enhancing the vocabulary development of adolescent learners as well as that both students and teachers recognise songs as useful educational material. Apart from promoting vocabulary learning, songs are considered to improve the learning experience by increasing adolescent learners’ enjoyment, motivation and self-confidence.