Do
you agree that starting to learn English vocabulary is difficult? Most of young
English learners beef about how hard they remember and pronounce English
vocabulary is. Basically, learning English vocabulary is easy as long as we
know the tricks. One of those tricks is by using songs. Most of children love
to sing songs. Therefore, using songs becomes a great breakthrough in learning
English. Songs can also support the development of young learners’ abilities in
reading, writing, listening, and speaking, as well as provide opportunities in
learning pronunciation, rhythm, grammar, and vocabulary (Lo & Li 1998).
Besides, songs can make the class situation more fun. As the result, the young
learners become interested to learn English more since they find out that
learning English is not hard like other people say. The learners’ parents will
also get an easy way to make their children smarter. Moreover, teachers do not
have to suffer more in motivating students to learn English which is not their
native language.
There
are two methods in learning, a modern method and a conventional method. In this modern method, teachers use the
smartest way in teaching such as by using songs. In the conventional method, teachers
tell vocabulary directly one by one to the learners and ask them to memorize
them. Basically, whether using songs or not, the purpose of teaching remains
the same, which is introducing the foreign language to the young learners.
However, the process of learning created by these two methods turns out
differently. If the teachers use songs during the learning, the class will be
more fun and alive. The learners will be interested and motivated to learn
English further because songs make English easy. Otherwise, the class will be
boring and English seems to be a difficult lesson to learn because the learners
do not enjoy the learning that much.
Using
songs is one of the marvelous ways in introducing English vocabulary to the
young learners. The learners, the parents, and the teachers can get many
benefits from this method. In the following paragraphs, we will classify and
explain in detail the benefits of using songs in learning English by looking at
the side of the young learners itself, the teachers, and the parents.
Firstly,
let us see how the method of using songs can give benefits for the young
learners. As I have said above, children love to sing. They get the fun thing
of learning English by singing the vocabulary they just got. For an example, my
private students, Hendri (six-year-old boy) and Dewi (five year-old girl) who
love to memorize the name of days and months in English by singing them. They
repeat the song many times due to their interest in singing it. Based on Nation
1990, a repetition is needed to help learners remember words. Of course, it is
a good thing for them since they are trying to acquire the vocabulary skill
without realizing that they do. In other words, they do it in a fun way with a
joy. Besides, using songs also help them to improve their pronunciation in
saying the English words. Day by day, with the teachers as their guide,
children will master the vocabulary and its pronunciation.
Secondly,
we will see the benefits of using songs in learning English for the teachers.
Orlova (1997) identifies that songs can encourage learners to use English. The
English teachers from many non-English speaking countries find the difficulty
in stimulating learners to use English in speaking; songs may be the starting
point to train the students in speaking English. It will help teachers in
motivating students to be more active and confident to speak English. For instance, Joshua, a three-year-old boy, who
has a great skill in speaking English with other people. In his age of three,
he is able to introduce himself, asking someone’s name, telling what he is recently
doing, etc. He has confidence since he has already had good vocabularies in his
mind and songs help him to learn how to memorize foreign words and the
structures of them in a sentence easily.
Thirdly,
the parents are ones of people who will get the benefit if their children learn
English by using song. They will have an easy way to do the review when their
children come home from school. For the example, Joshua’s Mom who always does the
review on what Joshua got from school in the car on the way home. Joshua always
tells everything and sings the English vocabulary learning song he has learnt.
In short, the review can be done everywhere and anywhere. In the dining table
during the dinner time, in the family room while watching TV program or in the
bedroom before their lovely children go to bed. The thing they should do is
just by asking them what song they learnt at school and voluntarily the
children will start to sing. The parents should listen carefully and correct
anytime the children do something wrong in their pronunciation. Doesn’t it seem
fun? Songs always turn everything easy and fun.
In
conclusion, songs turn out to be important things in learning, especially
learning English. Many people including the learners, the parents, and the
teachers feel the benefits of songs itself. The learning process becomes easier
and enjoyable since the songs method comes out in the learning methods. As the
future teachers, we should dig our creativity deeper in order to get an
improvement in teaching. By giving a new idea of teaching, the purpose of
learning will be easier to accomplish.
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