Chapter One: The motive for the thesis and the theories of ...
Will listening to Western songs help English pronunciation?
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Asami Kan
2010
Contents
Abstract i
Chapter One: The motive for the thesis and the theories of scholars
1. Introduction 1
2. Listening skill 2
3. Pronunciation 3
4. Learning from listening to music 6
5. Focus of thesis 7
6. Summary 8
Chapter Two: The questionnaires and the experiment
2.1 Introduction 9
2.2 The questionnaire/ the experiment 10
2.2.1 Overview 10
2.2.2 The subjects 10
2.2.3 The questionnaire 10
2.2.4 The songs of the experiment 11
2.2.5 Procedure 13
2.2.6 Result 14
2.3 Summary 21
Three: Results of the questionnaire and the experiment, and the considerations on them
3.1 Introduction 22
3.2 Overview of the main findings 22
3.3 Details of the findings 24
3.4 Answering the research questions 27
3.5 Limitation of the study 28
3.6 Implications for acquiring English pronunciation 29
3.7 Summary 29
References 31
Appendices 32
Abstract
This thesis researched “Will listening to Western songs help learning English pronunciation?” because if we could use music to acquire pronunciation of English, it must be good news for everyone to enjoy English.
In Chapter One, the motive for the thesis was discussed referring to the work of some scholars. This research said that listening to the western songs can be a good way to acquire English pronunciation.
In Chapter Two, a questionnaire and a data collection sheet were given to 30 people. The questionnaire asked about their English level, their attitude toward the western songs, experiences of music, and opinions to English and pronunciation of it. The data collection sheet was to see how much the subjects can catch and understand the meaning of the words.
In Chapter Three, the results of the questionnaire and the data collection sheet were presented. The results showed that listening to the western songs has possibility to acquire English pronunciation.
Chapter One: The motive for the thesis and the theories of scholars
1.1 Introduction
Haven’t you experienced that the people from the other countries did not understand what you said in English? It is very important to learn English grammar, of course. However, to have a smooth communication with people from other countries, we should learn good English pronunciation as well. There are many ways to learn pronunciation, for example, studying abroad, joining the English lessons, watching movies and TV programs in English, listening to music and so. In this thesis, we will pick up “listening” because many people like listening to music, and listening to music does not feel “studying” so motivation for learning pronunciation may increase. Also, listening may have a great possibility to acquire English pronunciation because when we listen to music, it is easier to remember the sounds and rhythm. A lot of people like music. If we could learn pronunciation from what we like, a lot more people will like English as well. It must be enjoyable for everyone to speak English with good pronunciation.
1.2 Listening skill
A lot of Japanese people say they do not like English very much because even though they could understand the grammar, they cannot catch what foreign people are saying. This is the biggest problem Japanese people face when we hear English. Jeremy Harmer (2004) says not only Japanese people, but speakers of different first languages often have problems with different sounds. For example, Japanese does not have sounds like, /v/, /θ/ and so. If someone who does not know English hear a word “five”, he would say it [faibu] not [faiv]. Here is another example; /b/ and /v/ for Spanish speakers, there are not the same two sounds in their language. Therefore, if they cannot distinguish between these sounds, they will find almost impossible to tell the differences of English sounds. The ways how the sounds of English and Japanese (and other languages as well) are made are not the same. Therefore, it is natural to have some troubles when English learners hear English sounds. To train our ears, we need to get used to the sounds of English.
Harmer says in his book that there are two ways to deal with this. First, we can show English learners how sounds are made through demonstration, diagrams, and explanation. Another way is to draw the sounds to their attention every time they appear on CDs or in our own conversation. By doing this, learners’ ears will be trained. When the learners can hear correctly this is the beginning for them to pronounce English correctly.
1.3 Pronunciation
Problems Japanese people face when we pronounce English are caused by the same reasons as I mentioned above. English has a lot of sounds that we do not have. We only have five vowels in Japanese, but English has 12 vowels and eight diphthongs. Table 1 has a chart of the phonetic symbols in English.
Table 1: A chart of the phonetic symbols in English
|Vowels |Diphthongs |Consonants |
|i: |bead |eı |cake |p |pin |s |sue |
|ı |hit |ɔı |toy |b |bin |z |zoo |
|ʊ |book |aı |high |t |to |ʃ |she |
|u: |food |ıə |beer |d |do |ʒ |measure |
|e |left |ʊə |fewer |k |cot |h |hello |
|ə |about |eə |where |g |got |m |more |
|ɜ: |shirt |əʊ |go |ʧ |church |n |no |
|ɔ: |call |aʊ |house |ʤ |judge |ŋ |sing |
|æ |hat | | |f |fan |l |live |
|ʌ |run | | |v |van |r |red |
|ɑ: |far | | |θ |think |j |yes |
|ɒ |dog | | | |the |w |wood |
What is more, English has more consonants than we have, and also the pronouncing system of English is not the same to Japanese. English words often end with consonants, for example, beat [bi:t], felt [felt], people [pi:pl], and a lot more. Japanese words, however, do not end with consonants except some words like ending with “n”. In Japanese, combinations of vowels and consonants are clearly pronounced, for example, beat [bi:to], felt [feluto], people [pi:pulu], and in Japanese’s own words, sora (sky), sakura (cherry blossom), daigaku (university). As I mentioned above, English and Japanese basically have different pronouncing way. When English speakers speak, there are many movements in their mouths which Japanese people do not have. The ways of using lips, teeth, tongues, and so are different or Japanese people never use. To distinguish the differences between the sounds of English and Japanese, we should look at how English sounds are made through demonstration, diagrams, and explanation.
We have other problems which is intonation. Harmer says, this is an important area of English pronunciation and this is also difficult point for Japanese people. When we speak English, we will find it difficult to identify the different patterns of rising and falling tones. However, we should not abandon intonation learning, he says. Most of people can hear when someone is being full of drive or bored, when they are surprised, happy, sad, and so. Therefore, it is one of the ways to give learners opportunities to recognize such moods by using tape, or watching movies. Then, we can practice imitating the way these moods are articulated. Even though we cannot explain the technicalities of the different intonation patterns, it is very important to get used to know the patterns. Harmer says, to produce correct sounds or intonation tunes are important, but rather than to acquire them he attaches greater importance to listen and notice how English is spoken. He says the more aware they are the greater the chance to acquire English skill will rise.
1.4 Learning from listening to music
Alan says listening to music has some advantages. He says that music is highly memorable. It makes people relax and its rhythms correspond with basic body rhythms. What is more, its messages touch deep inside people’s emotion. Whatever reasons, music stick in the head and echoing in our minds.
Music is everywhere and a lot of people have music tastes. Therefore, it is very available to us, and by using what we like our motivation will immediately rise. Murphy (1992) mentions, however, music itself will not help anyone how to use English. Just listening to and singing songs will not make learners can speak in English, but everything we do is associated with the sound we are hearing and which is always echoing deep inside our minds. Therefore, the use of music has a great possibility to stimulate positive attitudes to the acquiring of English. Most people have experienced with amazement how quick we remember songs. Even though we forget nearly everything we learn. He says that for a variety of reasons, songs stick in our minds and become part of us. We will see some of the reasons he mentions. (1) In our life, it is very hard to escape music. In the restaurants and cafes, shopping malls, in our cars, everywhere we hear music. (2) Generally, songs use simple and conversational language. So, we can use the songs as a sample text for our learning. The fact that the songs are easy and useful makes us more motivating. (3) Most importantly, songs make people relaxing. Songs provide fun and encourage learning without thinking they are learning. (4) It seems easier to sing in English than to speak it. So, to get used to the sound of English, listening to the songs and singing them are very good. Our bodies remember the sounds and rhythm. For these reasons, music seems to work effectively for our learning.
1.5 Focus of the thesis
From the review, we can see that there are great possibilities to use music for acquiring English and English pronunciation. This thesis will try to ask university students to find out whether listening to the western songs really help us to acquire English pronunciation.
In the next chapter, we will conduct some research to find out the
Research Question One: Will listening to Western Songs help English pronunciation?
Research Question Two: Which kinds of songs are effective?
We will study these two research questions, and then look at the results of the questionnaires in Chapter Three.
6. Summary
In this chapter we looked at some research about listening, pronunciation, and learning English from music. In the next chapter, we will look at the possibility of acquiring English pronunciation by listening to the western songs from data gathered from questionnaire.
Chapter Two: The questionnaires and the experiment
2.1 Introduction
In Chapter One, we looked at some theories of scholars. They said that to learn English and its pronunciation, the use of music is a good way because it is highly memorable, and always in our life around us. In this chapter, we will examine whether listening to Western songs help acquiring English pronunciation and what kind of song is effective for it.
A questionnaire and a data collection sheet of the experiment are given to my friend at Seishin, and the other universities asking to answer them.
2.2 The questionnaire/ the experiment
2.2.1 Overview
The questionnaire was designed to find out about the subjects’ levels and motivation toward English, motivation toward pronunciation of English, experiences of music, and behavior to Western songs to know whether they help the acquisition of English pronunciation. The data collection sheet assessed how much the subjects can really pick up the words and possibility of pronunciation acquisition by subjects’ self estimation. The aim of those was to find out whether listening to Western songs will help our acquisition of English pronunciation.
2.2.2 The subjects
The subjects were NDSU students and students at Okayama Science University and Shujitsu University to gather data from subjects who learn and experience different things, and have different interests. There were 30 subjects, 23 females and seven males. Their ages were 20 to 22.
2.2.3 The questionnaire
A questionnaire is to find out the subjects’ levels of English, usual behavior toward the western songs, experiences of music, and opinions to pronunciation acquisition of English. The aim of this questionnaire was to compare and find out the relations between the results of the questionnaire and the data collection sheet of the experiment by getting the subjects’ basic opinion toward English and the listening of Western songs before the data collection. The English version of the questionnaire is in Appendix A and the Japanese version is in Appendix B. A questionnaire and the data collection sheet of the experiment were given to my friends and club members at NDSU and other universities as I mentioned above.
2.2.4 The songs of the experiment
As experiment, nine Western songs are selected and the subjects are asked to listen to the songs and see how much they could catch the words and see how they think about listening to Western songs for the pronunciation acquisition. As music types, pop, rock, R&B, ballad, punk, and folk are picked up to see whether there are any relations between the favorite types and the types which the subjects could pick up the more words. Also, to see whether there are any music types which are easy to pick up the words for the subjects. And, the speeds of nine songs are different. Songs which have fewer than 70 words per minute look upon as slow song, 71 to 90 words per minute as middle tempo, and over 91 words per minute as fast song. Then, the songs are in Table 2 below. These songs are chosen to know what kinds of songs are useful to acquire English pronunciation. So, there are different music types and speeds. Also, carrying out the experiment, we chose the songs which the subjects would not know because if they have known the songs and the lyrics of the songs, we will not be able to get impartial results. And, we chose the songs which the subjects would like because we think it is important to learn things from what we can enjoy.
Table 2: A chart of the songs for the experiment
|Title |Singer / Band |Type |Speed |
|Beautiful |Patrick Nuo |Pop |Middle |
|What about me? |Shannon Noll |Rock |Fast |
|Wondering |Good Charlotte |Punk |Fast |
|Sunset |Powderfinger |Rock |Middle |
|Walking Away |David Craig |R&B |Fast |
|Eight Days A Week |Beatles |Folk Rock |Middle |
|The Reasons |Hoobastank |Ballad |Slow |
|Let Me Know |Aaliyah |Ballad |Slow |
|Something In the Way She Moves |James Taylor |Ballad Folk |Fast |
A data collection sheet for the experiment was made by using the songs above to find out how much the subjects could catch the words and see how they think about listening to Western songs for the English pronunciation acquisition. The English version of the data collection sheet is in Appendix A and the Japanese version is in Appendix B.
2.2.5 Procedure
The questionnaires were distributed to my friends at NDSU, members of the band circle at NDSU and other universities, and students in other universities to gather data from subjects who are interested in English and who are not, subjects who like English and who don’t, and subjects who have musical experiences and interests and who don’t to see whether there are any effective relations for pronunciation acquisition between the experiences and motivation toward English and music.
To gather those data we made a questionnaire. A data collection sheet of the experiment was also made to find out how much the subjects can pick up the words and see how they think about listening to Western songs for the English pronunciation acquisition. To do the experiment, the subjects are divided into small groups to ask their opinions in detail. There were two or three people in each group. For the experiment, CD player was used and we played each song about for a minute or until the end of the first part of the song. Then, the data was put into Excel.
2.2.6 Results
In this section we will look at the data from the questionnaire. First we will look at the subjects’ knowledge about the songs, and how the subjects feel about the songs. Then we will look at how many words the subjects can get, and understand the meaning of the words. Also, there is the difficulty of the songs, and the possibility that the songs can help the pronunciation acquisition of English. Last, we will look at the subjects’ basic opinions about Western songs and English. The results appear in the following tables.
Most subjects do not know the songs. However, 17% of the subjects know Song 6 “Eight Days A Week” of The Beatles. Most subjects like the songs and the rhythm of the songs. Over 70% of the subjects feel they like Song 1, 2, and 6. If the subjects like the songs, the number shows they like the rhythm of the songs as well. Many subjects pick” so-so” for the question “Do you like the lyrics of the song?” However, Song 1 and 6 get higher percentages, 43%.
Table 3: A chart of the data from the experiment
| |Know |Like |Rhythm |Lyrics |
| |No Yes |No so-so yes |No so-so yes |No so-so yes |
|1. Beautiful |100% 0% |0% 20% 80% |0% 13% 87% |3% 53% 43% |
|2. What about me? |97% 3% |0% 27% 73% |3% 17% 80% |0% 90% 10% |
|3. Wondering |90% 10% |7% 30% 63% |7% 23% 70% |3% 87% 10% |
|4. Sunset |100% 0% |10% 30% 60% |13% 17% 70% |7% 63% 30% |
|5. Walking Away |87% 13% |17% 17% 67% |7% 27% 67% |0% 80% 20% |
|6. Eight Days A Week |83% 17% |0% 27% 73% |3% 30% 67% |0% 57% 43% |
|7.The Reasons |100% 0% |23% 20% 57% |20% 23% 57% |10% 77% 13% |
|8. Let Me Know |100% 0% |10% 40% 50% |17% 37% 47% |13% 60% 27% |
|9. Something In The Way She Moves |100% 0% |13% 27% 60% |13% 23% 63% |7% 77% 17% |
Most subjects do not know the songs. However, 17% of the subjects know Song 6 “Eight Days A Week” of The Beatles. Most subjects like the songs and the rhythm of the songs. Over 70% of the subjects feel they like Song 1, 2, and 6. If the subjects like the songs, the number shows they like the rhythm of the songs as well. Many subjects pick ”so-so” for the question “Do you like the lyrics of the song?”.
Table４: A chart of the results of the experiment
Difficulty 1…easy 2…not very difficult 3…difficult 4…very difficult
Useful 1…Not useful 2…can be useful 3…useful 4…very useful
| |catch |Understand |Difficulty |Useful |
| | | |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|1 Beautiful |33% |28% |0% 43% 43% 13% |3% 37% 43% 17% |
|2. What about me? |31% |25% |0% 13% 70% 17% |7% 57% 37% 0% |
|3. Wondering |29% |21% |0% 7% 67% 27% |27% 60% 10% 3% |
|4. Sunset |34% |28% |13% 63% 23% 0% |0% 33% 43% 23% |
|5. Walking Away |31% |26% |0% 27% 47% 27% |13% 40% 43% 3% |
|6. Eight Days A Week |43% |40% |37% 53% 10% 0% |0% 7% 40% 53% |
|7.The Reasons |29% |23% |0% 20% 57% 23% |20% 47% 30% 3% |
|8. Let Me Know |24% |21% |0% 20% 43% 37% |13% 50% 27% 10% |
|9. Something In The Way She Moves |32% |27% |10% 53% 30% 7% |7% 20% 47% 27% |
Song 6 “Eight Days A Week” of The Beatles gets 43% which has the highest percentage, and Song 8 “Let Me Know” of Aaliyah gets 24% which is the lowest. However, the percentages of the subjects’ numbers of catching the words do not have many differences. Percentages of understanding the meaning of the words also have similar numbers. Song 6 gets the highest 40%, and Song 8 gets the lowest 21% again. Over 70% of the subjects feel that the song is difficult or very difficult when they listen to Song 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8. Over 60% of the subjects think Song 4, 6, and 9 are easy or not difficult to listen to. Song 6 gets the highest point again. 90% of the subjects think that Song 6 is easy or not difficult to listen to. Over 60％ of the subjects feel Song 4, 6, and 9 are useful for the English pronunciation acquisition.
Table 5: A chart of the subjects’ English levels
|English Level |beginner ：a b c d e： advanced |
| | 0% 53% 23% 23% 0% |
No one chooses beginner and advanced. However, more than half of the subjects think their English level is not high. The subjects who study English as their think their English level is quiet high.
Table6: A chart of the subjects’ favorite music type
|Favorite music type |a. Pop b. Rock c. R&B d. Ballad e. Punk f. Folk |
| | 14 19 7 11 9 3 |
Western rock music is popular among the subjects of my thesis. The subjects also listen to Pop music and ballad. However, folk song does not seem to be popular among the subjects.
Table 7: A chart of the result from the questionnaire
| |a b c d |
|2. How often do you listen to Western music? |17% 57% 23% 3% |
|5. Do you try to listen to the pronunciation of the words in Western songs? |27% 40% 23% 10% |
|6. While listening to Western songs, do you try to understand the meaning of the words? |23% 27% 37% 13% |
|7. Do you sing Western songs? |43% 30% 23% 3% |
|8. When you sing Western songs, do you care about your pronunciation? |43% 23% 20% 13% |
|9. When you sing Western songs, do you care about the meaning of the words? |57% 17% 17% 10% |
|10. While singing the Western songs, do you see the words (words card etc.)? |33% 10% 17% 40% |
|11. While listening to Western songs, do you see the words (words card etc.)? |13% 53% 20% 13% |
|12. Do you think it’s possible to learn new words from Western songs? |3% 20% 57% 20% |
|13. Do you think it’s possible to learn pronunciation of the words from Western songs? |3% 20% 63% 13% |
|14. Do you think listening to the Western songs helps your English? |3% 23% 63% 10% |
|15. Do you think listening to the Western songs helps your English pronunciation? |3% 17% 67% 13% |
Question 2, 57% of the subjects says they listen to Western songs sometimes. Only three percent of the subjects always listen to the western songs. Question 5 shows that more than half of the subjects do not try to listen to the pronunciation of the words. In Question 6, 37% of the subjects say that they try to understand the meaning of the words. Question 7 shows that more than half of the subjects sing Western song, but only three percent of the subjects always sing Western song. Question 8, and 9 show that when the subjects sing the western songs, they pay more attention to the pronunciation than the meaning. Question 10 and 11 show that when they sing the western songs, they look at the words. However, when they listen to Western songs, 66% of the subjects answer that they sometimes or never look at the words. In Question 12, 77% of the subjects think that listening to Western songs is a good way to learn new words of English. Question 13, 76% of the subjects feels that listening to Western songs is also a good way to learn pronunciation of English. In Question 14, and 15, over 70% of the subjects think that listening to the western songs help both learning English and pronunciation of English.
2.3 Summary
In this chapter we looked at the data from the questionnaire to the 30 subjects. In the next chapter we will discuss these data.
Chapter Three: Results of the questionnaire and the experiment, and the considerations on them
3.1 Introduction
In Chapter 1 we looked at what researchers think about the use of music for study and English pronunciation.
In Chapter 2 we looked at the data. This is to research about the subjects’ English level, usual behavior toward the western songs, experiences of music, and opinions to English and pronunciation of it.
In this chapter we will look at the findings from the experiment and the questionnaire, and attention to more details of the findings, and we will think about acquiring English pronunciation too after looking at the findings.
3.2 Overview of the main findings
In the questionnaire we ask the subjects whether they know the songs, and like the songs, rhythm, and the lyrics. Most of the subjects answer they do not know the songs. However, many of them answer they like the songs. The data from the questionnaire shows about the same percentages between the questions “Do you like the song?” and “Do you like the rhythm of the song?” It means that if the subjects like the rhythm of the song, they like the song as well. However, over 50% of the subjects answer “so-so” to the question “Do you like the lyrics of the song?”
In the experiment (Table 4), the subjects listen to the songs and answer how many words they could catch and understand. According to the data, they could catch about 30% of the songs. The percentage of “understanding the meaning of the words” is about the same. Then, the subjects answer the difficulty of the songs. Over 80% of the subjects choose “difficult” or” very difficult” for Song 2 and 3. However, 90% of the subjects choose “easy” or” not very difficult” for Song 6.
In the questionnaire, subjects answered their English level. More than half of the subjects think their English level is not high. The subjects who study English as their major at university think their English level is quiet high.
Data shows that not many of the subjects listen to the western songs. 17％ of the subjects never listen to Western songs. However, over 70% of the subjects think that it is possible to learn words and pronunciation of the words from Western songs. Also, over 70% of the subjects say that listening to the western songs will help their English and learning English pronunciation.
3.3 Details of the findings
Most of the subjects do not know the songs. However, they feel they like the songs and the rhythm of the songs. It seems it is difficult to catch the words for the first time listening to songs they have never heard. Song 1 and 6, however, get 43%. This is a quiet high percentage for the question” Do you like the lyrics of the song?” Compare with the other songs, words used in Song 1 and 6 are easier. Song 6 is The Beatles’ song. Their songs sound like they are speaking. Therefore, the subjects feel they like the lyrics. The subjects can pick more words than the other songs. This is a very important point that they can catch the words and the words are easy to understand. To learn English pronunciation by listening to the western songs, it is necessary that the words used in the song are clear and easy to pick up and the melody is familiar to the listeners.
In the experiment (Table 4), we again find that it is difficult to catch the words of the songs for the first time. Data shows the subjects can catch about 30% of the words. However, there are not many words which seem the subjects can not understand the meaning. Understanding the meaning of the words is also about the same percentage, but it gets lower points. It means the subjects can catch the words of the songs if they have known the meaning of the words. However, if the songs’ tempos are fast like Song 2, 3, and 5, no one feels the songs are easy to listen to. And, the songs would not help the subjects’ pronunciation learning. Data clearly shows about it. Song 2, 3, and 5 get zero percent for the question” Do you think the song is easy for you?” Over 60% of the subjects say Song 4, 6, and 9 are easy or not very difficult. Song 4 is a slow song, so the subjects feel it is easy to listen. For Song 6 (The Beatles), 90% of the subjects say it is easy or not very difficult, and zero percent of the subjects say it is very difficult. The Beatles’ songs are often used in the English classes and music classes in Japan. Therefore, sound of Song 6 seems familiar to the subjects. Song 9 and 6 have similar point. These songs sound like the singers are speaking. It means the words are clearer than the other songs. Therefore, the subjects feel it is easier than other songs. Song 4, 6, and 9 also get higher percentage for the question “Do you think the song is useful for learning English pronunciation?” The highest is Song 6 again. 93% of the subjects say is useful or very useful. The lowest is Song 3, 13%. This song is sung in very fast tempo, and its music genre is punk. Therefore, the instruments’ sounds are striking and the singer’s voice is not really easy to pick up.
In Table 6, the subjects are asked about their favorite music type. Many of them like rock music and pop music. Punk and fork do not seem to be popular among the subjects. There is an interesting finding here. As I mentioned above, the subjects say Song 4, 6, and 9 are easy and useful. These songs are rock and pop music. Song 3 is a punk music which the subjects say it is difficult and not useful.
In the questionnaire, we find that 17% of the people never listen to Western songs. Other subjects (83%) listen to Western songs sometimes, often, or always. This is a much higher percentage than I expected. According to the questionnaire, 33% of the subjects try to listen to the pronunciation of the words and 50% of the subjects try to understand the meaning of the words. 56% of the subjects sing Western songs. When they sing Western songs, 33% of the subjects care about the pronunciation, and 27% of them care about the meaning of the words. When they listen to Western songs, they more like to understand the meaning of the songs. When they sing Western songs, they pay attention to the sound of the words. Some of the subjects think that it must be happy if they can sing Western songs with good pronunciation. Only three percent of the subjects answer it is not possible for the question “Do you think it’s possible to learn new words from Western songs?” and “Do you think it’s possible to learn pronunciation of the words from Western song?” More subjects than I expected looks with favor on listening to Western songs. Over 70% of the subjects think listening to Western songs have possibility to learn English and English pronunciation. Even though they could catch about 30% of the words and the meaning of the words in the experiment, 73% percent of the subjects answer that listening to Western songs will help their English, and 80 % of the subjects answer that listening to Western songs will help their English pronunciation.
3.4 Answering the research Questions
We looked at the details of the findings. We now think about the results of the research questions. The research question was” Will listening to Western songs help English pronunciation? ” For this question, we got some answers filled with hope. In Chapter One, researchers said that listening to music is effective for study because it is memorable, and it is always in our lives. Many people like music, so we can learn the sounds of English without noticing it is study. Learning with relaxing and enjoyable mood gives people’s learning a lot more possibilities. In Chapter Two, we could see the great possibilities as I mentioned above. The data (Table 4) shows that over 60% of the subjects answered it is useful for acquiring English pronunciation for some songs which are used in the experiment. Even though they could catch only 30% of the songs, they answered listening will have possibility to help their English and pronunciation of it. However, most of the songs for this thesis were first time for the subjects to listen to. Therefore, if they try and practice listening to the sound of English with the songs they know and they like, they will catch a lot more words and more aware of the image of English sounds.
Another question was” Which kinds of songs are effective?” In Chapter Two, we found many subjects said Song 4, 6, and 9 are easy to catch the words. Song 4 and 6 are middle tempo songs which are recognized in Table 1. Both songs are sung clearly and they are not too fast to listen to. Song 9 is fast tempo, but there is a common point with Song 6. Some of the subjects said Song 6 and nine sound like the singers speaking. Therefore, these two songs are easier to catch what the singers are singing. Song 6 which is The Beatles’ song especially always gets the best results in the experiment. This is a very interesting finding because it seems songs with slow tempo are effective to listen to for our learning. However, in fact, not many people chose them for the good one to help their English and pronunciation learning. Data shows that the songs which sound like speaking, and middle tempo are the best for the acquiring pronunciation of English.
3.5 Limitation of the study
It seems we could ask the subjects about their opinions more for each song when we did the experiment. And, we could not collect a lot of data because we asked only 30 university students, so there should be more people to get more data to lead more detailed results.
3.6 Implications for acquiring English pronunciation
Throughout collecting the experiment and the questionnaire, we found many of subjects are interested in listening to Western songs. Even though they have not heard the songs of the experiment, they said they enjoyed listening to the songs. Percentages of catching the words and understanding the meaning of the words were not really high because it was the first time for them to listen to the songs and they listened to the songs only one time for each song. However, we found that the subjects’ opinions to the listening for acquiring English pronunciation are very positive. So, we should look for the songs which are effective for acquiring English pronunciation, and get used to the sound of English by listening to Western songs.
3.7 Summary
The main findings from this research are that listening to Western songs will help acquiring English pronunciation and there are some kinds of songs which are effective for it. However, we found in Chapter One that just listening to Western songs will not help us. To learn pronunciation of English, we should pay attention to the sounds of it. Also, we should try to get used to the images of different sounds of English. From the experiment in Chapter Two, we could not get a reliable result with catching the words of Western songs. However, the subjects listened to the songs only one time for each, but they answered that listening has a great possibility to acquire pronunciation.
It is very important that how we can acquire pronunciation enjoyably from interesting things. Everyone has music tastes. Music is always around us in our lives.
We should use it enjoyably and effectively .
References
Blake, Barry J. 2008. All About Language. United States, Oxford University Press
Harmer, Jeremy. 2004. The practice of English language teaching. Longman, Malaysia
Harmer, Jeremy. 2006. How to Teach English. Longman, Malaysia
Murphy, Tim. 1992. Music & songs. Oxford University Press
Appendices A
The English Questionnaire
Name _____________________
This questionnaire is to find out whether listening to Western music has an effect on learning English pronunciation.…
1. What is your English level? Circle one
a. elementary b. lower intermediate c. intermediate
d. upper intermediate e advanced
2. How often do you listen to Western music?
a. never b. sometimes c. often d. always
3. Circle the kinds of music do you like to listen to in English. (circle more than one if you wish)
a. pop b. rock c. R&B d. punk e. ballads f. fork
4. Which musical instruments do you play?
___________ _______________ _______________
For how long? _______________
5. Do you sing Western songs?
a. never b. sometimes c. often d. always
6. Have you tried to listen to the pronunciation of the words in Western songs?
a. never b. sometimes c. often d. always
7. While listening to Western songs, do you try to understand the meaning of the words?
a. never b. sometimes c. often d. always
8. When you sing Western songs, do you care about your pronunciation?
a. never b. sometimes c. often d. always
9. When you sing Western songs, do you care about the meaning of the words?
a. never b. sometimes c. often d. always
10. While listening to Western songs, do you see the words (words card etc.)?
a. never b. sometimes c. often d. always
11. Do you think it’s possible to learn new words from songs?
a. never b. little c. can be d. possible
12. Do you think it’s possible to learn pronunciation of new words from songs?
a. never b. little c. can be d. possible
13. Do you think listening to the Western songs helps your English pronunciation?
a. never b. little c. can be d. possible
Name ___________________________
| |Do you know this|Do you like this |Do you like the |Do you like the lyrics of |I know___% of the words in |I understand the meaning of___% of the |This song is ______ to learn new words |
| |song? |song? |rhythm of the song? |the song? |this song |words in this song |from. |
| | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |Easy V. difficult |
|1 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |% |% |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|2 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |% |% |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|3 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |% |% |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|4 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ | % | % |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|5 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |% |% |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|6 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |% |% |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|7 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |% |% |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|8 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |% |% |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
|9 |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |はい/ いいえ |% |% |1 2 3 4 |1 2 3 4 |
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