Listen, sing and learn: the place of songs in primary FL learning in Portugal

i Listen, sing and learn: the place of songs in primary FL learning in Portugal Ana Sofia Encarnação Cristino Nobre Relatório de Estágio de Mestrado em Ensino de Inglês no 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico Versão corrigida e melhorada após Defesa Pública Março 2017 i Relatório de Estágio apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Mestrado de Ensino de Inglês no 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico realizado sob a orientação científica da Professora Doutora Sandie Mourão e da Professora Doutora Ana Gonçalves Matos. ii Dedicated to my son and my parents. iii AKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Sandie Mourão for her guidance and support throughout the whole process that ended with the writing of this project. For being a role model and inspire me to become a better teacher. I would also like to thank my co-operating teacher Wilson Fernandes for letting me set up this huge study with ‘his’ learners never doubting that I had the competence to teach all that was planned for the first term. A special thanks to my son for his support, patience and understanding and a huge thanks to my parents for their love, encouragement and, literally, food. It has been a wonderful experience, although exhaustive at the same time, so I would like to close by thanking everyone who played a part in my MA in Teaching English in the 1st Cycle of Portuguese Basic Education adventure. My life is better for having met all of you. iv ABSTRACT LISTEN, SING AND LEARN: THE PLACE OF SONGS IN PRIMARY FL LEARNING IN PORTUGAL ANA SOFIA ENCARNAÇÃO CRISTINO NOBRE KEYWORDS: English as a foreign language (EFL), young learners, songs, language learning, action research Songs are known to young learners and present an excellent format for increasing interest and motivation to learn a foreign language. This action research study gave me the opportunity to find out when should teachers make use of a song over a thematic unit in a set of lessons and to find out when and how a song is most supportive for the learners’ language acquisition process. To obtain information about the impact of singing songs in the English classroom I undertook an empirical study with a group of fourteen learners and a control group of seventeen learners, based on an action research method, in a Portuguese public school. Data was collected through questionnaires, worksheets, self assessment grids, formal assessment test results and my teacher’s journal. Results that came up from reflective practice and systematic collection of data helped to clarify the importance of using songs repeatedly when compared to singing only once. However, results also show that the control group learners were able to acquire language without singing songs as often. It was possible to conclude that the use of songs repeatedly is meaningful to enable learners to acquire communicative abilities and literacy, it impacts on learners’ prosody and it influences learners’ motivation in the classroom. v RESUMO LISTEN, SING AND LEARN: THE PLACE OF SONGS IN PRIMARY FL LEARNING IN PORTUGAL ANA SOFIA ENCARNAÇÃO CRISTINO NOBRE PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Inglês como língua estrangeira (EFL), 1º Ciclo Ensino Básico, canções, investigação-ação Para o ensino de língua estrangeira no 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico existem vários recursos de que o professor dispõe para proporcionar aos alunos experiências significativas de audição e exposição à língua, produção oral, leitura e escrita, sendo as canções um deles. Mas em que circunstâncias se deverá cantar nas aulas de Inglês? E de que forma essa atividade ajuda na aquisição da língua? Com o fim de encontrar respostas para estas perguntas e tentar aprofundar o conhecimento acerca do impacto que têm as canções nas aprendizagens dos alunos, realizei um estudo empírico através do método de action research, em contexto de sala de aula, contando também com resultados provenientes de um grupo de controlo. A recolha de informação foi feita através de respostas dos alunos a questionários, fichas de trabalho, fichas de auto avaliação, resultados do teste sumativo e registos de observação do professor. Os resultados obtidos, quer pela reflexão de práticas quer pela recolha sistemática de dados, ajudaram a ter uma perceção fundamentada acerca da importância das canções para o processo de aquisição da língua quando cantadas repetidamente ou apenas uma vez durante as aulas de cada unidade temática. Foi possível concluir que o número de vezes que uma canção é cantada tem resultados muito próximos, no que à aquisição da língua diz respeito, quando em vez destas se utilizam outros recursos. Não obstante, pude verificar diferenças na literacia, nas capacidades de comunicação dos alunos, no evoluir da prosódia e na motivação e interesse por parte dos alunos. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I – Introduction ...................................................................... 1 1. Introduction … ....................................................................... 1 PART II – Literature Review ............................................................ 2 1. Common sense and reality ..................................................... 2 2. The importance of songs .......................................................... 3 3. Holistic learning ..................................................................... 3 4. Songs and cognitive development ........................................... 4 5. Songs create positive emotions . ............................................... 4 6. Songs and linguistic development ............................................ 5 7. Songs, literature and this research study ................................... 6 PART III – The Action Research ...................................................... 7 1. Context .................................................................................. 7 2. Methodology .......................................................................... 7 2.1. Action research .......................... .................................... 7 2.2. Experimental group and control group ........................... 8 2.3. Consent ........................................................................ 9 2.4. Data collection and analysis ........................................ 10 2.4.1. Course book analysis … .................................... 10 2.4.2. Pre-study and post-study questionnaires … ........ 11 2.4.3. Teacher’s journal …. ......................................... 11 2.4.4. Song worksheets ............................................11 2.4.5. Student self-assessment sheets……………......11 2.4.6. Formal assessment test…................................... 12 vii 3. Results ................................................................................. 12 3.1. Cycle 1 – Chant 1 and Song 1 ..................................... 12 3.1.1. Unit 1 chant and the necessity for an extra song 12 3.1.2. How we sang Chant 1 and Song 1 ..................... 13 3.1.3. Findings and discussion .................................... 14 3.2. Cycle 2 – Song 2 ........................................................ 16 3.2.1. Unit 2 song – Cool kids .................................... 16 3.2.2. How we sang Song 2 ........................................ 17 3.2.3. Findings and discussion – Experimental group and Control group ................................................... 18 3.3. Cycle 3 – Song 3 ......................................................... 20 3.3.1. Unit 3 chant turned into a song ….. .................... 20 3.3.2. How we sang Song 3 … .................................... 20 3.3.3. Findings and discussion – Experimental group and Control group ................................................... 21 3.4. Pre-study and post-study questionnaires …. ................. 22 3.4.1. Findings …. ............................................................. 23 3.4.2. Discussion …. .......................................................... 23 4. Conclusion and final thoughts … .......................................... 24 List of References … .................................................................... 27 List of Figures…. .......................................................................... 29 List of Tables…. ........................................................................... 30 List of Appendices….. .................................................................. 31 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FL – Foreign language EFL – English as foreign language TPR – Total Physical Response 7 PART III – The Action Research 1 Context This empirical study was undertaken in a 1st cycle public school in a city suburb of Lisbon. There are circa 420 students attending in the school year 2016-17. The neighbourhood may be characterized, to some extent, as having a low social and economic status and a significant number of students are descendants from African, Brazilian and Eastern European immigrant families. The study took place in a 4th grade class of 19 students. Of the 14 students that agreed to participate, 12 were 9 years old and two were 10; nine were boys and five were girls. The class had one student with special educational needs who was not able to answer the questionnaires and worksheets by herself. Nonetheless, she along with the other four that choose not to be included in the data collection did all the proposed activities in English lessons. All students had the course book New Treetops 4 – Livro do aluno (Oxford University Press), adopted by the school cluster. This was the class’s second year with mandatory English lessons, but they had had English lessons since the 1st grade. Lessons were 60 minutes long, took place twice a week and the present research was performed over 20 lessons from October to December 2016. 2. Methodology 2.1 Action research In order to find answers to the research questions, I set up an action research project. This approach has long been used to investigate language teaching contexts. According to Burns (2010), every teacher in a classroom can be both an ‘investigator’ and an ‘explorer’ while being a participant in what he or she is trying to solve or find out with the learners. Action research ‘involves taking a self-reflective, critical and systematic approach to exploring your own teaching contexts’ (Burns, 2010:2). The main purpose of this action research was to find out if singing songs in English lessons helped students learn the language and what the students’ views on it were: Were they familiar with songs in English lessons? Did they like to sing songs? 8 Did they feel singing songs helped them in the development of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills? Supported by data collected throughout the study I tried to find an answer to the questions: ‘When should we make use of a song?’ and ‘When is a song most supportive for language acquisition?’, hoping to clarify if repeating a song in several lessons, instead of singing it just once in a theme unit or not singing it at all, made any difference in terms of language acquisition. The action research method helped me to better understand the effect songs were having on learners over each cycle of the study and thus enabled me to continuously improve my practice. It was designed to have three cycles of intervention. Cycle 1: I followed the course book plan for unit 1, singing the chant only once as indicated by the teacher’s notes. However, after a learners’ needs analysis I used another song. It was not part of the course book; I used it as a routine song. Cycle 2: I followed the course book plan for unit 2, singing the song over five lessons. Cycle 3: I followed the course book plan for unit 3 and learners sang the song in every lesson. 2.2 Experimental group and control group The experimental group, with whom I worked over the 20-lesson period, had fourteen learners who agreed to participate; the rest of the learners in the classroom did the same activities, but their answers were not taken into consideration for the study results. After the Cycle 1 intervention I felt that it would be interesting if I could compare results achieved by my group with results from another group singing in a different manner, in order to better understand the effect that songs had had on learners’ perception of the language acquisition. So, in Cycles 2 and 3 I had some precious help from my co-operating teacher who agreed to collaborate in this study and authorized a small intervention in one of his other class groups, so I could have a control group. The control group had English lessons in the same school and consisted of seventeen learners. These participants were in the same age group (9-10), in the same school grade and used the same course book. Learners from the control group had 9 lessons with my co-operating teacher and sang one song and one chant as they appeared as activities suggested in the course book, but only in one lesson. Interventions in both groups can be seen in the figure below. Experimental group Control group Unit 1: Sing chant once + Begin to sing extra song as routine song Complete song worksheet Self-assessment sheet Unit 2: Sing song over five lessons Complete song worksheet Self-assessment sheet Unit 2: Sing song once Self-assessment sheet Unit 3: Sing song over five lessons Complete song worksheet Self-assessment sheet Unit 3: Sing song once Self-assessment sheet Formal assessment test Figure 1: Interventions in experimental group and control group 2.3 Consent I began this study after collecting consent from the school cluster’s headmaster, the parents and the children. Each informed consent document had a brief summary of what the study was about. Informed consent documents were written in Portuguese with a language style adapted to suit the receptor’s understanding (see Appendix A, B). In the informed consent document prepared for learners, I took into consideration the simplicity of language and I used small pictures, almost like the style used in rebus but without substitution of words. The point was to call their attention to each paragraph (see Appendix C). Learners were told the purpose of the study and I explained what kind of activities I would set up in our lessons. I felt was important that learners could understand that I was asking them to participate in and that they were free to decide if they wanted to take part or to decline. Learners were given the opportunity to ask questions and I answered their doubts and reaffirmed that their participation was voluntary and they could stop participating at any time, and if that was the case I would not include their answers in my study. 10 2.4 Data collection and analysis 2.4.1 Course book analysis While planning this piece of research I had to overcome what I considered a problem. The course book in use, adopted by the school cluster, was New Treetops 4 (Oxford University Press) and it presented seven songs and three chants in Units 1, 2 and 3, among many other activities, to be used in my 20-lesson planning to develop this study. Suggestions in the Teacher’s Book were to sing the unit’s main song over two lessons and all the other songs and chants only in one lesson. None of these songs were suggested to be lesson ‘openers’ or ‘finishers’, nor to be sung in the manner of a continued routine. With this in mind, I had to make a choice. For this study I used the following songs (see also Appendix D): Cycle 1 Chant 1 – Unit 1 – Theme: In the town Sung only in 1 lesson as indicated in the teacher’s notes Song 1 – out of the course book - Hello! Sung as a routine song to fill in an important language gap, over 15 lessons Cycle 2 Song 2 – Unit 2 – Theme: Numbers Sung over 5 lessons Cycle 3 Song/Chant 3 – Unit 3 – Theme: Food and drink Sung over 5 lessons. Lyrics modified by teacher. Figure 2: Chants and songs used in the study The choice of songs was based primarily on the vocabulary and chunks of language that met the Metas Curriculares de Inglês 1º Ciclo (national curriculum) requirements and, that being so, presented language which could be used by learners in different speaking, reading and writing activities, other than merely learning and singing a specific song. All songs with the exception of the Cycle 1 chant were sung over five lessons or more, with the support of visual aid (flashcards) and Total Physical Response (TPR) gestures; I also included variation with different voice intonation – sad and happy or fast and slow – according to the lyrics thematic possibilities and ‘mouthing’ the lyrics or omitting a particular word without singing it aloud. 11 2.4.2 Pre-study and post-study questionnaires I prepared and applied a questionnaire at the beginning of the study (see Appendix E) and at the end of the study (see Appendix F), first to find out if learners were familiar with singing songs related with English topics and if they liked/disliked the use of songs in the classroom and afterwards to see if students had changed their minds in any way about singing songs in English lessons. 2.4.3 Teacher’s journal After the lessons, I took notes from observations made in the classroom. These included teacher’s notes about setting up singing activities and learners’ reactions, language use and behaviour. 2.4.4 Song worksheets I prepared worksheets as a follow-up song activity, one for every song taught, to assess reading and writing skills (see Appendices G, H, I). To do these worksheets, learners had to sing along with the song with audio and then complete gaps with given words. In the second listening, learners had to check their answers while singing and reading the lyrics. Learners completed the worksheets over the third/fourth lesson singing each song. 2.4.5. Student self-assessment sheets These were prepared to collect data for students’ perception of their language acquisition: understanding and ability to say, read and write key sentences or structures contained in the songs. There was one self-assessment sheet for each song (see Appendices J, K, L). This was the only data collection tool that was applied in the control group regarding Cycle 2 and Cycle 3 songs (see Appendix M), enabling a comparison between groups. 12 2.4.6 Formal assessment test I collected learners’ results from the exercises of the termly formal assessment test which had vocabulary or structures presented in songs in order to be able to compare those with the learners’ perceptions of what they had learnt from singing. I could not compare both groups because the formal assessment tests applied were different in the experimental group and the control group. This action research was designed to have three cycles of intervention, apart from pre-study and post-study questionnaires that were designed to find out if learners’ views towards singing had changed in any way. The purpose was to discover how learners thought singing had helped them learn the language, if at all. The information arising from the data collection tools will hopefully enable me to interpret the findings and to reach some conclusions about the main questions of this research. 3. Results With two questions in mind ‘When should we make use of a song?’ and ‘When is a song most supportive for language acquisition?’ I undertook an action research study in English lessons over the period of twenty lessons while I was doing my supervised teaching practice. In this section I will present and discuss results from each cycle of intervention. 3.1 Cycle 1 – Chant 1 and Song 1 3.1.1. Unit 1 chant and the necessity for an extra song The chant in Unit 1 of the course book on the theme In the town was done as suggested in the Teacher’s Book, as an activity in only one lesson, integrated into the unit’s language contents. Learners listened to the audio twice and sang once. Lyrics can be seen below. Chant 1 A police station, a toy shop, A library, a market. 13 In my town. In my town. A café, a post office, A playground, a school. In my town. In my town. Also in this cycle and because routines are very important with young learners I introduced a song on the theme of Greetings that was not in the course book – the song was Hello! from Super Simple Songs. This song was used as a lesson opener from the sixth lesson on. As can be seen below, the lyrics provide examples of how learners can greet each other. Song 1 – Hello! Hello, hello Hello, how are you? (repeat) I’m good! I’m great! I’m wonderful! (repeat) Hello, hello Hello, how are you? (repeat) I’m tired! I’m hungry! I’m not so good! (repeat) Hello, hello Hello, how are you? (repeat 3x) 3.1.2 How we sang Chant 1 and Song 1 Chant 1 was sung in one lesson only but I had to supplement the suggestions made in the Teacher’s Book. I displayed flashcards on different parts of the classroom walls for visual support, ordered sequentially as they appeared in the chant, and did a ‘pointing to the word’ activity while learners listened the second time. This was not suggested but I considered it necessary because learners had neither visual support nor the lyrics in the course book to allow them to follow the audio sequence. Pictures displayed in the course book were in a different order and these were new vocabulary 14 words which I felt important to associate with meaning from the start. Some learners began to sing the chant the second time and all the group sang along the third time I played it. Song 1 – I displayed flashcards on the board with images of the six possible answers to the question – How are you? Learners practised choral drilling the question with Total Physical Response (TPR) gestures and then I taught one gesture for each possible answer. Over the first two lessons, learners just listened to the audio and performed the TPR along the song sequence. After listening I greeted and I asked every student how they were, and learners answered, making the suitable gesture. From the third lesson on, learners began to sing along and use speech for answers. From the fifth time on learners asked the questions and gave the answers to each other. This song was planned to be a routine song over Cycle 1 lessons after I had done my weekly learners’ need’s analysis and I decided it could not wait until the beginning of Cycle 2 for the good of class management; it served as a lesson opener activity and was used until the end of this research project. Learners completed a worksheet at the end of Cycle 1 with the song text, filling in the gaps with given words after listening and singing the song, to assess reading and writing skills (see Appendix G) and also completed a target language self-assessment sheet on which they had to express, according to their perception of degree of ability, if they were able to understand, say, read and write vocabulary, phrases or sentences contained in the song texts (see Appendix J). 3.1.3 Findings and discussion Chant 1 – According to my classroom observation notes, regarding speaking activities done following the lesson plan (a miming game and a writing/reading task on the board), ‘the chant activity seemed to help a few learners to improve intonation of some vocabulary items like library or police station, which are words that if read in Portuguese have different sounds because of our phonetic differences, namely with the sound we produce with vowels i and o’ (journal, 11th October 2017). This is one of the reasons teachers are encouraged to use songs and chants supported by Brewster, Ellis and Girard convictions (2002). 15 In the formal assessment test completed at the end of term with contents from Units 1, 2 and 3, all learners were able to do with success the listening and writing exercises which involved vocabulary presented in this chant. Song 1 – This song served to fill in the gap for greetings language in the course book. Learners were only able to say – Hello!. So, asking and answering the question How are you? was new language and the song helped in the acquisition of chunks that enabled learners in speaking interaction and speaking production. At the same time, it allowed me to see how students would react in terms of language acquisition when presented with a song that did not have follow up exercises integrated into a thematic unit. Learners reacted positively; this particular song not only helped to create a positive tone at the beginning of every lesson, but also because of all the formulaic language it contains, it helped learners to speak English with each other in every lesson from the start, once they began to role play the question and answer. Because it was set up as a lesson ‘opener’ activity, it acted like a confidence booster, preparing learners for the activities that followed. In different lessons learners sang the song with the support of visual aid (flashcards), Total Physical Response (TPR) gestures, with different voice intonation – sad and happy – according to the lyrics and ‘mouthing’ the lyrics without singing. From the second week on audio support was no longer needed, indicating that learners had made the song ‘part of them’ (Murphey, 1992:6). I wrote on my classroom observation notes that ‘six lessons after we started to sing every learner was able to use the song’s formulaic language, spoken as everyday conversation, and ask and answer the question –How are you? without teacher’s help’ (journal, 8th November 2016). Results from the song worksheet containing the lyrics text (Appendix G) indicate that the majority of learners in the group were able to read and copy some words into blank spaces: out of the 14 participants in the study, 12 learners completed the exercise without mistakes and two learners had one spelling mistake each, in words copied into spaces. Learners completed a target language self-assessment grid (Appendix J). The whole group indicated that they were able to understand and say all the language presented in the song, while results from one learner indicated that he was not completely able to read the part of the sentences ‘I’m great!...’ and results from two learners indicated they had difficulty writing the language presented in the song. None 16 of the participants ticked the ‘I’m not able’ column. These results seem to confirm what learners did on the worksheet. But even so, with only one writing (copy) exercise done on the worksheet with the song text, I was somewhat surprised with the result of 12 learners indicating they feel they are able to write the language presented. I can only attribute this to the positive feeling of ‘I can’ that songs have on young learners’ minds according to Read (2007) and Dias and Mourão (2005). 3.2 Cycle 2 – Song 2 3.2.1 Unit 2 song – Cool kids The song Cool kids is in Unit 2 of the course book on the theme Numbers. It was used as a singing activity over five lessons, integrated into the unit language contents. Learners had the support of audio, visual aid (course book image and flashcards) and TPR gestures. The course book only had a text with partial lyrics, as can be seen in Figure 3 below. I selected this song because not only it was useful for practising the prosody of numbers from eleven to twenty and provided a good example of different letters which have the sound /k/, but also because it helped learners to acquire language to communicate personal information, which is one of the requirements in Metas Curriculares de Inglês 1º Ciclo (national curriculum). Lyrics were as follows: Song 2 – Cool kids (in bold are the lyrics presented in the Student’s book) We’re the cool kids. We’re the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Cam from number 11. Cole from number 12. Cat from number 13. We’re all cool kids. And I’m Chris Cool from number 14. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. We’re the cool kids. We’re the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Kile from number 15. Kate from number 16. Kit from number 17. We’re all cool kids. 23 development of the four skills. Did singing songs help them to understand, speak, read and write in English? 3.4.1 Findings As can be seen in Table 1, preferences changed and so did the learners’ awareness of the benefits of songs in their speaking, reading and writing abilities. Pre-study questionnaire Post-study questionnaire Always Sometimes Rarely Never Always Sometimes Rarely Never Do you like singing songs in English lessons? 1 12 - 2 - 12 2 - - Does singing help to understand English? 10 1 2 1 11 2 1 - Does singing help to speak in English? 10 2 1 1 1 12 - 1 1 Does singing help to read in English? 8 2 3 1 10 2 2 - Does singing help to write in English? 9 - 3 2 1 11 2 - 1 Table 1: Answers from Pre-study and Post-study questionnaires 3.4.2 Discussion The post-study questionnaire results above clearly show that learners from this age group like to sing. This is probably because learners feel singing helps them to understand and to speak, read and write in English. Sometimes, recalling a song is all that is needed to find a suitable word or sentence to answer a question or simply say something in English. My opinion, based on what I saw during the lessons, is that learners consider songs useful. That explains why most of the time learners are happily willing to learn songs that they would not consider learning and singing in Portuguese because of the simplicity and repetition of lyrics and melody which would be more appropriate for younger ages. 24 The results from the post-study questionnaire seem to indicate that the work I developed with the experimental group, through singing and completing the worksheets, helped learners to be more aware of the four skills involved in learning a language – listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening to the songs created a purpose for learners to understand English and at the same time the setting of tasks for a prelistening stage like looking at pictures, pointing to flashcards, learning gestures to go with words, a while-listening stage with singing and a post-listening stage backed up with role-play dialogues and the worksheets helped learners to be fully engaged in learning over the lessons. The starting point for this action research study was trying to find out when to use a song in English lessons, also with the hope of clarifying if repeating a song over several lessons, instead of singing it just once in a thematic unit or even not singing it at all, made a difference in terms of language acquisition. Triangulation of data was very useful in helping to understand all the findings, especially the numbers that emerged from quantitative data tools. Results over the three cycles of intervention seem to suggest that learners are able to acquire language from a song when it is not part of a thematic unit from the course book as long as that song is sung enough times for learners to learn it and contains formulaic language that can be used in other situations, like real-life meaningful conversations or classroom role-plays. However, in the case of the songs integrated into the course book units, relying only on self-assessment results, singing the same song over five lessons seemed to have made little difference or none in the learners’ perceptions of what they had learned. Nonetheless, with the experimental group only, teacher’s observation notes seem to indicate the positive tone of lessons, learners’ motivation, improvements in prosody and learners’ extra opportunities to be exposed to language, to sing the songs and practise the language outside the classroom. 4. Conclusions and final thoughts Undertaking this action research project while doing my supervised teaching practice made me look deeper into my classroom practice and discover different ways of implementing activities. Developing this study made me see how everything is connected in the process of learning a foreign language. I learned in every step of the process and became richer trying to discover what is beyond the visible aspect of the fact that young learners like singing songs. 25 My experience as a young learner English teacher in Portugal is that most learners from this age group are not able to sing autonomously before the third or fourth different occasion (lesson). Therefore, if learners sang all the chants and songs as suggested in the course book, it would be very difficult for a song to be learned and became a ‘part of them’. This kind of Teacher’s Book suggestions might be one of the reasons for teachers saying that songs are not a useful resource for language learning and can provide an excuse for leaving songs out of the classroom. Singing a song once can be a funny and engaging activity but might not be meaningful in terms of language acquisition for learners. I hope my approach to the process of selecting a song that will support the unit language and the different suggestions I make for varied kinds of activities a teacher might do with a song, may be useful to other teachers and, if that is the case, that it may inspire teachers to stop fearing the use of songs in English lessons and decide to give it a try. My findings surprised me because when I started to develop the idea of research into the use of songs in the young learner English classroom I had the feeling that singing songs would have a bigger effect on the language acquisition process. The fact that all the songs but one were integrated into the course book units of work and the language used in those same songs was also used in a variety of other activities may have accounted for singing being just one resource among many others when it comes to explaining its importance in teaching and learning a foreign language. In my experience as a teacher, I feel that learners who habitually sing are more ready to interact in normal conversation on themes known to them than others who do not. But that is an idea for future research. As such, I’m leaving an open door to future research with young learners in the primary school age group. What would findings be if we narrowed the field of research to songs for young learners of English as a foreign language to try to discover what direct impact it would have on conversation skills? What would be the outcome if the focus was just on the speaking ability? I am very curious about it and I would like to be in a position to do more in-depth research related to it but it would surely require a bigger study with a different focus than the one I undertook and, most of all, more time which I’m not sure is compatible with the teaching profession. 26 In short and coming back to my initial research questions – When should we make use of a song? Taking my results, I believe that we should plan for songs in English class. Songs are a tool as useful as all the others teachers have traditionally been using to teach a foreign language. Taking into account all the advantages that come from an engaging activity, singing is a fun and motivational group activity. In addition, singing also easily equips learners with vocabulary and expressions they can take with them out of the classroom. – When is a song most supportive for language acquisition? The result of this action research study enabled me to acknowledge that there was not a great difference in the outcome of language acquisition in the English classroom between whether learners sang a song only once or many times. Except for the one song that was not part of the course book collection, all the other songs and chants were taught as part of the course book activities and I consider that the right way to use them. Learners acquired the language by learning and exploiting in English with all the resources and tools used in the three units of work. So, in most of the study I could not discover the extent of language acquired just from singing. However, the findings suggest that the more the learners sing the more they are exposed to English language and have extra opportunities to learn. Songs are a good vehicle for repetition. The experimental group learned sentences and expressions which the control group did not. At the same time learners were motivated and clearly seemed to enjoy the singing moments in the classroom because they asked to sing when it was not planned. I would say that a song is most supportive for language acquisition when it has a clear purpose, when it presents meaningful language for learners, when it is integrated in a thematic unit and most of all when is sung over the number of lessons learners would take to learn it and make the song part of them. 27 REFERENCES Brewster, J., Ellis, G. & Girard, D. (2002). The Primary English Teacher's Guide: New Edition. Harlow: Pearson Education. Burns, A. (2010). Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A Guide for Practitioners. Abingdon: Routledge. Davis, G. M. (2013). Investigating the use of songs in facilitating formulaicity in very young learners of English as an additional language (Unpublished master’s thesis). Kellog College, University of Oxford, Oxford Davis, G. M. (2017). ‘Songs in the young learner classroom: A critical review of evidence’. ELT Journal. Advanced online publication. https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/elt/ccw097/2834983/Songsin-the-young-learner-classroom-a-critical Dias, A. & Mourão, S. (2005). Inglês no 1º Ciclo, Prácticas Partilhadas: Sugestões Para Projectos de Ensino do Inglês no 1º Ciclo. Porto: Edições Asa. Dolean, D. D. (2015). ‘The effects of teaching songs during foreign language classes on students’ foreign language anxiety’. Language Teaching Research, 5(1), 1-16. Fonseca-Mora, M. C. (2016) Music and language learning: an introduction. In M. Carmen Fonseca-Mora & M. Gant (Eds). Melodies, rhythm and cognition in foreign language learning (pp.2-6). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. Hillyard, S. (2013) ‘Varied repetition of songs in EFL kindergarten contexts.’ IATEFL Young Learner and Teenager Special Interest Group Publication, Spring 2013, 19-22. Kampa, K. (2014) Chants and songs in the young learner classroom: a comparison of music use, purpose and effectiveness from native Japanese speaker and native English speaker perspectives (Unpublished master’s thesis). St Cloud State University, Minnesota Kersten, S. (2015) Language development in young learners: the role of formulaic language. In J. Bland (Ed). Teaching English to Young Learners: Critical Issues in Language Teaching With 3-12 Year olds (pp.129-145). London: Bloomsbury. 28 Ludke, K. M., Ferreira, F. & Overy, K. (2014). ‘Singing can facilitate foreign language learning’. Memory and Cognition, 42 (1), 41-52. Murphey, T. (1992) Music & Song. Oxford: Oxford University Press Paterson, A. & Willis, J. (2008) English through Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press Read, C. (2007). 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom. Oxford. Macmillan. 29 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Interventions in experimental group and control group Figure 2: Chants and songs used in the study Figure 3: Song 2 – Lyrics presented to learners in the course book 30 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Answers from Pre-study and Post-study questionnaires 31 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A – Informed consent letter to school cluster’s headmaster ………. i Appendix B – Informed consent letter to parents ………………………………. ii Appendix C – Informed consent letter to pupils ………………………………... iii Appendix D – Lyrics of songs used in classroom ………………………………. iv Appendix E – Pre-study questionnaire …………………………………………. v Appendix F – Post-study questionnaire ………………………………………… vi Appendix G –Worksheet song Hello! …………………………………………... vii Appendix H – Worksheet song Cool kids ………………………………………. viii Appendix I – Worksheet song Food and drink …………………………………. ix Appendix J – Self-assessment sheet - song Hello ……………………………… x Appendix K – Self-assessment sheetsong Cool kids …………………………. xi Appendix L – Self-assessment sheetsong Food and drink ……………………. xii Appendix M – Self-assessment sheet for control group ………………………... xiii i Appendix A – Informed consent letter to school cluster’s headmaster Pedido de autorização ao Diretor do Agrupamento de Escolas ------------------ Exmo. Sr. Diretor ----------------, Chamo me Ana Sofia Nobre e é com muito gosto que irei estagiar durante o 1º período deste ano letivo na Escola Básica ----------------. Estou a fazer um Mestrado em Ensino de Inglês no 1º Ciclo, na Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas pertencente à Universidade Nova de Lisboa, e o mestrado implica que durante o estágio faça um pequeno projeto de investigação. Este projeto será incluído no meu relatório final. O meu trabalho intitula-se: Listen, sing and learn: The place of songs in primary FL learning in Portugal - (Ouvir, cantar e aprender: O papel das canções na aprendizagem da Língua Estrangeira em Portugal). Venho, por este meio, solicitar a sua autorização para poder realizar o projeto que vai decorrer entre outubro e dezembro de 2016 durante o meu estágio, com a turma 4C, na Escola Básica --------------- Depois de pedir também autorização aos Encarregados de Educação e aos alunos para os incluir no meu estudo, a recolha de dados será efetuada mediante observação dos alunos, questionários e fichas de auto avaliação, e excertos do meu diário de professor. A qualquer momento os alunos poderão escolher não participar. As informações obtidas serão referidas no meu relatório final de mestrado e eventualmente em artigos académicos e conferências. A instituição e todos os seus funcionários e as crianças permanecerão anónimas em qualquer circunstância. Nunca serão tiradas fotografias nem obtidas imagens, nem da instituição nem das crianças. Se tiver questões a colocar sobre o projeto agradeço que me contacte pessoalmente, estarei à sua disposição através do E-mail - [email protected] Agradeço a sua autorização para que possa realizar o meu estudo. Peço que me seja entregue o destacável abaixo até ao dia 10/10 (segunda feira). Cacém, 4 de Outubro de 2016 Ana Sofia Nobre _______________________________ Prof.ª Dr.ª Sandie Mourão Orientadora de Estágio FCSH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa _______________________________ Eu, ____________________________________________________ , Diretor do Agrupamento de Escolas -----------, ------ --, declaro que fui informado dos objetivos do projeto intitulado Listen, sing and learnk: The place of songs in primary FL learning in Portugal (Ouvir, cantar e aprender: O papel das canções na aprendizagem da Língua Estrangeira em Portugal) e autorizo Ana Sofia Nobre a realizar o estudo, com a turma 4C na Escola Básica -------------- Assinatura: Data: ___/___/_____ ___________________________ viii Appendix H – Worksheet song Cool kids My code name is Mr. / Ms. ____ October, 2016 fourteen twelve twenty fifteen 1 – Listen to the song. 2 – Listen to the song again and write the missing words. 3 – Listen to the song one more time and check your words (You can sing!)  Cool Kids We’re the cool kids. We’re the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Cam from number eleven. Cole from number___________. Cat from number thirteen. We’re all cool kids. And I’m Chris Cool from number fourteen. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. We’re the cool kids. We’re the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Kyle from number __________. Kate from number sixteen. Kit from number seventeen. We’re all cool kids. And I’m Kara Cool from number _______________. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. We’re the cool kids. We’re the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. Clark from number eighteen. Clive from number nineteen. Clare from number _____________. We’re all cool kids. And I’m Chloe Cool from number fourteen. Meet the cool kids. Meet the cool kids. So Cool! ix Appendix I – Worksheet song Food and drink My code name is Mr. / Ms. ____ December, 2016 I like fish (2x) nice soup (2x) I don’t like 1 – Listen and sing the chant.  2 – Listen to the chant again and write the missing words. 3 – Read and listen to the chant one more time and check your words (You can sing!)  The Food chant Mmm! Spaghetti ...nice spaghetti! Mmm! _____ … I like _____!  Mmm! Milk … I like milk!  Mmm! Rice … __ _______ rice!  Mmm! Salad … _____ salad! Mmm! Fish … I don’t like fish!  Mmm! Bread … I don’t like bread!  Mmm! Chicken … I don’t like chicken!  Mmm! Spaghetti ...nice spaghetti! Mmm! Soup … I don’t like soup!  Mmm! Milk … __ _____ _____milk!  Mmm! Rice … I don’t like rice!  Mmm! Salad … nice salad! Mmm! ______ … I like ______!  Mmm! Bread … I like bread!  Mmm! Chicken … I like chicken!  Mmm! Bread … I like bread!  Mmm! Chicken … I like chicken!  x Appendix J – Self-assessment sheet song Hello MOSTRA O QUE SABES Self Assessment Cantaste já várias vezes na aula a canção Hello!. Mostra o que sabes, preenchendo a grelha abaixo, dizendo o quanto a canção te ajudou a compreender, saber dizer, saber ler e saber escrever a língua Inglesa. SOU SUPER CAPAZ = SOU CAPAZ = SOU POUCO CAPAZ = NÃO SOU CAPAZ = ▬ COMPREENDER DIZER LER ESCREVER Hello! How are you? I’m great! (I’m wonderful! I’m good!) I’m not so good! (I’m tired! I’m hungry) My code name is Mr. / Ms. ____ November 2016 xi Appendix K – Self-assessment sheet song Cool kids MOSTRA O QUE SABES Self Assessment Cantaste já várias vezes na aula a canção Cool Kids. Mostra o que sabes, preenchendo a grelha abaixo, dizendo o quanto a canção te ajudou a compreender, saber dizer, saber ler e saber escrever a língua Inglesa. SOU SUPER CAPAZ = SOU CAPAZ = SOU POUCO CAPAZ = NÃO SOU CAPAZ = ▬ COMPREENDER DIZER LER ESCREVER Numbers 11-20 Cool! We’re the cool kids I’m Chris Cool from number (fourteen). My code name is Mr. / Ms. ____ November 2016 xii Appendix L – Self-assessment sheet song Food and drink MOSTRA O QUE SABES Self Assessment Cantaste já várias vezes na aula a canção The Food Chant. Mostra o que sabes, preenchendo a grelha abaixo, dizendo o quanto a canção te ajudou a compreender, saber dizer, saber ler e saber escrever a língua Inglesa. SOU SUPER CAPAZ = SOU CAPAZ = SOU POUCO CAPAZ = NÃO SOU CAPAZ = ▬ COMPREENDER DIZER LER ESCREVER Food vocabulary (spaghetti, soup, milk, rice, salad, fish, bread, chicken) Mmm, nice salad! I like (soup). I don’t like (milk). My code name is Mr. / Ms. ____ December 2016 xiii Appendix M – Self-assessment sheet for control group My name is _________________________________ December/2016 MOSTRA O QUE SABES Self Assessment Pensa no que aprendeste nas aulas de Inglês durante as Unidades 2 e 3 (Unit 2 – Numbers e Unit 3 – Food and drink) e preenche as grelhas abaixo com os símbolos que estão na legenda. (Não estás a ser avaliado/a, nem há respostas certas ou erradas. Esta ficha só será útil se responderes com a verdade.) SOU SUPER CAPAZ = SOU CAPAZ = SOU POUCO CAPAZ = NÃO SOU CAPAZ = ▬ Unit 2 – Numbers COMPREENDER DIZER LER ESCREVER Numbers 11-20 (eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty) Cool! We’re the cool kids I’m Chris Cool from number (fourteen). Unit 3 – Food and drink COMPREENDER DIZER LER ESCREVER Food vocabulary (spaghetti, soup, milk, rice, salad, fish, bread, chicken) Mmm, nice salad! I like (soup). I don’t like (milk). Thank you! xiv