The potential of music in engaging students to learn english

Abstract

The aims of the present teaching report, integrated in the Master of Teaching English in Primary Education, are to describe, interpret and evaluate the Intervention Project “The potential of music in engaging students to Learn English”. This project was developed with fourth-graders in a primary school. Exploring and investigating the potential of music in the classroom as a way to engage and motivate students in learning English as a second language was the main intent of the project. Its objectives were: identifying students’ attitudes towards English language learning in general and specifically their sentiment towards music, promoting students’ engagement using activities related to music, helping students develop their "learning to learn" ability, and evaluating gains and limitations of using music in the classroom. In the first stage of the project there was a period of field observation, where I was able to collect data using direct classroom observation and guided observation with the help of an observation grid. I tried to make a profile of the class in order to perceive their engagement in the English class and their attitude towards English learning and music, which was essential to start incorporating music activities in class. I used music for various purposes: to initiate and end lessons, to learn vocabulary/new lexis, to compose a verse for a song and with TPR. These different music activities were part of three didactic sequences, and after each sequence students could evaluate not only what they felt towards the music activities but also what they had learnt in that sequence. This enabled students to develop self-evaluation abilities and provided information for analysing my action. Based on the project results, I came to the conclusion that music is a very powerful tool, enabling students to learn English in a stress-free and playful way. So, music has the potential of engaging and motivating students.