The Use of Music as an Effective Tool in English as a Second Language Classrooms to Teach Verb Forms

Abstract

Today, most of the ESL learners in Sri Lanka consider English language learning as anxiety packed, insipid and an unconquerable obstacle. Moreover, Karunarathna (1993) has mentioned that the methods employed by the facilitator have not been successful at improving English proficiency of Sri Lankan school students. Especially, when teaching English verb forms, most of the facilitators have used the traditional chalk and talk method. If facilitators can integrate music into ELT (English Language Teaching), the ELT sessions can be converted into a stress free, learner friendly atmosphere. This study attempts to investigate whether music can be implemented in teaching English verb forms. The sample of this study consists of 80 students from the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce of University of Sri Jayewardenepura. A pretest was administered to test their prior knowledge in English verb forms. After that, the selected sample was randomly divided into two groups. The control group was taught English verb forms in a traditional classroom setting whereas the experimental group was exposed to a teaching session of English verb forms using English songs. Later on, a posttest on English verb forms was administered to assess the proficiency level obtained by the students after getting them exposed to two different types of treatments. The results of the posttest showcased that, the students of the control group outperformed the experimental group in terms of the proficiency level obtained at the posttest. In conclusion, it is clearly evident that the use of English songs in ESL classrooms has not been supportive in teaching English verb forms.