LEARNING ENGLISH WITH MUSIC AND SONG

 Tuesday, December 7th, 2021

Workshop      : English for Teachers with PGRI (EFT)

Group          : 1

Resume        :3rd

Topic           : Learning English with Music and Song

Speaker        : Urip Hidayat S.Pd.

Moderator     :  Poppy Meka, M.Pd.

After reading the flyer shared yesterday, l was sure that this 3rd meeting would be interesting and there would be many active participants.

WHY?????? 

MUSIC? SONG? 

That's right. 

Starting the meeting by singing "LET IT BE" made the situation in this zoom meeting was different from the previous ones. The atmosphere was more lively.

The meeting was opened by Ms. Vina and she gave it to Ms. Popy to lead the meeting.  Before letting Mr. Urip as the speaker deliver his material, Ms. Popy asked the participants to sing "if you're happy and you know it". Again this warming up succeeded in making the atmosphere more cheerful.

After that was Mr. Urip's turn to deliver his material. How about the atmosphere? 

Don't ask about it. Of course, the atmosphere was more, more and more lively. He greeted the participants by singing "Good afternoon everybody, how are you...". He also did brainstorming by giving some questions related the use of song in learning English to the participants. Next, there was an ice breaking "Heal the World" accompanied by a piano played by Mr. Nehemia that made all of us sang together.😊

Then, Mr. Urip told us his experience about his journey in mastering English. It was so difficult at the beginning. One of the causes was because of lack of vocabulary. And learning English through song was a solution. Finally, he said that after knowing the steps, learning English was  as easy as smiling. Now, he has been teaching English for more than 15 years old, from primary level to higher level.

I am definitely sure that we have the same experience as Mr. Urip has.

All of us are trying to find the strategies not only for learning but also for improving and keeping better and better in English. MUSIC and SONG can be the ways. 

 

Actually, learning English through song is also one of my strategies in learning and practicing English. Western songs make me fall in love with English. The soundtrack of "TITANIC" was "my first love".😊

 

WHY????

Learning English though music and song is more enjoyable. It will be interesting, learning while having fun. It can be done in and out side the classroom and we can repeat it anytime we want while doing other activities. Then, we can enlarge our vocabulary, practice our pronunciation, learn grammar, drill our listening skill and others.

Cited from https://ejoy-english.com/blog/benefits-music-learning-english/, there are 4 surprising benefits of music in learning English:

📢Listening to music helps to improve your pronunciation

📢Songs are valuable sources for vocabulary, sentence structures and grammar

📢Songs are enjoyable

📢Music increases memory

Moreover, for the teachers, as cited from https://www.eslbase.com/teaching/using-songs-to-teach-efl, there are 9 reasons why you should use song to teach EFL:

🎤Songs almost always contain authentic, natural language

🎤A variety of new vocabulary can be introduced to students through songs

🎤Songs are usually very easily obtainable

🎤Songs can be selected to suit the needs and interests of the students

🎤Grammar and cultural aspects can be introduced through songs

🎤Time length is easily controlled

🎤Students can experience a wide range of accents

🎤Song lyrics can be used in relating to situations of the world around us

🎤Students think songs are natural and fun

HOW????

In using music or song, we can start by choosing our favorite song in English and try to listen it frequently, memorize the lyric. Then, try to understand the meaning of the lyric and use it in daily life. You can also make some new sentences by modifying the lyric.

So, what should we prepare before learning English with music and song?

As explained by Mr. Urip, there are several things that should be done:

After sharing the materials, the speaker also presented a comparison between teaching "TO BE" by using lecturing method and through song. He asked our opinion about it. Of course, every participant agreed through song was more enjoyable and effective.  

The speaker also asked us to sing some songs that he had already prepared before. From the songs presented, I can conclude that Mr. Urip is a creative teachers. He wrote many songs for teaching English. So, proud of you...Sir👍👍 

 

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Urip also challenged us to create a song for learning English. 

 

OK, Mr. Urip, I try to answer your challenge😊. 

I created a song related to animal vocabulary. I've tried the song to my sons and it worked. Even my three years old son could sing it and memorize the vocabulary. There are twelve animals' names in that song and we can change them if those names have already been memorized. Here my song:

 

Lihat di Vocaroo >>

Well, every great teacher or everybody who is in learning and improving English, we face the same obstacles. We need to master a lot of vocabulary, we are not confident with our ability, we are afraid of making mistakes, even sometimes, others think that we show up when we want to practice our English. 

 

NO NEED TO WORRY, that's the steps that we should pass through to be at TOP later. Find your ways and ENJOY the process. Don't be afraid of making any mistakes, build your confident, keep your positive mind set "YOU CAN DO IT, ENGLISH IS EASY", keep practicing and joining in a community like this group EFT with PGRI 💪.

 

Nur Azizah