ABSTRACT

Songs have become an integral part of our language experience,

and if used in coordination with a language lesson they can be of
great value. One obvious instance is that, when introducing
alphabets to a kid, people realize that he or she will pick them up
more speedily and thus memorize faster if they are in the form of
a song. Students, when having exposed to them repeatedly, will
receive a considerable input of language unconsciously. It will be
more children – friendly and help acquire a proper English
language to listen to English songs. Additionally, since songs and
rhymes can cover a large number yet basic of aspects of life,
cultures, or societies; and they play an essential part in the usage
of our first language, they are crucial in the learning of other
foreign languages, too. This article, based on secondary research,
aims to describe the importance of using rhymes and songs in the
teaching of English as a foreign language at a primary level.

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 I. Introduction:
Traditionally, in the field of teaching English for young learners, people are quite familiar with
the Direct teaching method, which is developed to help students use the language in a natural
way. That is, teachers and learners refrain from speaking the native language and use the targeted
language solely, which in this case is English, as a media of communication. Taking this
philosophy into account, it is essential that concepts are instructed by real-life objects, natural
contexts, or by the display of suitable linguistic forms. Another way to achieve this target is by
the aid of using rhymes and songs, which are undeniably natural as human beings, undoubtedly,
have exceptional ears for music. Songs have been part of the human experience for as long as we
can remember. As Gugliemino (1986) stated, adults sing at religious services, bars, in the
shower, and listening to the car radio. Songs are a pattern of language which use accent of sound
and pitch; hence, there are similarities in communication between language and songs. As stated
by Peacock, “they are aurally and orally transmitted, they both contain phonetic, syntactic and
semantic components and they develop early in life as social interactive media” (Peacock 1997,
pg. 51).
Indeed, there are researches which indicate that once the rhythm is exposed to the child’s mind,
he or she will shortly be familiar with the sounds included. This original source of language
helps motivate, stimulate, and increase the children’s involvement and absorption substantially.
Both teachers and students can take advantage of this recurrence and musicality to facilitate the
acquiring of new words, phrases, and expressions. Songs help to generate a pleasant classroom
atmosphere, create more happiness and relaxing moment so that children sometimes do not feel
like they are studying at all. One more pivotal reason that makes it effective is that teachers can
use songs as an activity to improve not only the children’s lexical source, grammar but even to
enhance the ability to recognize different English accents also.
II. Literature Review:
1. Characteristics of young learners:
They could easily be distracted; hence, songs, handwriting, games and the likes should be given
during lesson time as tools to lighten up the atmosphere and more importantly keep their minds
from wandering off. Also, children are active, as they are supposed to. What teachers could do is
to add role play dialogues, games and set up competitions among young students themselves.
Another thing is that compared to adult learners, children have a tendency of showing little
shyness or conservativeness in class. For most of the time, teachers can apply a mechanical
technique called repetition drills. Plus every child is born imaginative, so using pictures of songs
and their lyrics has been proven to be effective for them to adopt new vocabulary. In short,
children learn more and actually enjoy their studying while engaging in multiple class activities.
At the early age, these young learners, by spending time listening to their surroundings and
imitating, develop not only their speaking but also perfect their listening skills.
As stated in many researches, children are very good at picking up a word’s meaning while being
clueless about its context. This ability allows them to learn a new language beside their mother
tongues just by guessing. For example, young students are able to understand what their

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language teacher says in class by applying the same mechanism. Children are capable of gaining
knowledge of all sorts in an indirect manner rather than a direct one. Normally children feel
pleasurable and excited to create their own fun in their daily activities, learning and playing
similarly. Each of the kids has his ways to make things more interesting and fascinating based on
his views and preferences. With one’s wild imagination, a child is able to create his own world
of fun, happiness and fantasy.
2. Characteristics of songs and rhymes:
As composed of music and language, songs have been proven to bring about numerous benefits
to various aspects of our life. Stated by Larsen-Freeman and Long (2000, pg. 147), songs, being
a profound and plentiful source of culture and themes, an expression of poetry and a dose of
therapy and relaxation, are inevitably the perfect tool used in linguistic education in primary
schools. Culture, reality and emotions are portrayed in a special manner through the integration
of words and music. In this case, English songs allow listeners and singers or speakers to
communicate their own cultures or emotions to others. Kramsch used to say, ‘Language
expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality” (2000, pg. 3)’. Every song tells a story.
Sometimes, it is a love tale. Some songs touch other’s souls, some gives people hopes and
dreams and others reminds of the what has happened. Rivers (1997, pg. 93) once stated that
songs are fantastic as the words and melody embody plentifully powers in their meaningful
topics and expressions. Davanellos also emphasized that songs are more than just a tool of
emotions, they are a source of material for sounds, stress and rhythmic patterns, vocabulary,
intonation, grammatical and conversational exchanges (1999, pg. 33). One way or another, music
brings about more than what people usually views, which are about emotions or feelings. It is a
powerful and effective educational method to learn accent, grammar and vocabulary.
3. The effectiveness of using songs and rhymes in teaching English for young learners:
The idea of using songs as tool to light up the class’s atmosphere has been proven to be effective.
Lessons which leave students a feeling of content and delight are considered successful. What is
more efficient and effective than conventional teaching method, which is teacher-centered, is
creating an enjoyable learning experience for the students, by using songs. Music allows
facilitating language construction and collection in children of the early age.
Medina once stated, ‘using music in the classroom will help our students succeed as FL students”
(1993, pg. 8). The reasons for utilizing rhymes and songs to foster the learning process of foreign
language among primary schoolers are many. According to Phillips, “naturally, children really
enjoy learning and singing songs and have fun doing activities while reciting rhymes” (Phillips
1993, pg. 100). However, in terms of psychology, culture and language, the meaning is much
deeper than that. Children are engraved with rhymes and songs while developing their first and
foremost language, the mother tongue. The mother tongue is mostly constructed through
melodies and songs at the very beginning in early years’ communication. Songs assists not only
in reinforcing valuable information but also in brightening the classroom’s atmosphere, said by
Linda Campbell and Bruce Campbell (cf. 1996, pg. 58). A large number of researchers came to
the same conclusion that songs are truly a beneficial influence in an educational environment.

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Rhymes and songs create a sense of familiarization and relevance towards a child’s
surroundings, including the people around him; therefore helping to build up his first language.
The well-known Bulgarian educator, Georgi Lozanov used to bring music into his lessons as a
tool to create and maintain relaxation and comfort among his students, which could help
facilitate the learning process.
Along with developing the mother tongue, numerous aspects can support the learning process of
a foreign language of a young child, including rhymes and songs. They are prone to generate
positive feelings in the young listeners. Despite the fact these children may not fully comprehend
the lyrics or rhymes, they cannot help themselves but acting out from the feelings surged from
the music. Besides creating happiness and content for the youngsters, songs generally boost
vocabulary and language structures learning. Phillips stated that, the purposes of introducing
songs to children are ‘to practice the sounds, rhythms and stress patterns of English” (1993, pg.
108). There are various contributors in a student’s motivation to study, which could be their
teacher’s teaching methods, the element of novelty of lessons delivered or in some cases, songs.
Songs are highly motivated, as Murphey once stated “rhymes and songs are relaxing; they vary
the lesson’s progress, they provide fun and action, and above all, they encourage harmony within
a group” (1992, pg. 8).
It was found by Murphey that the purposes of using songs by English teachers are many. It
appears that as songs can be maintained in both of our long and short-term memories, it is an
easy and effective way to retain a large fraction of language. He also stated that songs are as
equally efficient as text. They are a brilliant source of grammar, syntax, vocabulary and
pronunciation. In a indirect way, when children learn English or any other languages, they make
attempts to learn or remember the words of the songs they listen to. The results came positively
as many teachers practiced using songs in their classes, as warm-up activities before the actual
lesson, background for other activities or inspiration for writing (Eken 1996, pg.46).
Interesting activities make learning languages much more fun and effective, through songs,
rhymes, chants, children are able to make significant progress without being under the pressure
of learning a whole new language or even being too conscious of the fact they are learning one.
Songs are made of lexicon, comprised by natives in their native language; so by the nature of
repetition and musicality, they are one of the best resources for students to learn vocabulary,
expressions, and the likes. Unconsciously these students gain a large amount of knowledge just
by listening over and over again their favorite songs. Songs also introduce students into a
relaxing and soothing mode, driving them to a more natural state so that they find learning a new
language fun and exciting.
As for ESL program for children, songs, chants and rhymes are amazing contributors to
children’s learning process. At the beginning level, it is so much easier for a non-native learner
to sing a song or cite a part of it than being forced to remember theoretical paragraphs or random
information that might not interest them. As a child may find humming melodies appealing, he is
more eager to learn. Whenever a student has a sense of belonging in his class, learning is
potentially more effective. And by sharing songs and rhymes, the tension or competitiveness
among classmates could dim down, making every student more comfortable to focus on their

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studying. Songs, rhymes and chants may be catchy and easy to remember, hence, students are
able to gain satisfaction from learning something quickly.
III. Conclusion:
Teachers, especially those with years of experience, can say with pride that teaching is a
rewarding and fulfilling job. However, just like other professions, it is more than that. It does not
always revolving around having fun and playing games. It is a job of complexity, accuracy and
details. For language teachers in general and English ones in particular, it is a must to be aware
of the potential challenges and hardships and therefore having proper preparation for each lesson.
Having all things said, the core matter of this is the difference between children and adults in
terms of learning. Apparently, kids have an edge since they are faster, better at memorizing and
more flexible with different modern learning methods, one of which is through fun activities.
This method enables children to feel natural to adopt new knowledge without forcefully being
too conscious that they are, in fact, trying to learn a new language.

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 Reference list:

Geyer, V. (2019). GRIN - Songs and Rhymes in Teaching English at Primary Schools. Retrieved
from https://www.grin.com/document/106150
Lynch, L. (2019). 9 Reasons Why You Should Use Songs to Teach EFL - Eslbase.com.
Retrieved from https://www.eslbase.com/teaching/using-songs-to-teach-efl
Ytreberg, W.A. (1990). Teaching English to Children (Longman Keys to Language Teaching).
Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/5580611/The_Characteristics_of_Young_Learners
Cullen, B. (November 1999). Song Dictation. The Internet TESL Journal.
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Cullen-SongDictation.html
Why should use songs in teaching English for young learners?. (2019). Retrieved from
https://peltjournal.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/why-should-use-songs-in-teaching-english-for-
young-learners/
Saricoban, A. & Metin, E. (October 2000). Songs, Verse and Games for Teaching
Grammar. The Internet TESL Journal.
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Saricoban-Songs.html