TheroleofmusicinoralEnglishlanguagelearning

CHENZirui

Introduction

It is nowadays that an increasing number of teachers have recognized the role of music in teaching oral English， since it would help English language learners in terms of sounds， paralanguage， words as well as conversational exchanges. Besson， Sch?n， Moreno， Santos and Magne （2007） define that music is an art form conveying meaning through sound， with elements of rhythm， pitch， etc. As to the songs， Setia， Rahim， Nair， Adam， Husin and Seman （2012） assert that it is a kind of language with universal feature expressing meaning through tones， rhythm as well as lyrics.

Thus， oral language and music are regarded as sharing common features from various aspects. Firstly， they have similar forms of communication model in terms of aural and oral transmitting （Setia et al.， 2012）. Secondly， Hashemi & Azizinezhad （2011） observe that the form of face-to-face interaction is similar to musical call-and-response because both of them send message through words. Thirdly， Rubin （1995） indicates that it is both songs and language， sending message through similar patterns in terms of emotional content， stress， pitch， temple and rhythm simultaneously （as cited in Engh， 2013）.

Based on the similarities between music and language， this paper would study the function of music mainly to the oral production for the English language learners， from such five respects， namely as joyful atmosphere， vocabulary， pronunciation， paralanguage and culture appreciation.

Creating joyful atmosphere for oral production

Through reading numerous articles， it is found that almost every student enjoys music no matter what culture or race they belong to （Lems， 2005）. Ni?o （2010） views that students are usually disturbed by anxiety when learning oral English language. This negative mood is usually caused by setback and pressure when they are in trouble of practicing spoken English. It is suggested （Merriam， 1964； Coe， 1972； Claerr & Gargan， 1984； Wilcox， 1995） that music plays a role of effectively lowering affective barriers and greatly creating a relatively relaxed environment， which enables individuals to be more receptive to oral language learning （as cited in Engh， 2013）. Meanwhile， an experiment made by Moradi and Zamanian （2014）， finding that integrating soft music into oral language learning would create a joyful environment for English language learners to promote attention and improve learning ability， to become a more confident speaker.

Enlarging vocabulary in oral production

Ni?o （2010） indicates that singing songs is an effective way of learning vocabulary for oral English language learners. Through using questionnaire， Setia et al. （2012） recognize that singing songs could assist students in remembering vocabularies， since they would consciously and unconsciously study lyrics when they are listening to the songs. From the questionnaire， it is also obtained that songs own the function of helping students remember new words and stay longer in their memory （Setia et al.， 2012）. Meanwhile， Lems （2005） recommends that Karaoke is a great way of enlarging vocabulary， since the scrolling lyrics sung by students on the screen helps them fell enjoyable and relaxed. And at the same time， in the process of singing with Karaoke， they could continually deepen impression to the meaning and pronunciation of those lyrics， achieving the aim of enlarging vocabulary.

Improving pronunciation skill

Through the questionnaire （Setia et al.， 2012）， it is found that students prefer to pronounce the words in songs， which greatly improves their pronunciation skill consequently. Usually， there is a gap for students because the sounds they recognize from the alphabet letters are different from the sound they hear in fact （Lems， 2005）. In this case， Morales （2007） believes that listening to a song while reading its lyrics would be an effect way of clarifying pronunciation， and narrowing the gap the above mentioned （as cited in Ni?o， 2010）. By replaying a song many times， for example， oral language learners could gradually distinguish the consonants， vowels and even the minimal pairs in syllables， with an aim of getting accustomed to the pronunciation and promoting the pronunciation skill. In this sense， Lems （2005） suggests the reasonable priced albums with lyrics booklets would help students follow the song and imitate the pronunciation in a clear manner repeatedly.

Learning paralanguage through English songs

Besson et al. （2007） identify that paralanguage studies the voice individuals used in communication， including pitch range， intonation， rhythm， stress， etc. Sometimes， the improper use of rhythm， intonation， and stress may cause incomprehension when conducting interaction with others， being unable to understand native speakers， or to speak native English. In this case， the rhythm and melody of songs are best practice to learn paralanguage. Lems （2005） points out that lyrics play a role in promoting oral fluency， because there is similar rhythm and stress patterns exist in songs and spoken English， which would develop students oral expressive ability through naturally exercise of listening to and singing songs. In English language， every word has two forms of pronunciation， one is strong form， and the other is weak form. Through singing songs， students can improve their awareness of pronunciation form， so accurately singing songs would help them avoid being misunderstood when communicate with others. To rhythm， it determines ones speaking skill to a great degree. Integrating the rhythm of music into language would produce fantastic effect. Some music genres， for example， the rap music， helps learners increase flexibility of their tongues by saying and singing with rhythm， stress and pitch.

Developing cultural appreciation

Ni?o （2010） indicates that when individuals learn a foreign language， actually they have also studied the profound culture and long history hidden behind that language. Since English songs involve lyrics related to the western historical backgrounds and social relationships， it plays a role of developing cultural awareness for English language learners （Ni?o， 2010）. Griffee （1992）， Failoni （1993） and Mishan （2005） believe that music is universal but at the same time， culturally unique in its content， style， and theme， and thus become a rich resource for English language learners （as cited in Lems， 2005）. Additionally， numerous themes such as love， friendship， morality， etc. are included in music， thus， through the medium of music， students or immigrants could be provided various topics to conduct interaction with those native speakers， with an intention of making new friends and integrating into a new community.

Conclusion：

This paper has made the study of the function of music to oral English learning. After researching， it is found that there are several similar features between music and oral English language when conveying meaning. Here music is regarded as an effective tool to create a relaxed atmosphere because almost every student enjoy listening to music. Besides， through listening and singing songs， the English language learners would increase the range of vocabulary， facilitate their oral production. As to the pronunciation skill， by replaying a song， students would imitate and improve their own pronunciation skill. Referring to the rhythmic patterns， it is lyrics play the role of assisting learners in speaking fluently and naturally. With regard to the cultural appreciation， music provides English language learners numerous topics to talk with the foreigners for its various themes， and helps them accommodate to a new cultural environment.

References：

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作者簡介：陳紫瑞（1988.11.19-），女，漢族，寧夏人，助教，碩士研究生，香港理工大學英語語言藝術專業，研究方向：語言學。