VI:
IMPACT ON STUDENT LEARNING AND PROGRESS
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We
gathered informal student responses on how they learnt from song and reviewed
evidence collected during our observations of the lesson.
Why songs?
The
concept of linking music to language acquisition among adult learners is
still quite new especially among university of college students (Klassen,
2013). According to Wikipedia, adult learners or also known as mature learner
(UK) are those aged 18 years and above who are involved in any form of learning.
Song
is a form of realia, and it is indeed a form of authentic text if used in the classroom (Dale, 1992). It provides
the students not only with appropriate
vocabulary but also description of
a scene of a situation in life. It allows students to interpret based on
what they understand. This encourages
critical thinking. Nunan (1989) states that songs are authentic materials which if used in the classroom provide
opportunity for the students to relate to their real life. This is
because they listen to the song in their real life and apart from that the
students also learn about moral values
and lessons in life which is delivered through the song.
However,
Guariento & Morley (2001) argue that offering the learners with authentic
materials can cause problem especially for the weaker ones. The materials
might contain linguistic elements or content which could be difficult for the
students to comprehend. In order to overcome this problem Vethamani (2013)
suggests that choice of song and
pedagogy should become major priorities. Teacher should include
activities which are geared towards optimizing
students’ understanding of the songs and the tasks. Until today, the use
of music in the language classroom to help learners gain linguistic benefits
as well as motivational interest have been discussed by many scholars (Engh, 2013)
The impact on students learning
using songs are:-
Increasing the interest of the
students (Edutainment)
A
song is a form of entertainment
and when used in the classroom, it will help make the students become interested in the subject of discussion
and thus allow optimal effective
learning to take place (Furlong & Maynard, 1995). In fact music as a
whole has been used as a means to
reduce boredom caused by repetitive classroom drills since 1950s through
to 1970s (Kanel, 2000). As suggested by Mahiri (2000) songs are well received
by you adults as they are considered as popular
culture that is closely related to identification and self-empowerment.
Therefore, using songs in the classroom would be something that would invoke the students’ interest and
engagement in learning as
compared to using the conventional teaching and learning methods. Morrell
(2002) states that the strong connection
between the popular culture and literacy development has become the
reason why many researchers decided to use songs in teaching and learning.
Therefore, choosing the right popular song to be used in class could increase
students’ interest in learning (Vethamani, 2003). Too (2003) supports the
idea by suggesting that use of songs
in the classroom is a form of ‘productive
pedagogical approach’.
Development of Vocabulary and
Content
Using
songs in the classroom, allowed students to enjoy the learning process as
they were interested not only in the
lyrics but also interested to talk
about the message delivered, apart from learning various vocabulary and phrases. Through use of song, the
students discussed about issues in the song and thus made judgment or linked the song to other social issues in real life
- as stated by Domoney and Harris (1993), the students use : their knowledge,
their music, and their language ‘ in learning.
Encourage independent learning
and creativity
Use
of songs in the classroom is a form of intrinsic
motivation that contributes
towards students’ creative work (Amabile et al., 1994). In order to show
their appreciation of the song, the students could be asked to carry out
various tasks that enable them to show their creativity. This is further
supported by Domoney and Haris (1993) that songs could be integrated into
educational curriculum. Thus, through the use of various tasks, activities and projects, students could search for further information based on
the content of the song and later
share the various information gathered with their peers. The students
thus could gain benefit in terms of
language as well as content which is very useful for the development of their language skills and
proficiency.
Meaningful Learning
Meaningful
learning - based on the song (issue/message), students can explore the language
and the content further. Thus, through more research and reading, students
will be able to share a more enriching view and opinion related to the issue
and message of the song. When students are able to relate to the
issue/message of the song to their real life experiences, they are more
interested to learn and contribute to discussion. This shows the power of
telling or sharing stories based on real life experiences. Furthermore, these
activities help weaker students to build
more confidence and use the
content and vocabulary learnt from the song to be more active in expressing their views and opinion.
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VII:
IMPACT ON PRACTICE AND FUTURE TEACHING
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We
have created an innovative framework in teaching and learning English using
songs to
ensure positive learning outcomes. This framework focuses on meaningful tasks which can engage students in real communication
that requires information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction.
When English songs are used in the classes, lecturers can conduct them as a
cohesive whole, consisting of several related tasks - listening, speaking,
reading, writing and presentation.
The advantage of this framework is teaching techniques and activities can be
varied and modified depending on the teaching and learning objectives.
The design of the framework is divided into two sections: guided and
independent learning. In the guided learning section, the lecturer assigns
some tasks like: 1) asking the students to read the lyrics of a song; 2)
asking them to try to understand the meaning of it; 3) asking them to answer
some questions about the theme of the song; 4) playing the song and asking
them to sing along. In the independent learning section, students are asked
to do a mini-presentation on their own interpretation of the
issue/message/theme from the song related to real life experiences. The
mini-presentation creates opportunity for students to practice speaking, be
creative in their presentation of ideas and to build confidence in speaking
to an audience.
Impact on practice : using
songs in Teaching and Learning English
 
· Impact of Lesson Study on
Future Teaching
For Lecturers:
“Our lesson comes
alive through Lesson Study. It ignites
passion and research into the lesson plans and students get a wealth of
knowledge compared to an individualized isolated lesson.”
Sharing and team work become integral part of teaching
life
Collegiality
becomes a culture and practice. These practices increase respect and support for
each other.
Lesson Study improves the teaching and learning process
significantly, and students are more
engaged in the learning environment.
We
become lifelong learners about how
to develop (pedagogy) and improve teaching and learning in the classroom.
We are
able to create engaging lessons to
promote learning
Gaining insights from other lecturers and matriculation colleges
Becoming
more reflective and flexible through the immediate
feedback given on the lessons.
Seeing oneself
as a professional that can make a
difference and become an agent of change in the classroom and the larger
community
Learning
that Lesson Study is a tool to
introduce new ideas to learn students’ strengths
Impact of Lesson Study for Students
·
Student-centered classroom and become
independent learners
·
Engaging lessons and units
·
Learn
to explain their thought process in writing and verbally
·
View
the value of life-long learning
through examples
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VIII:
IMPACT ON DEPARTMENTAL AND SCHOOL APPROACHES TO TEACHING
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Continuous Professional Development – implementing the best practices and increasing the quality of teaching.
Collegiality – sharing the practice knowledge that is developed
in a Lesson Study
Upgrading students’ achievements and the image of the institution
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Overall
Reflections for Lesson 1
Set
induction
In this
activity the students were able to guess singer and the song. The objective was
well achieved. However, the handouts/ worksheet given should be revised.
We have been too ambitious by stating so many things in the table. Some
of the items could not be achieved in the set induction. Thus, instead of
giving so many items in the table provided in the worksheet, we should only focus
on certain things such as title, tone and theme. Other items in the table
should be discussed in the later parts of the lesson.
While Listening
Fill in
the Gaps
At this
stage, the students enjoyed themselves because they were able to listen to the
song and the activity seemed easy. They were only asked to fill in the gaps.
However, in the discussion session, we found out that the students were not
able fill in all the gaps though they song was played twice. In my opinion, it
shouldn’t be too difficult for the students to fill all the gaps because it was
only a lyric of a popular song but perhaps because the gaps were closed to each
other that caused the confusion. The words omitted out from the lyrics were
phrasal verbs because we wanted to teach them that grammar item. However, we
didn’t take into consideration that the gap should not be too close to each
other. Thus, about 20% -30% of the students were not able to complete the
task and majority of them were weaker students.
Discussion of answer
At this
stage, the students were able to answer about 70 % of the questions. This
is probably due to the limited vocabulary that the students have that
hinders their understanding. The 2nd activity (matching activity) was also
quite difficult. Only 60% of the students were able to answer the question.
This is because the answers given were rather overlapping thus
contributing towards students’ confusion. Thus, this section needs to be
revised. We need to go through the questions thoroughly and perhaps, restructure
the questions or even change the format of the questions.
Post Listening
Post Listening
In this
activity, the students were asked to reflect on their own experience. However
majority of the students were reluctant to contribute, not because they do not
have any information to be shared but because they lacked the confidence
as they do not have the vocabulary. Only after being prompted that the
students were able to share some of their stories. Yet, the students who have a
good proficiency level were the first to share their experience or story.
Overall Reflections for Lesson 2
Pre-listening
This
time, the lesson came out as planned and the discussion was more focused
on the 3 items which we have revised. We also managed to cut down on the time
used at this stage. Objective achieved!
While listening (Discussion of the answer- fill in the blanks/ matching activity)
In this
lesson, we have revised our objectives. We made it very clear that we are going
to focus on the phrasal verb. Instead of revising the comprehension
question, we decided to specifically teach the students on phrasal verbs so
that the students could set their learning focus on that particular language
item and thus it would be easier for the students to fill in the gaps.
We have also revised our sing along session which comes right after the gap filling activity. So, instead of asking the students to sing together as a class, we made it into a two group sing along competition instead. The group which could sing better would be pronounced as winner. Due to the competitive spirit, the students were contributing and participating well in the class activity.
Post Listening
At this
stage, instead of doing it individually, we decided to allow the students to
discuss their answer with a partner. So, they will have more confidence
in answering the question and would be able to clear up some of the doubts that
they have at the back of their mind.
In the later part of the activity the students were asked to discuss or share their experience in groups of 4. They were even given the freedom to choose their own group members. As a result, the students were more open to share their story with their friends. They didn’t really feel shy or lacked the confidence in sharing their stories.
Overall Reflections for Lesson 3
For pre
listening, I noticed there wasn’t any hiccup or areas which should be
improved. Similarly, we still carry out a similar procedure for the while
listening stage except that we put more stress on the language input
(phrasal verb)
Post-listening (MCQs and matching activity)
In lesson
2, I noticed that only some of the students still could not come up with the
correct answers for both the activities. Thus, in lesson plan 3, the majority
of the changes were made on the set of comprehension questions.
(Both the MCQs and matching activity). Somehow we found out that some of the
questions overlapped with each other. So we decided to rearrange and
restructure the questions so that it would be clearer and easier for the
students to comprehend. So, with the new set of questions given, I found
that the students were able to answer all the questions well.
Teacher's reflections after conducting Lesson Plan 1
All the
students have heard the song. There were quite passive because not all
the students answered the lecturer’s question verbally. Some voiced out their
answers but rather softly. Students were shy to sing aloud. It seems
that there were too many questions during the pre-listening activities which
dragged time. Although students enjoyed the lesson while listening to the
songs, most of them seemed to be struggling when filling in the blanks
because the blanks were too close to each other. Furthermore, the post-listening
activities on phrasal verbs were quite difficult for them to arrive at the
answers. The teacher took some time to explain the meaning and I think it would
be better if the students could be independent to look for the meaning of
unfamiliar words by themselves. Students were afraid and reluctant to
share their experiences in the class. Therefore it would be better for them
to share their ideas in a smaller group to boost their confidence.
This would be a kick-start for them before sharing in the class as a whole.
Teacher's reflections after conducting Lesson Plan 2
Overall,
this LP2 is better than LP1 as the students’ participation increased.
Somehow, during the sing along, they were still shy. Based on my
observation, in the post listening, the MCQ questions are quite OK as the
students could answer but the matching activity is very difficult for the
students to arrive at the answers. Perhaps, students could be given freedom to
browse internet and check for the meaning of some difficult phrases, for
example, “come back swinging”. In the last activity, there were still some
students who were inhibited to share their experiences. Perhaps these
passive students are lacking of vocabulary or confidence. Therefore, as
teachers we need to break through the wall of fear among the students.
Teacher's reflections after conducting Lesson Plan 3
During
the set induction, the
students were not afraid to voice out their ideas. Even though there
were some grammatical mistakes but generally they were still comprehensible. Indirect
feedback for the grammatical mistakes was fruitful as they noticed their
mistakes and repeated the corrected version of the sentences which I wrote on
the whiteboard. Even the weak students were not inhibited to take this
opportunity to share in the set induction.
While
listening, all the
students enjoyed the sing-along competition and the group that sang well
was rewarded. However, another group which had not won was also rewarded with
consolation prize.
They were very happy during the while listening activities. Compliments given to students enabled the weaker students and those shy students to participate without inhibitions in the post listening activities.
They were very happy during the while listening activities. Compliments given to students enabled the weaker students and those shy students to participate without inhibitions in the post listening activities.
Collaborative learning among the learners was obvious during the discussions for solving problems created by the lecturers. During the presentations, the students presented together as group members and everyone explained and justified something. This is due to the Socratic Questioning approach used by the lecturers to prompt the students gradually shifting from lower level to higher level of thinking. There were no passive passengers in both groups. Examples of Socratic questions were:
1. Why do you say that you want to
find a better boyfriend? (Question for clarification)
2. What could we assume the
ex-boyfriend’s reactions would be when he sees the girl with a successful
boyfriend? (Question to probe assumptions)
3. What would be an example of a
successful boyfriend or man or guy? (Question that probe reasons and evidence)
4. What is another alternative for
the girl to live a better life after the break up? (Question about viewpoints
and perspectives?)
5. How would the girl affect her
ex-boyfriend’s feelings or emotions if the ex-boyfriend couldn’t care less?
(Question that probe implications and consequences)
6. Why do you think I asked this
question? (Questions about question)
Students encouraged each other to speak up as they did not pinpoint on their friends’ grammatical mistakes to the extent where L1 interference was used. For instance, “I feel geram with that kind of boy”. Anyway, the students sharing were comprehensible and mass correction by the lecturer and peers in classroom was fruitful. The students who made grammatical mistakes made effort to repeat their sentences after the rectifications. They were more opened and willing to share their ideas or answer the questions posed by lecturer.
Overall, the lesson has achieved its learning objectives. Students could get the main ideas of the song and able to use appropriate words and phrases to express themselves as they were also able to come up with their own phrasal verbs, such as, “I can throw my net on the other side of the boat as there are multitude of fish in the sea because there is not only one guy on earth”
In the last activity, the students in the class shouted a few favourite friends’ names such as Aisyah, Adam and Khuzair because they were eager to listen to their friends’ real life experiences. These students managed to articulate with emotions or feelings attached to their stories while the other peers listened attentively as they were interested to listen to their friends’ real life stories.
THE SIX
TYPES OF SOCRATIC QUESTIONS
Due to
the rapid addition of new information and the advancement of science and
technology that occur almost daily, an engineer must constantly expand his or
her horizons beyond simple gathering information and relying on the basic
engineering principles.
A
number of homework problems have been included that are designed to enhance
critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is the process we use to reflect
on, access and judge the assumptions underlying our own and others ideas and
actions.
Socratic
questioning is at the heart of critical thinking and a number of homework
problems draw from R.W. Paul's six types of Socratic questions:
From:
http://www.umich.edu/~elements/5e/probsolv/strategy/cthinking.htm
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Observer’s Reflection : Aminah Illadad Khan
Lesson 1
In the set
induction I noticed that 98% of the students will able to guest the singer
and the title of the song and at the same time they were enjoying themselves
listening to the song. However, I think the lecturer is a bit too ambitious
when coming up with the worksheets, where students need to fill up too many
things in the table. Only 70 % of the students were able to fill in all the
blanks in the table correctly. I would suggest that the blanks in the
worksheets should only focus in not more than three items. Other items in the
table can be discussed together with the lecturer.
In the while listening activity I spotted that many of the students (60 %) failed to fill in all the gaps correctly though the song was played twice. This could be due to the words (phrasal verb) omitted out from the lyric are too closed and the students were confused / not enough time to complete the task.
During the discussion and answer session about 70 % of the students take part actively. Another 30 % were quite passive due to limited vocabulary. I noticed that some of the questions are redundant or overlapping. The questions should be paraphrase or change.
In the post listening stage only students who are sporting shared their own experience with their friends. Others were very reluctant merely because they were lack of confidence or shy to share their story with others. Maybe the lecturer can also ask the students to write their experience on a piece of paper without writing their names and the lecturer can paste all the papers on the wall and allowed the students to have a gallery walk.
Lesson 2
The
revised lesson plan work as planned and the objective of this activity was
successfully achieved. The discussion was more focused.
In the while listening activity students were well informed of what they were supposed to focus while listening to the song in order to fill in the blanks/ matching (phrasal verbs) so that students could be more focus on the particular language item.
The singing
along session was very successful. Students were very eager to sing
in group as this activity turn out to be a competition in the class. Students enjoyed
themselves.
The post listening activity was also successful when students were put into pairs to complete the task rather than to work individually. Students were more confident.
It was a
good move when students were put in group of 4 to share their experience
rather than asking them to share their experience with the whole class.
Students feel safer and less shy to share their experience.
Lesson 3
All the
activities planned in the revised lesson plan were carried out
successfully and the objectives of the lesson were achieved.
Observer’s Reflection : Pamelyn Tan
Lesson 1
It was a
very interesting lesson using songs. Students looked interested in the lesson.
In the set
induction, there was too much to cover for the pre-listening session in 5
minutes. Students struggled to give their thoughts/ideas within the stipulated
time. Perhaps, the pre-listening activity could just focus on the theme, title
and tone.
In the while listening activity, some students struggled alone to fill in the gaps. Therefore, working in pairs/groups could have made the activity better where they could help/ confer with each other to obtain the answers.
As for
the sing-along, there were a few students who were shy to sing. The others were
able to enjoy the session and some were seen swaying and moving to the beat.
During the discussion, about three quarters of the class was active while the rest listened while their friends spoke.
In the speaking
stage, most students were able to give a brief thought about the lessons
learnt from the song. As usual, the good students dominated the discussion. The
quieter ones had to be prodded and encouraged to speak up their minds/opinion.
Lesson 2
In this
class, students showed more enthusiasm in the lesson. They were eager to give
answers/ response to the task. The revised lesson plan worked and the objective
of this activity was successfully achieved. Students were able to give
suggested titles based on the song, theme and tone of the song.
In the while listening activity students were well informed to focus on the phrasal verbs/idiomatic expression/comparatives when filling in the blanks. Examples of the language items were discussed before the listening activity was done.
The singing
along session was more active when it was made more competitive.
The post listening activity was active as they were more comfortable speaking with their group members.
Lesson 3
The pre-listening
session was good. The language input on phrasal verbs and
comparatives helped students understand the use of these phrasal verbs better
and they were able to use some of these phrases in their discussion. The opportunity
to use the internet to find the meanings allowed students to retain and learn
the phrases better too.
Overall, the lesson was a success where students were able to get the meanings right and gave them opportunities to speak more openly and confidently on the lessons learnt and how the song related to their own experiences. Students also were able to give good responses to the situations given to them. Giving compliments, praises and encouraging words boost weaker students’ confidence to be willing participants in the learning of the language. They were more active in the activities/ tasks given.
Framework:
Teaching and Learning using Songs
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