Music As a Game in English Language Learning
In
this day, among teenage students who sit interrupted by middle school and above,
tend to feel bored with the material provided, including English subjects. We
as teachers, are forced to be creative to find other solutions to overcome
these problems. We have to create an innovation that can make lessons more fun
and less boring. One of the solution is to use music as a game in our English learning
methods. O’ shea (2019) stated that ‘Music is important in language teaching
because our brains naturally process information and new language more easily
if presented in a given rhythm’. Then, in article Using Games in The Language
Classroom writes that ‘Game can help the teacher to create contexts in
which the language is useful and meaningful’.
As
we know, there is no teenager who does not like listening to music. many of
them like to listen to music with different genres. We as teachers can take
advantage of this to increase students' insight and creativity. Sometimes a
language song can indirectly be a means to add insight into vocabulary for
students, because those who don't really understand the meaning of the song
will look for the meaning on the internet. After they find it, they will
understand what the song actually means. Young (2020) stated that songs can be
a useful tool for tasks that rely on rote memorization, which is one of the
reasons learning a new language and can become a lot easier with the help of
understanding the lyrics of a song.
Here’s
my innovation to use song in English language learning. If me as a teacher, to
train students' listening, I will try to play a few popular songs. Then,
students will be given a paper containing some of the difficult words that they
are must fill and the words are in the song lyrics. After the song has been
played three times, students must fill in the missing words. After they find
the difficult words, I will ask the students to translate the words from English-English
for example the word 'confuse' they find that the meaning of that word is
'unable to think clearly or to understand something'. Who is the fastest person
to finish we will give a gift, maybe in the form of candy, snacks, or something
else. This is useful for increasing their English vocabulary. Next, for the
speaking practice, we can add a ‘EatBulaga’ games. It’s means a game ever
popular on TV shows in Indonesia. So, there are 2 person who play in this game.
One
person will say the meaning of the word to be guessed, and one person will
guess what it is.
So,
from here we know that how to teach does not always have to be with material or
assignments. But it can also be done with something interesting and not boring.
So that lessons do not become monotonous and the thinking power of students can
develop properly. With this, students are also more enthusiastic and feel
challenged to continue learning to speak English.
References
Young, J. (2020). Can
You Learn a New Language Through Song Lyrics? Technology Thinks You Can. https://flypaper.soundfly.com/write/can-you-learn-a-new-language-through-song-lyrics-technology-thinks-you-can/
Simpson, Adam J. Using
Games in The Language Classroom. https://sl.sabanciuniv.edu/sl-blogs/using-games-language-classroom
O’ shea, B. (2019). ESL
Songs for Kids and Teens. https://bridge.edu/tefl/blog/esl-songs-kids-teens/
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