TESL 565 Language & Culture Final Exam Dee Matchett
Summer 2014 07-25-14
Teaching Culture through Music
and English through Culture in the American English Classroom
Carson-Newman University Masters TESL Program TESL 565 Dr. Mark Brock
Dee Matchett Summer 2014 TESL 565 Language & Culture Final Exam Dee Matchett Summer 2014 07-25-14
Introduction
A shift from a traditional to intercultural stance in EFL enhances students awareness of the inextricable and interdependent relationship between language and culture and teaching culture as an integral component of language teaching. It also helps to develop teachers intercultural perspectives that may have an impact on their language teaching methodology and syllabus design. This shift is a challenge that EFL teachers and learners have to deal with to meet the goals of foreign language education in our modern world. (Shemshadsara, 2012, p.98)
Meeting that challenge by utilizing music is the focus of this paper. It will explore the use of music as a tool for teaching American culture and increasing language acquisition. Guidelines for music selection are provided as well as a resource appendix for teachers who wish to incorporate American music into their English class.
TESL 565 Language & Culture Final Exam Dee Matchett Summer 2014 07-25-14
Teaching Culture through Music and English through Culture in the American English Classroom
There are several reasons why teachers in the language classroom should consider employing music as a tool of cultural awareness that can increase language acquisition. First, music penetrates the affective filter (Krashen, 1983) by creating a relaxed atmosphere that promotes learning. Music is a pleasurable experience eliciting an endorphin release that seeks repetition (Rokade, 2011). Wouldnt you like to see your students addicted to learning English? When currently popular music is utilized there is the added benefit of motivation through real- world engagement. Music as an authentic learning activity has been shown to promote learner motivation and acquisition (Schn et al., 2008). Lastly, empirical evidence provides support for the use of music in language acquisition both for vocabulary and lexical pattern retrieval (Medina, 1993)(Mora, 2000). Music has been shown to improve pronunciation and increase prosody awareness (T. S. Brown, 2014). Through the avenue of involuntary recall, music continues to promote learning even when students leave the classroom. The phenomenon of getting a song stuck in your head, results in students practicing English without focused effort (Salcedo, 2002). This could be a result of the dual pathway model of language acquisition seen in Figure 1 below (Friederici, 2011).
TESL 565 Language & Culture Final Exam Dee Matchett Summer 2014 07-25-14 The right hemisphere of the brain processes music and the suprasegmental aspects of language, while the left side of the brain processes the segmental aspects. In other words, the left hemisphere learns the lyrics and the right hemisphere learns the melody. In a traditional classroom the left hemisphere is the primarily engaged in learning with little engagement of the right hemisphere. Music can be viewed as a bridge that spans the left and right hemispheres and therefore enhances language learning (Guglielmino, 1986). Proper grammar and vocabulary are not the only contributors to effective communication or understanding of the target language. An awareness of the culture also assists in both comprehension and conversational skills. Becoming culturally competent is to be knowledgeable of the customs, beliefs, and conventions of native-speakers. Some aspects of culture can be taught, but most are caught through exposure to the way people in the target language think and act. To truly communicate well in another language, some degree of enculturation must take place. if we teach language without teaching at the same time the culture in which it operates, we are teaching meaningless symbols or symbols to which the student attaches the wrong meaning(R. W. Brown et al., 2014). As students move from learning about the culture to understanding why a native speaker responds in a certain manner, they are able to interpret culturally conditioned behaviors and discern the deeper meaning or connotations that words can carry (Thanasoulas, 2001). That level of understanding allows more than information transfer through translation; it brings the learner into contact with the pulse of a countrys people. Cultural barriers are crossed that would TESL 565 Language & Culture Final Exam Dee Matchett Summer 2014 07-25-14 otherwise hamper communication and prevent the learner from seeing inside the minds eye of the interlocutor. Since both cultural awareness and music promote language learning it would seem advantageous to wed the two as a classroom strategy for language learning. In his book, Worlds of Music, which explores ethnomusicology, Dr. Jeffery Todd Titon, professor emeritus of Brown University, states, Music is a universal phenomenon but its meaning is not universal but cultural (Titon, 2008. p.4). Music embodies the culture or subculture from which is originates and is therefore a reflection of that culture. This makes music an excellent tool for cultural instruction. Because music is universal to all cultures, it can also form a bridge between cultures, resulting in greater acculturation. Songs make great conversation starters with native-speakers which aids acculturation. American linguist, John Schumann, associates acculturation with success in second language acquisition because it reduces the psychological factor of social distance (Ariza, et al., 2000). According to Dr. Angel Lin, another psychological factor reduced by music is the intimidation of learning a new language. She studied the effect of teaching with hip-hop music. Students who saw language learning as a daunting task, felt music made language learning more enjoyable and accessible (Lin, 2013).
When learning and honing their creative verbal skills in writing and performing Chinese, bilingual and English raps, they also seem to be transforming their social class habitus and are acquiring new cultural capital (e.g., rhyming and rapping skills, knowledge of letter-sound relationships, new attitudes and dispositions towards English). (Lin, 2013, p.18)
TESL 565 Language & Culture Final Exam Dee Matchett Summer 2014 07-25-14 There are also practical aspects to teaching with music. It introduces colloquial speech and current language usage. When appropriate songs are chosen, other usable language objectives can be introduced also. Those songs whose lyrics include the daily activities of American life are apropos. As learners become familiar with the rhythm and tone of English through song, not only their pronunciation improves (as noted previously), but also collocation. This is especially true when ballads or other story telling songs are used. Authentic language in the chorus of a song is repetitious and assists students in learning what words are placed together in a particular context. The way in which music enhances memory has already been noted, as well as the involuntary language practice that a catchy tune can evoke, as a tune is played over and over again in ones mind. Listening skills are also improved as students pay attention to lyrics. Through lyric study students also become engaged in discussing the culture of the language (Arvalo, 2010). When selecting music avoid songs that are difficult to sing. A song may be too fast or have a vocal range that is too wide. It is also important that the artists have clear enunciation and that you provide lyrics. Unless your purpose is to introduce a sub-culture, use songs that are main stream. Find songs that fit the aspect of culture you want to introduce, such as songs that are sung on American holidays, patriotic music or songs associated with sports events. If your students are learning historical culture, folk songs may be suitable. You can even find songs that emphasis a particular grammatical structure through repetition. Numerous music sources are available for the EFL/ESL classroom. One that seems particularly useful is on the website of the United States Board of Educational and Cultural affairs. It is titled: American Rhythms. Links to that resource and a variety of other resources are listed in the appendix. TESL 565 Language & Culture Final Exam Dee Matchett Summer 2014 07-25-14
Appendix
http://www.agendaweb.org/songs/songs-listening-exercises.html http://www.agendaweb.org/songs/learn_english_through_songs.html http://www.americanenglish.state.gov/resources/american-rhythms http://www.isabelperez.com/songs.htm http://realenglish.fluentu.com/ (Note: Watch introduction video and complete free sign up)
TESL 565 Language & Culture Final Exam Dee Matchett Summer 2014 07-25-14
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