The Use of Songs: An Alternative for Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adolescents

Abstract

Songs are widely used to teach language due to the large number of advantages they have for students, beyond the mere linguistic scope. This paper aims at presenting the main benefits the use of songs provides for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, in particular for teenage learners. For this purpose, firstly, the teenage brain modus operandi is described with the intention of clarifying students’ behaviour within this age range and of applying those findings to their learning process. In particular, based on research, it is shown that the adolescent brain suffers a wide range of changes during this period, serving as an explanation for teenagers’ behaviour inside and outside the classroom. It is argued that having this knowledge at hand, teachers can modify their methodology to achieve an improvement in their students' learning process. Secondly, a summary of the main ideas in the literature on the relation between music and language is provided. In particular, it is shown that music and language are closely related in the human brain, being the areas that process language closely connected to the ones that process music. Thirdly, the special benefits the use of songs have on language learners are discussed and divided into affective, cognitive and linguistic benefits. Within the affective category, songs are presented as an aid for increasing motivation and self-esteem in addition to lowering anxiety and stress. With regard to the cognitive benefits, it is argued that songs contribute to the use of memory and attention. Finally, songs also serve as a source of reference for vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. In order to illustrate the didactic applications of the theoretical issues that have been discussed in the paper, four different activities for teenage students of English at a B1-B2 level are designed and provided in the last part of this paper. The activities integrate the four language skills.