Teaching English by Using a Song

Let's Sing!

Teaching English to Young Learners has become a trend nowadays. In every school, English is taught as one of the main subjects. In teaching young learners is not like teaching adults, children have their own way of learning. Since children like to play and have fun, the learning and teaching process should be suited with the nature of the children themselves. One of the forms of fun activities for children is through music, and songs are the common form of music that children know. Through songs, children could enhance their language skills, such as listening, speaking and writing.

Shipley (1998) states that Music helps children to develop cognitive skills, as well as enhances language skills, by singing song, children learn language appreciation, vocabulary and rhyme. Another thing is that songs and rhymes are learned by heart, and this may form part of  a child’s linguistic.

According to Griffee (1992) When the songs are introduced, the first skill that the children learn is listening. The activities include detailed listening comprehension, listening for summarizing or writing, listening to isolated vocabulary and listening for word order.

By learning a song the children also learn Speaking because after the children listen to the song, they would attempt to sing it. Thus, the repeated words from the songs make it easier for the children to remember the words as a result the children can produce or utter the words. Several activities that can be used to enhance the children speaking skills.

After the children learn to listen and speak the words, they learn to write a lyric of the song. Griffee (1992) also states that songs tell a story do not quite often suggest a narrative that can be written down, and many pieces of  music without words convey dramatic narrative to the imagination. So, this activities learn to enhance writing skill.

Beside three skill that has been mentioned above, the children also will have not only the words but also the melody after listening the song many times. And it makes learning process will be fun. Because the children love song, so they will happy to learn English by using a song.