Using Songs in YouTube to Enhance EFL Students’ Pronunciation

Hanan Gamal Mohamed Ebedy
( ) Vol. 60 (Dec. 2015)
Occasional Papers
Using Songs in YouTube to Enhance EFL Students’ Pronunciation
Hanan Gamal Mohamed Ebedy
AL-Ma’aref Higher Institute for Languages and Translation
Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate whether using the English songs in YouTube has any significant effect on EFL students’ pronunciation. For the purposes of this study, 60 second year secondary school students divided into two equal groups were randomly allocated as the experimental and control groups. A pronunciation test was administered as a pretest for both groups before the treatment. A 10-session treatment was applied for the experimental group students, while the control group students followed their regular method. The experimental group students had the opportunity of speaking in English about their favorite songs in YouTube. After experimentation, the same pronunciation post-test was administered to the groups. The data were statistically analyzed by standard deviation, mean, and t-test dependent. Findings revealed that using songs in YouTube had significant effect on EFL students’ pronunciation, and it improved their oral production. Also, results showed that the English pronunciation ability of the participants was at different levels, and students were able to pronounce words more accurately after learning English through songs in YouTube. Some recommendations are finally presented based on research findings.
Keywords: song, YouTube, pronunciation
“without music, life would be a mistake (Nietzsche, 1889: 33)”
Introduction
Teaching pronunciation in the EFL classes has not been as successful as other areas of language teaching. One reason is the fact that the prevailing methods lack a comprehensive approach for teaching the English sounds system adequately (Fatemi, 1999; Kelly, 2000; Foote; Holtby; & Derwing, 2011; and Goodwin, 2013). The present study is supposed to investigate a possible solution for this problem. One of the greatest needs in the context of foreign language teaching is to increase the students’ communicative capacities. Since pronunciation has a central role in this regard, there is an urgency to pay specific attention to it and make an effort to establish productive methods for enhancing EFL
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students’ pronunciation. According to Jennet (2008: 27) "native like pronunciation of English cannot be the ultimate goal of teaching", instead, the target is to attain “comfortable intelligibility”. Besides ,the learners’ pronunciation must be clear enough to be readily comprehended by a listener within a defined context. It should be understood by both indigenous speakers of English and speakers of other languages who speak English as a foreign language as an instrument for international communication, in any other case communication breaks down.
The field of Teaching English to speakers of different languages has focused both empirical and action research endeavors toward Computer Assisted Language Learning in an attempt to determine if technologies have positively contributed to students’ mastery of English. In recent years, as millions of folks around the world have begun to interact and communicate in various ways through Web 2.0 technology, a large subsection of scholarship has focused on the affordances of Web for both language teaching and learning (Warschauer & Grimes, 2007). Since their inception, Web 2.0 sites such as YouTube is an online video repository where practically any digital video file can be stored and exhibited cost-free. In February 2005 Started, YouTube hosts videos that are cumulatively currently viewed more than two billion times each day (Jones & Cuthrell, 2011). This growth has not eliminated unnoticed by the educational community as, regarding to Jones and Cuthrell (2011), educators whatsoever levels of instruction are employing sites like YouTube to “disseminate information, … improve learning either by incorporating material from the websites in daily instruction, or by exhibiting student-produced projects and commentaries on the sites” (p. 75). YouTube is regarded as one of the very most effective ways to have success in English classroom. This website provides students with authentic situations and with everyday clips that assist them to get better understanding of their lessons (Maness, 2004; Williams & Lutes, 2007; Xiaoning, 2007; Kelsen, 2009; Alimemaj,2010; McGill, 2010; and Chung, 2012).
Music is universal in human culture. All cultures on this world have music. Also, Language and communication are universal. Before the written words, stories of praise were passed from tribe to tribe by songs.
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“Music is melody, sequence of sounds, which is related with our emotional life. Also, Music is rhythm, a reflection of our physiological life” (Fonseca-Mora et al., 2011: 102). Music cultivates esteem and motivation to young people (Whyte & Mould, 2011). Nobody can deny that songs are a dynamic method of teaching in a foreign language. Using songs is one of alternative ways to improve the English language, especially on pronunciation. In addition, songs are less complicated to understand and to memorize. Using song from YouTube in students’ pronunciation mastery is considered to be able to make the students easier to master pronunciation without pressure but fun. Moreover, using songs give students the opportunity of refining the pronunciation and learning new vocabulary. Songs provide learners motivation to learn the new foreign language and a pleasurable atmosphere, which gives them the idea of entertainment instead of work due to they see it as an activity out of the ordinary (Mishan, 2005; Batista, 2008; Hrund, 2008; Shen, 2009; Thi, 2011; and Kao, & Oxford, 2014).
Also, Songs can attract student’s awareness in the affective aspects, secondly in the linguistic aspects, singing action is a great advantage to develop the capacity of phonemic awareness and speech sequences (Abbott et al., 2007; and Engh, 2013). Fortunately, with the increasing prevalence of the internet and specially the World Wide Web into both the classrooms and lives of students, access to music has been made easier. However, teaching English has mostly been influenced by the traditional approaches in which music and songs have no or very little role in classroom instruction. Base on the explanation above, the present study aims at testing the effect of using songs in YouTube on EFL students’ pronunciation.
Statement of the problem
Second year secondary school students may feel bored in the classroom, because there is no enjoyment there. Most of them have acceptable knowledge of English vocabulary and grammar; nevertheless, they cannot communicate through the language they know. This is a result of the inarticulacy of their pronunciation. The problem is that since many of the EFL teachers do not know effective methods for teaching
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pronunciation. Unfortunately, the existing techniques used in teaching English lack a comprehensive pedagogical methodology for teaching the sound system adequately, Consequently this study has made an attempt to provide answers to the following questions:
1. What is the effect of using English songs in YouTube on the secondary stage students’ pronunciation?
2. What is the pronunciation ability level of the students before and after experimentation?
Literature Review
Pronunciation is the way we pronounce a word, particularly in a way that is accepted or generally understood. Also, the way we speak conveys something about ourselves to the people around us. Students with good pronunciation are more likely to be understood even if they make mistakes in other areas. Pronunciation also includes attention to the specific sounds of aspects of speech and language beyond the individual sounds, such as; stress, intonation, rhythm, consonants and vowel, voiced and voiceless sounds. According to Nunan (2003) the background of teaching pronunciation, as well as the place of pronunciation teaching in the EFL classroom, has undergone some dramatic changes over the past 50 years. One motivation for this is the necessity to reestablish pronunciation as an essential element of language curricula as pronunciation instruction still suffers, in some measure, the impacts of its initial neglect by proponents of communicative language teaching (CLT) approaches (Fraser, 2000; Isaacs, 2009; and Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010). As is well-known, pronunciation enjoyed a distinguished position in the structural, audio lingual approach to teaching. Since the mid-1980s, a renewed attention in pronunciation sought to relocate pronunciation within communicative approaches (Setter & Jenkins, 2005).
Pronunciation also includes attention to the particular sounds of language and aspects of speech beyond the individual sounds, such as; intonation, stress, rhythm, vowel and consonants, voiced and voiceless’ sounds. Intonation refers to the way the voice goes up and down in pitch
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when we are speaking and the rise and fall of our voice as we speak. Stress means that speakers of English make certain syllables of energy or effort that we use to pronounce words that are more important in a sentence. The rhythm of a language is created by the strong stress or syllables in a sentence. A vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract so that there is no built up of air pressure above the glottis. Vowel sounds are produced by air from lungs which vibrate when the air in the mouth is not blocked. There are five vowel in English (a ,e ,I ,o ,u) . A consonant is a part of speech and a sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract. There are 25 consonant sounds in English language which consist of 21 letters b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, lm m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z. and the 4 consonant cluster, Ch, sh, th, and ng. Voiced and voiceless: all the sounds produced in the English language are either voiced or unvoiced. All vowels in English are voiced. But some of the consonant sounds are voiced (Nunan, 2003).
Nevertheless, despite highlighting the importance of suprasegmentals for communication, communicative proponents have commonly failed to provide teachers adequately with strategies for teaching pronunciation in a communicative method, with most materials far from presenting pronunciation in a holistic manner and truly communicative (Gilbert, 2010). In spite of the fact that pronunciation is recognized as one of the vital elements of language learning and the issue of how to teach it has attracted many specialists since the arrival of the communicative approach, there is no consensus in the literature on how to teach it. One significant question is whether pronunciation instruction in a formal setting is effective at enhancing FL learners’ pronunciation skills. Studies that addressed this question have proposed that there is a strong positive correlation between teaching and pronunciation skill (Ramírez-Verdugo 2006; Saito, 2007; and Lord 2008). There is a common understanding in the present literature that what learners of English need are skills to guarantee intelligibility. It is argued that they do not have to speak like a native speaker does, since English has become a lingua franca and no longer belongs to a particular group of people or countries, but to the whole world (Jenkins, 2003; Derwing & Munro, 2005; and Kirkpatrick, 2010). Despite that, there is a tendency among the learners of
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English to desire to have a native-like way of speaking (pronunciation) (He & Li, 2009).
As one of the crucial components of language learning, technology has started to be utilized in teaching pronunciation to a significant extent. Golonka et al., (2014) states that “technology made a measurable impact in foreign language learning came from studies on computer-assisted pronunciation teaching, in particular, automatic speech recognition (ASR)” (p. 70). According to literature, a vast majority of language teachers and researchers have shown interest in exploring the potential of technology to teach pronunciation. Despite the attempts made by the researchers to document the effectiveness of technology in pronunciation teaching, there is little convincing in results from those studies about how to integrate technology successfully into the classroom. While limited, the studies conducted to see the effectiveness of technological implementations in teaching pronunciation show that technology can be beneficial and should be explored for teaching pronunciation.
Songs are one of the most culturally rich and captivating resources that can be easily used in language classrooms. Songs offer a change from routine class activities. They are precious resources to develop students’ abilities in listening, speaking, writing and reading. They can also be used to teach a variety of language items such as sentence patterns, pronunciation, vocabulary, rhythm, adjectives and adverbs. Music training enhances aural skills. Human kind has always been interested in music and many EFL teachers have chosen to use music in their classrooms (Laresen-Freeman, 2000; Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010; Ludke, 2010; Lorenzutti, 2014; Walklett, 2014; and Kerekes, 2015). Several studies have indicated that songs can be used to ease learning different aspects of language (Fisher, 2001; Ransol & Gilroy, 2001; Bjorklund, 2002; Ayotte, 2004; Neumam, 2004; Fischler, 2006; Schon, Magne & Besson, 2008; and Alipour, Gorjian & Zafari, 2012). Lems (2005, cited in Beasley & Chuang 2008) asserts that, through music, EFL students can learn the natural stretching and contracting of the normal stream of English speech (e.g., gotta vs. got to, I've vs. I have, and so on), which can help them in developing more natural English conversation skills. Results of a study conducted by Beasley and Chuang (2008)
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revealed that both song likeability and song understandability significantly and positively influence learning environment enjoyment, which in turn positively and significantly influences learning perceptions.
Lopera (2003) believes that the interaction with students’ moods and feelings, including social contexts, and enhancing the availability of authentic texts in English are significant reasons for incorporating songs into teaching contexts. In 2009, Shen gave several reasons why songs can assist English learning and thus should be used in EFL classes. Some of these factors include: Stimulation of affective learning, promoting language awareness and psychological implications. Orlova (2003) notes that for the last two decades, the English as a Foreign Language methodology has been actively considering the possibility of using songs and music in class. Based on her 10-year experience of incorporating songs in the foreign language teaching, she claims the use of songs in language classes makes students more attentive, puts them at ease and can increase their desire to learn a language. Music offers a versatile way to look at the language and can be used to improve and reinforce speaking, listening comprehension, vocabulary and phrasing. Qiu (2006) points out another two functions of English songs in teaching listening: to improve the memory and practice the pronunciation.
Thain (2010) emphasizes the use of songs in language lessons since songs help developing the four skills and believes that songs bring about activation of both sides of the brain. As well as Music and oral language production are of the same phenomena and thus possess some common features that can be used in second language teaching methods: the melody and rhythm of the music could be considered tantamount to stress and intonation (Arleo, 2000; Kramer, 2001; Maess & Koelsch, 2001; Hildred, 2011; and Aquil, 2012). Language and Music can be divided into a hierarchical structure: in language, from the large units of discourse to the phonemes, and in music, the whole structure goes from the larger constituent of a musical composition to the individual note. Moreno et al. (2009) examined the effects of music on learners’ language development and found that exercising musical tasks for even a short duration could positively influences the ability to differentiate and perceive individual phonemes of the language.
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Songs assist learners to exercise through providing actual and catchy examples of pronouncing phrases to the extent that they prefer it than uttering separated as individual words. The music further emphasises the 'flow' of the words. Second, song, like other spoken texts, are full of contractions. Third, students can be keen to reproduce this, in order to sing the songs as they hear them. There are no 'standard' songs for teaching pronunciation. Any song can be an example of different pronunciation aspects. However, we try to select songs that are clear (use quality recordings where possible), memorable, not too fast, likely to appeal to our students (possibly songs they already know) and easy to create activities for, depending on the area of pronunciation we are focusing on (Ferreri, Aucouturier, Muthalib, Bigand, & Bugaiska, 2013). Brown and Kondo-Brown (2006) mention that connected speech makes up “a very real part” (p. 5) of the spoken language and occurs in “all levels of speech” (p. 5) from casual to even very formal levels. Handcock (2002) claimed that songs are ideal for practicing pronunciation, while Abbott; lauter; & Dalton (2007) remarked that the most appropriate songs for teaching pronunciation are those that focus on intonation, word stress and linking sounds.
Many researches emphasized that technology support students in good methods that help them in understanding language, especially English language, (Hughes, & Tolley, 2010; Jones & Cuthrell, 2011; and Watkins & Wilkins, 2011). The researcher here focus on one of the application of web-based sites that is YouTube. YouTube is famously known as an internet video search website (Terantino, 2011). Kelsey (2010) defines it as a website where you can upload and share videos. It uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated content, amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos as well as video content, including music videos, television clips and movie clips. Registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos, while unregistered users can watch the videos for free. Songs can be directly used to teach vocabulary in the English foreign language lessons. This would instantly motivate learners to learn the language as they are able to view the video clips as well as read the lyrics projected on the screen. While singing, learners are able to read the lyrics and this indirectly encourages them to learn new words.
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Using YouTube in English classes will provide teachers with new interesting methods of exploiting films of novels in class activities. It becomes very popular, particularly with young adults, helps learners of English language to learn English and develop their levels by providing them with authentic examples of everyday English (Alimemaj, 2001; and Al Jenaibi, 2011).
As stated by Oddone, (2011), the most important factor in language learning is the motivation, which is why English language teachers have always tried to find new strategies in their lessons. Teachers should be vigilant in selecting suitable songs in YouTube to be implemented in the teaching of vocabulary lessons. The two primary benefits to using YouTube in the classroom are the promotion of a learning style that is more autonomous and student-centered as well as, the exposure to authentic English. When students regularly use a wide variety of English media, they are achieving a degree of FL immersion that might otherwise be unavailable outside a study-abroad program (Snelson, 2011). Furthermore, immersion teaching and techniques to increase FL input have generally positive effects on the language acquisition process (Mangubhai, 2005). Additionally, incorporating technology into foreign language classrooms is a way for learners to connect seemingly abstract foreign language concepts to their factual experiences (Wang, 2005). Finally, incorporating technology into the classroom—particularly among low-level learners— has also been shown to instill lifelong language learning skills and generate greater student autonomy (Leung, 2004). Since YouTube’s rise to Internet prominence is a fairly recent development, substantive scholarly work into the effects online videos streaming can have in an EFL schoolroom is fairly sparse (Chau,, 2010).
Kelsen (2009) expresses that the YouTube website provides a wide variety of content suitable for English teaching and it should be efficiently manipulated by the teachers in the language classroom. He states that using appealing tools and successful techniques especially songs to teach new vocabulary items make students find words easier to remember and become more motivated in classroom. By engaging in a pleasurable experience, they are relaxed and their inhibitions about acquisition a second language are lessened. Those who are taught in a fun
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and creative way, love attending the lessons and this in turn becomes a great way for teachers to attain success with their students. A particular experimental study conducted in Malaysia revealed that secondary school students’ competence in English language vocabulary increased significantly when YouTube songs were incorporated into course activities (Abidin, Pour-Mohammadi, Singh, Azman, & Souriyavongsa, 2011). Berk (2009) has examined the use of video clips in college classrooms and provided a conceptual and detailed rationale framework for the practice. While Berk’s study is fairly extensive, its focus is across the field of education in general instead of SLA or even EFL pedagogy; nonetheless, his list of “learning outcomes” and review of neuro-cognitive research are enlightening and engaging enough to merit consideration by the English language teachers interested in incorporating video in their classrooms (2009). Aside from Berk’s study, unfortunately, specific inquiry into online video use in the classroom is fairly rare.
Therefore it is clear that YouTube has an enormous potential to improve the process of language learning with the manifold ways it can assist and improve listening skills for students. However, YouTube likewise has an important role to play in relation to reading comprehension and the use of YouTube texts, in particular, has proven to be particularly conducive to starting discussions and writing tasks (Nejati, 2010; and Rennie, 2012). YouTube therefore is not only able to help by providing authentic texts and written material, but in relation to spoken English, is able to offer unparalleled cultural dimensions to the spoken word, by highlighting not only academic English but also its application in real-life contexts, incorporating accents, slang and much else besides (Derewianka, 2008; and Ghasemi, 2011). Therefore, using songs in the teaching and learning process leads to achieving the weak affective filter and thus promoting language learning. the present study set out to investigate the effect of using songs in YouTube to enhance EFL students’ pronunciation.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of using songs in YouTube to enhance pronunciation among secondary school students
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as a part of the learning process in the classroom and explore students’ verbal awareness while listening to songs in YouTube and its plausible effects on their EFL pronunciation. Pronunciation learning is considered by many students and teachers as an important factor in learning a foreign language. Thus, it is vital to find interesting and beneficial ways to teach pronunciation in the English Language lessons.
Hypotheses of the Study
The following hypothesis has been formulated: There is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group students and that of the control group in the pronunciation of post-test in favor of the experimental group students.
Significance of the Study
This study will provide useful information for teacher, students, and other researchers. This study could be beneficial for teachers who are looking for an alternative way of teaching English pronunciation. The teacher can take advantages from the information about YouTube and English song strategy in enhancing pronunciation and she or he can evaluate whether this strategy better or not to be applied in the classroom. For the students, hopefully, they will have better improvement on their pronunciation mastery. And for other researchers, this study is expected to be a reference for who are interested in conducting similar studies.
Definition of terms
English Songs. Fonseca-Mora et al. (2011) defines that “Music is melody, sequence of sounds, which is associated with our emotional life. Music is also rhythm, a reflection of our physiological life.” (p. 102). As a universal icon, songs have a great reputation. Lieb (2008) points out that songs can reduce one’s pressure and create a relaxed atmosphere. Not only kids, but also adults love songs. Songs also represent great language package that bundle culture, grammar, listening, vocabulary and a host of other language skills in just a few rhymes. Songs can also provide a relaxed lesson. They can also form the basis for many lessons. Songs are so popular that have strong influences to use in teaching. Furthermore,
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they create fun for both teachers and students (Futonge, 2005). Liao (2006) and Jiang (2004) claim that English songs have beautiful melodies and the lyrics are easy to imitate and memorize. Operationally, the researcher defines a song as a piece of musical composition of words which is sung or uttered with modulation of the voice.
YouTube. YouTube is a Web 2.0 site that is primarily based around video sharing, commenting, and viewing. On this website, user can post self-created videos, create appropriate tags related to the video’s content (taxonomy), write a title and description for the video’s content, comment on his or her own or other users’ videos, create or join other users’ video channels on various topics of interest, search for videos based on keywords or titles, create video responses to others’ videos, etc (Kelsey, 2010). According to Jones and Cuthrell (2011), YouTube is considered to be a Web site and not merely a collection of information because members of the website share their work and participate in peer feedback via asynchronous interaction with other users. Operationally, the researcher defines YouTube as a video-sharing website that allows users store, upload and share videos with others.
Pronunciation. Pronunciation is defined as “the supposedly correct manner of pronouncing sounds in a given language” (Collins Dictionary Online, 2015). Implied in this definition is the understanding that pronunciation requires a person to speak in an intelligible manner which is ensured by conveying and understanding the desired meaning rather than using “correct” grammar. In order to be intelligible, a person needs to understand what is heard and to be understood by using proper language tools to convey the message. Here emerge the two important processes of pronunciation: to be able to recognize and produce both segmental (single sounds) and suprasegmental (stress, intonation, etc.) features of the target language (Seidlhofer, 2001; Hismanoğlu, 2006; Gilbert, 2012; and Goodwin, 2013). For the purpose of this study, the definition of Collins Dictionary Online (2015) is adopted.
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Design
Participants
The participants of the study were (60) second year secondary school students divided into two equal groups; an experimental group (N = 30) and a control group (N = 30). Both groups were randomly nominated from El-Louzy secondary school in Damietta during the 2015 – 2016 academic year. The participants were within the age range of 16-18 years old, and they had been studying English as a foreign language for 11- 13 years. The participants were selected by using purposive sampling for the experiment. The only difference between the two groups was that the experimental group members were exposed to the treatment of using songs in YouTube, while the control group experienced the regular teacher-fronted methods.
Instruments
A pre-post pronunciation test was conducted at the beginning of the study with both groups as a pretest before the start of the treatment. The purpose of this pretest was to ascertain the level of pronunciation competence of the participants in both groups. The test was also administered after the tenth week of treatment as a posttest. This was to see if there had been any differences with the mean scores of the pretest (see Appendix A). The validity of the test is valid in level of r = 0.871 which has minimum value 0.384. As an addition for this research, the reliability of the test was also analyzed. Identify scores by using a four-point scale to identify the level of pronunciation ability (see Appendix B).
Procedures
A pronunciation test, which served as a pretest, was given to the participants. The aim of the pretest was not only to confirm the homogeneity of the two groups concerning their pronunciation ability, but to gather data based on their pronunciation before the treatment. A week following the pretest, “a 10-session treatment” was applied for the experimental group students. In each session, one of the songs in YouTube was played during the class according to the students’ interest,
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and listening to music took about twenty minutes. The researcher applied activities to check their pronunciation, such as asking students to pronounce the words, and providing students with intensive practice in hearing and saying particular words or phrases. It can help students to get their tongues around difficult sounds or to help them imitate intonation that may be different from their first language. Drilling can also help students notice the correct form or pronunciation of a word or phrase, and improve their English pronunciation. After the students have practiced individually and in a group, the teacher would call upon a student to pronounce the words sounds individually and provide feedback, and their voice were recorded.
On the other hand, the control group did not receive any treatment process. Instead, this group was taught using the traditional methods of teaching English language without the use of songs in YouTube throughout the tenth-week study. Finishing the treatment in the experimental group, the two groups took the posttest. The time interval between the pretest and the posttest was long enough more than two months and a half to eliminate the tests’ recall, so the same test was used in both stages. whereas the aim of the posttest was to examine the significance of the difference between scores of the two groups at this phase and to determine the effect of the treatment in the experimental group. The data collected and tabulated through SPSS and analyzed using t-test to compare the mean of pre-test and post-test of pronunciation and to see whether or not the students’ pronunciation has been developed along with using English songs in YouTube.
Results and Discussion
The results of the study are presented in tables that follow. To test the hypothesis of the study stating that, “there is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental group students and that of the control group in the pronunciation of post-test in favor of the experimental group students”, t-test paired sample was used to test the hypothesis, i.e., to investigate the difference between the pre- and post-test of the experimental group and that of the control group in their pronunciation. The following are the
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results of the t-test for paired sample comparing the mean of the students' scores of the experimental group and the control one in their pronunciation.
Table (1): Mean Scores of the Control and Experimental Groups on the Pre- and Post- Pronunciation Test
Test
Groups
N
Mean
SD
df
t
Sig. (2- tailed)
Pre
Control
30
13.26
2.12
29
0.971
0.342
Experimental
30
13.94
2.26
post
Control
30
13.81
1.47
29
4.391
0.00
Experimental
30
19.89
1.79
Results in table (1) indicated that there is a significant difference between the control group mean score (13.81) that this group had their regular methods. Whereas, the experimental group mean score (19.89) that English songs in YouTube used in this group, and also according to t=4.391 is more than (1.68), so using English songs in YouTube can improve the students pronunciation to compare as regular method. The referential statistics also confirmed in pre-test for both groups control and experimental, t=0.971 is smaller than (t=1.68). These results indicate that the higher mean is for the experimental group's post administration of the test. Therefore, students' pronunciation have been improved after using English songs. To sum up, the t-test of the paired sample results about the difference between the students' mean scores of the pronunciation of the post- administration of the test was statistically significant at 0.001 levels in favor of the experimental group indicating the effectiveness of using songs in YouTube in enhancing students' pronunciation, so the hypothesis is accepted.
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Table (2): The Pronunciation Ability Level of the Control and Experimental Groups
Experimental
Control
Pronunciation ability
%
N
%
N
30
9
26.66
8
pretest
Weakness in pronunciation
0
0
23.33
7
posttest
63.33
19
70
21
pretest
Needs improvement
16.66
5
56.66
17
posttest
6.66
2
3.33
1
pretest
Satisfactory
73.33
22
20
6
posttest
0
0
0
0
pretest
Good pronunciation
10
3
0
0
posttest
According to table 2, the results show that in experimental group there were 5 students needed improvement, 22 students at a satisfactory level, and 3 students who could pronounced English with good pronunciation. Otherwise in control group there were 7 students who had weakness in pronunciation, 17 students needed improvement, and 6 students at a satisfactory level. The analysis revealed that the experimental group in this study obtained higher scores on the post-test than the control group, and the English pronunciation ability of the experimental group was enhanced after learning English pronunciation through songs in YouTube.
Based on the analysis of the data, it was found that the students who learned English through songs in YouTube enhanced their pronunciation and they were also able to pronounce the specific words out of the songs more accurately and the control group which did not. Also, the experimental group had fun and enjoyed the class, as indicated by their willingness to sing along to the songs. After learning English
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through songs, these participants learned the language more rapidly and could pronounce words accurately. Some of the participants also became more confidante about speaking English and their pronunciation became more clear and accurate. Most of participants said that the music added enjoyment to class and learning English pronunciation through songs helped them to learn more easily. Therefore, it can be concluded that English songs in YouTube is effective towards students’ pronunciation. It is worth to say that in EFL classrooms songs yield in positive effectiveness. It was showed by the students’ pronunciation mastery after they used English songs in YouTube were better than the students’ pronunciation before they were given the treatment.
It is important for the teacher to choose appropriate songs which can help the students learn the language and gain learning objectives and he/she should find the song which is not too fast and understandable. As it stated by Coromina, (2000) and Lynch, (2005), songs must have understandable and clear lyric. To sum up, results showed that using songs in YouTube improved the students’ pronunciation, and that students were more motivated to participate in class activities and discussion. The activities in class clearly increased their motivation to learn pronunciation. The students were producing more oral language that expected and were able to speak more spontaneously. This finding supports the research hypothesis that the use of English song in YouTube is effective in improving students’ pronunciation.
Conclusions
Like other learning activities, using songs in YouTube to enhance pronunciation among participants will only be effective if it is properly planned. There are several factors that contribute to the effectiveness and feasibility of such learning processes. The main focus of this study was to ascertain whether the implementation of songs in YouTube had any positive effects on the participants’ pronunciation ability. As a matter of fact, the findings have shed light that the experimental group had far more significant improvement in their pronunciation ability as compared to the control group. This is because the students went through the process of social interactions and discussions with their peers. They were given
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more opportunity to work independently in the target language. The control group, on the other hand, went through the regular method and was given limited opportunity for interaction. The outcome of the present study appears compatible with the finding of Richards and Rodgers (1989, p.109) “music, rhythm, and movement…create a link between the right brain’s processing of music and rhythm and the left brain’s processing of verbal information”. In an almost similar study, Slevc and Miyake (2006) mentioned that those adult students with more advanced musical aptitudes spoke English with better pronunciation than those with less developed aptitudes. This is relatively what the researcher tried to do in this study.
Music can empower students with a real world communicative advantage; therefore one has examples of authentic speech that is rhythmic, repetitious, and slowed. A powerful tool to impress upon the individual learning experience. The use of songs in the EFL classroom can make learning more enjoyable and interesting. Songs could be a promising replace for the regular methods of teaching pronunciation such as listening and repeating individual words in isolation. The students are able to memorize the words and their pronunciation easily, it will help students in learning English pronunciation. At the same time, students acquire the target language and feel comfortable in a relaxing atmosphere. This helps them lower their affective filter, and become more receptive to learning. In addition, songs in YouTube help learners improve their understanding and production of important pronunciation features. Finally, teachers should choose the songs such as the students’ level and preferences, as well as the level of difficulty of the song and its rhythm. In conclusion, using songs in YouTube to enhance the pronunciation among secondary school students is indeed an effective and interesting method. With proper planning and song selections, students will be able to pronounce words accurately.
Implications
From the current study, music enables the teacher to monitor the class all the time and also to remove the students’ pronunciation errors before they are fossilized. The students are naturally interested in music
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and using YouTube, so the use of it in class motivates them and maintains their attention to the material. Most of the learning that takes place during listening to the music is unconscious, so it will have more long lasting effects. Due to the fact that songs are a universal tool that everybody listens to, these maybe can be used as a practical feature to develop step by step students’ pronunciation. In this level is when students need to have a profitable basis in which they can master the pronunciation in order to acquire and improve their level at later stage. In fact, songs have a positive influence on memory and allow for a better retention. An important aim for any language teacher is to provide a class atmosphere in which all the students are interested in learning, pay attention to the presented subjects, and cooperate with each other to learn better. The central problem, for which the present research was to find an effective way to promote the students’ pronunciation ability. It was firmly proved that using songs in YouTube could be used as a fruitful method for teaching pronunciation to EFL students.
No matter which course- book or material the teacher is using as long as this is used in a proper way. Teachers have to be aware of how they teach and the material they use in order to provide a meaningful knowledge. Teachers can use songs in YouTube as a reward for the students who have worked cooperatively during boring drills in class and need a final relaxation. This will also enable the students to observe the usage of what they have learnt in a communicative and realistic setting. No matter how energetic and active a teacher might be, she/he is bound to encounter some lapses of concentration and interest in the learners. A short, lively piece of song would be a good way to revive the class and enhance the student’s willingness to learn more. Also, It is important to call educators’ attention to teaching pronunciation and to giving pronunciation related feedback and instruction that could assist learners in achieving a higher level of proficiency.
Recommendations for Future Studies
Based on the findings of this study, future research should focus on the following areas.
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 There should be more studies in English pronunciation for more reliability.
 For students, it is suggested to enhance their pronunciation through English song from YouTube if they want to improve their pronunciation ability. English song also can make students to be an autonomous learner. Students will have good habit if they are comfort when pronunciation words accurately while listening to songs.
 The teacher should be well prepared. It means that they should prepare materials which will appropriate that will be taught to the students before they enter the classroom.
 Provide schools with enough computer laboratories, which are connected with internet.
 Hold seminars and workshops to train teachers on how to implement technology in English classes.
 Studies need to be done concerning the strategies of English songs use in the classrooms to testify the effectiveness of strategies and find out whether such strategies have limitations.
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