A Study on Using English Songs in Teaching Listening Skill to Improve the Efficiency and Motivation for First-Year Non-English Major Students at Hai Duong Medical Technical University

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*******************


ĐỖ THỊ PHƢƠNG NGUYÊN


A Study on Using English Songs in Teaching Listening
Skill to Improve the Efficiency and Motivation for
First-Year Non-English Major Students at Hai Duong
Medical Technical University

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng bài hát tiếng Anh trong việc dạy kỹ năng nghe để tạo động
lực và nâng cao hiệu quả cho sinh viên không chuyên Anh năm thứ nhất
Trƣờng Đại học Kỹ Thuật y tế Hải Dƣơng


M.A. MINOR PROGMAME THESIS



Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 0111

Hanoi – 2014



VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*******************


ĐỖ THỊ PHƢƠNG NGUYÊN


A Study on Using English Songs in Teaching Listening
Skill to Improve the Efficiency and Motivation for
First-Year Non-English Major Students at Hai Duong
Medical Technical University

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng bài hát tiếng Anh trong việc dạy kỹ năng nghe để tạo động
lực và nâng cao hiệu quả cho sinh viên không chuyên Anh năm thứ nhất
Trƣờng Đại học Kỹ Thuật y tế Hải Dƣơng


M.A. MINOR PROGMAME THESIS


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 0111
Supervisor: Dr. Mai Thị Loan

Hanoi – 2014

i
DECLARATION

I certify that the thesis titled: ―A study on using English songs in teaching listening
skill to improve the efficiency and motivation for first-year non-English major students at
Hai Duong Medical Technical University‖ is the result of my own work. I have provided
fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this thesis has not been
submitted for assessment in any other formal courses of study.

Hanoi, August 2014


Mai Thi Loan, Ph.D

ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The thesis is finished with the support of many individuals, and thus, is
collection of numerous intellectual minds, sympathetic hearts, contemplative moments, and
prolonged engagement.
First of all, I deeply appreciate my supervisor, Dr. Mai Thi Loan. I am able to
finish my master thesis due to her thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable
suggestions, various sources of references and previous corrections on my writing.
Additionally, I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all the teachers and students of
Hai Duong Medical Technical University for their willingness to help me to complete
the collection of necessary data for the study.
Finally, special gratitude is extended to my family and my close friends who
have encouraged and supported me in every stage of this study



iii
ABSTRACT

This study investigates whether the using of English songs in teaching listening
skill to non-major students is effective or not and discusses some suggestions of how
to use English songs in teaching listening skill in classroom.
To achieve the aims of the thesis, the author used the following data collection
instruments: survey questionnaire for teachers, survey questionnaire for students, and
tests for students.

The results and findings point out the benefits of using English songs in
teaching listening, some criteria to choose appropriate songs for teachers when
teaching listening. And some tasks the teachers should design to teach students with
the use of songs.
In conclusion, songs can be a good material for the use of teaching listening for
students.












iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

L1: first language
L2: second language
Std. Deviation: Standard deviation
HMTU: Hai Duong Medical Technical University
EFL: English as Foreign Language

v
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES
Chart 1: Students‘ attitude towards English songs 20
Chart 2: Students‘ improvement after they had been taught with the use of songs 21
Chart 3: The frequency of using songs to teach listening skill 25
Chart 4: Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of
songs 27
Chart 5: Raw marks in listening (pre - test) 31

Chart 6: Raw marks in listening (post - test) 32
Table 1: The benefits of learning listening through the use of English songs 21
Table 2: Students‘ favorite activities while they are listening to English songs 23
Table 3: Reasons that students listen to English songs 24
Table 4: Teachers‘ opinion about some advantages of using songs in class 26
Table 5: Teachers‘ opinion about some disadvantages of using songs in class 26
Table 6: Criteria for selecting songs of the teachers 27
Table 7: The sources for teachers to select songs 28
Table 8: Frequency distribution (pre - test) 30
Table 9: Mean and Std. Deviation (pre - test) 31
Table 10: Frequency distribution (post - test) 32
Table 11: Mean and Std deviation (post - test) 33


vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Rationale of the study 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study 1
1.3. Research questions 2
1.4. Scope of the study 2
1.5. Significance of study 2
1.6. Methodology 2
1.7. Design of the study 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Listening 4
1.1.1. Definition of listening 4
1.1.2. Types of listening 4
1.1.3. The difficulties in learning listening skill 7
1.2. Motivation 8
1.2.1. Definition of motivation 8
1.2.2. Types of motivation 9
1.2.3. The importance of motivation in listening classes 11
1.3. Songs as a motivator for students to listen 12
1.4. Review of related studies 13
1.5. Summary 14
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16
2.1. Setting of the study 16
2.1.1. Teachers‘ background information 16
2.1.2. Students‘ background information 16
2.1.3. Teaching and learning condition at HMTU 16
2.2. Research design 17
2.2.1. Participants 17
2.2.1.1. Students 17

vii
2.2.1.2. Teachers 17
2.2.2. Data collection 18
2.2.2.1. Instruments 18
2.2.2.1.1. Questionnaire for teachers 18
2.2.2.1.2. Questionnaire for students 18
2.2.2.1.3. Test 18
2.2.2.2. Data collection and analysis procedure 19

2.3. Summary 19
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 20
3.1. Questionnaire for students 20
3.1.1. Aims 20
3.1.2 Participants 20
3.1.3 Data analysis 20
3.1.3.1 Students‘ attitude towards English songs 20
3.1.3.2 The improvement of students‘ listening after they had been taught with the use
of songs 21
3.1.3.3. Students‘ opinion about the benefits of learning listening through the use of
English songs 21
3.1.3.4. Students‘ favorite activities while they are listening to English songs 23
3.1.3.5. Reasons that students listen to English songs 24
3.2. Questionnaire for teacher 24
3.2.1. Aims 24
3.2.2 Participants 25
3.2.3 Data analysis 25
3.2.3.1 The frequency of using songs to teach listening skill 25
3.2.3.2. Teachers‘ opinion about advantages of using songs to teach listening skill 26
3.2.3.3. Teachers‘ opinion about disadvantages of using songs to teach listening skill 26
3.2.3.4. Kind of task(s) the teachers usually designed to teach students with the use of
songs 27
3.2.3.5. Criteria for selecting songs of the teachers 27
3.2.3.6. The sources for teachers to select songs 28
3.3. Tests 29
3.3.1 Aims 29
3.3.2. Participants 29
3.3.3. Test description 29
3.3.4. Data analysis and findings 30
3.3.4. 1. Pre – test (At the beginning of the term) 30

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3.3.4.1.1. Frequency distribution 30
3.3.4.1.2. Correlation 31
3.3.4.2. Post-test (At the end of the term) 31
3.3.4.2.1. Frequency distribution 31
3.3.4.2.2. Correlation 33
3.4. Summary 33
PART C: CONCLUSION 34
1. Major findings from the research 34
1.1. Research question 1: What are the benefits of using songs to teach listening skill
to students? 34
1.2. Research question 2: Which tasks should teacher design to teach listening to
students with the use of songs 34
1.3. Research question 3: What are criteria to choose appropriate songs in teaching
listening in classroom 35
2. Limitations of the study 36
3. Suggestions for further study 36
REFERENCES 38
APPENDICES I
APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I
APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS V
APPENDIX 3: PRE – TEST VII
APPENDIX 4: POST - TEST X
APPENDIX 5: SAMPLE TASKS XIIIIII

1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study
Among four skills of English, listening is often considered the most challenging

for students due to the complex and subtle nature of listening comprehension in second
language (L2) or foreign language. It takes much time and effort to make progress in
this skill. At Hai Duong Medical Technical University, many students are afraid of
learning listening and they often say that they do not want to learn listening.
Like many other teachers, I think that this problem can only be solved by
finding an answer to the question: ―How to help students change from the feeling of
fear to the one of interest when they are doing listening?‖ However, interest is
something very unstable and unpredictable because it depends on many factors such
as: the content of the subject, the necessity of it, the method of the teacher, or even the
weather of the day. That explains the reason why it takes teachers a great effort and
trial to maintain the students‘ interest in the lesson and avoid the boredom also.
Research shows that there are some main ways to hold students‘ interest such as:
audio-visual aids including objects, flash cards, pictures, overhead projector
transparency, film, video, and language activities like games, songs, story-telling,
projects. Of all the items, songs seem to be the most available and easiest to exploit.
Therefore, the author chose English songs as the means to do a research to improve the
efficiency and motivation for first-year non-English major students at Hai Duong
Medical Technical University.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
The study aims at finding out benefits of using English songs in teaching
listening skill to non-major students, finding out the tasks the teacher should design to
teach listening to students with the use of songs, and discussing criteria to choose
appropriate songs in teaching listening in classroom.
To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to:
- investigate the positives sides of using English songs in teaching listening skill
to non-major students;
- find out the tasks teachers should design to teach students with the use of
songs;

2

- work out criteria to choose appropriate songs in teaching listening in
classroom.
1.3. Research questions
With these aims, the researcher carries out this study to answer the following
questions:
(1) What are the benefits of using songs to teach listening skill to students?
(2) Which tasks should teachers design to teach listening to students with the use of songs?
(3) What are criteria to choose appropriate songs in teaching listening in classroom?
1.4. Scope of the study
In this study, the author intended to use famous love songs to teach listening for
non – major students at the pre – intermediate level at HMTU. Songs may include
many types such as: classical, pop, jazz, rap, traditional, love songs, etc. This research
just focuses on the use of famous loves songs that have soft music with quite simple
words, catchy tunes and are easy to listen to.
1.5. Significance of study
The study is hopefully useful for students and others of concerned. Students will
be motivated to learn listening with the use of songs and they will be able to memorize
the lessons easily. Besides that, the use of songs may help them to disappear their
boredom in learning. The study also provides the teachers with the benefits of using
English songs to teach listening skill at HMTU.
1.6. Methodology
All comments, remarks, assumption and conclusion of the study were based on
the data and analysis. Data collection for analysis in the study was gained through the
following resources:
- Survey questionnaires for teachers and students.
- Tests for students.
1.7. Design of the study
The paper was designed with three parts as follows:
Part A: Introduction presents the rationale of choosing the topic, the aim and
objectives of the study, the scope of the study, significance, methods and design of the

study to be applied.


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Part B: Development composes of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature review sets up some theoretical backgrounds that are relevant to
the purpose of the study: the definition of listening skill, types of listening, the
difficulties in learning listening skill, the definition of motivation, types of motivation
and its importance in listening classes, songs as a motivator for students to listen.
Chapter 2: Method of the study mentions setting of the study and research design
including participants and data collection.
Chapter 3: This chapter includes data analysis and findings
Part C: Conclusion deals with major findings of the research. Limitations of the study
and some suggestions for further study were also included in this chapter.














4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Listening
1.1.1. Definition of listening
According to Howatt and Dakin. (1974:34 - 36), listening is the ability to
identify and understand what others are saying. This process involves understanding a
speaker's accent or pronunciation, the speaker‘s grammar and vocabulary, and
comprehension of meaning. An able listener is capable of doing these four things
simultaneously.
Ronald, K and Roskelly (1985:78) define listening as an active process
requiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising, and
generalizing that writing and reading demand; and these authors present specific
exercises to make students active listeners who are aware of the inner voice one hears
when writing.
Besides, according to Rost (1991:164), listening comprises some component
skills such as discriminating between sounds, recognizing words, identifying
grammatical groupings of words, identifying expressions and sets of utterances that act
to create meaning, connecting linguistic cues to non-linguistic and paralinguistic cues,
using background knowledge to predict and later to confirm meaning and recalling
important words and ideas.
Underwood (1989:187) also says that listening is the ability of paying to and trying
to get meaning from something we hear. She explains that to listen successfully to spoken
language, we need to be able to work out what speakers mean when they use particular
words in particular ways on particular occasions, and not simply to understand the words
themselves. But listening is different from hearing. Whilst hearing can be thought of as a
passive condition, listening is always an active process From these ideas, listening involves
a multiplicity of skills. It is a complex, active process interpretations in which listeners
match what they hear with what they already know.
1.1.2. Types of listening
According to Wolvin& Coakley(1996) (cited in Goh. 2000), five types of listening
have been identified according to their purposes as follows:

 Discriminative Listening

5
 Comprehensive Listening
 Therapeutic Listening
 Critical Listening
 Appreciative Listening.
Discriminative listening is where the objective is to distinguish sound and visual
stimuli. This objective does not take into account the meaning; instead the focus is
largely on sounds. In a basic level class, this can be as simple as distinguishing the
gender of the speaker or the number of the speakers, etc. As mentioned before, the
focus is not on comprehending; but on accustoming the ears to the sounds. If one
thinks s/he can see that this is where L1 listening begins - the child responds to sound
stimulus and soon can recognize its parents' voices amidst all other voices. Depending
on the level of the students, the listening can be discriminating sounds to identifying
individual words.
Comprehensive listening is a kind of listening which the focus is to understand the
message. The writers consider this as the basis for the next three types of listening.
However, the problem can come in the form of understanding. Depending on both
individual and social factors, students can end up understanding the same message in
different ways. Lots of work in teaching listening in the classroom has to happen here
in facilitating the students to develop their comprehension skills.
Therapeutic listening - is one kind of listening where the listener's role is to be a
sympathetic listener without much verbal response. In this kind of listening, the
listener allows somebody to talk through a problem. This kind of listening is very
important in building good interpersonal relations.
Critical listening is the fourth kind of listening where listeners have to evaluate the
message. Listeners have to critically respond to the message and give their opinion.
Appreciative listening focuses on enjoying what one listens. When students listen
to English music, even if they do not understand, they still enjoy challenging notion of

comprehensive listening as the basis for other three types of listening. Generally,
students listen to the songs once and try to make out the lyrics before listening a
second time with the lyrics. Then they recalled that they appreciated the song better
during the second time and were able to see the relation between how one would enjoy
something that s/he is able to make sense of.

6
In this way, the discussion of the five types of listening turned out to be quite
informative and thought provoking for all underscoring the adage when one teaches to
learn.
According to Johna Kline (1996: 29 - 42), different situations require different
types of listening. We may listen to obtain information, improve a relationship, gain
appreciation for something, make discriminations, or engage in a critical evaluation.
While certain skills are basic and necessary for all types of listening, each type
requires some special skills. He identified five types of listening.
Informative listening is the name we give to the situation where the listener‘s
primary concern is to understand the message. Listeners are successful in so far as the
meaning they assign to messages is as close as possible to that which the sender
intended. Informative listening, or listening to understand, is found in all areas of our
lives. Much of our learning comes from informative listening.
Relationship listening aims at either helping an individual or improving the
relationship between people. Therapeutic listening is a special type of relationship
listening. Therapeutic listening brings to mind situations where counselors, medical
personnel, or other professionals allow a troubled person to talk through a problem.
But it can also be used when you listen to friends or acquaintances and allow them to
get things off their chests. Although relationship listening requires you to listen for
information, the emphasis is on understanding the other person. Three behaviors are
key to effective relationship listening: attending, supporting, and empathizing.
Appreciative listening includes listening to music for enjoyment, to speakers
because you like their style, to your choices in theater, television, radio, or film. It is

the response of the listener, not the source of the message, that defines appreciative
listening. The quality of appreciative listening depends in large part on three factors:
presentation, perception, and previous experience.
As for critical listening, the ability to listen critically is essential in a
democracy. On the job, in the community, at service clubs, in places of worship, in the
family—there is practically no place you can go where critical listening is
unimportant. Politicians, the media, salesmen, advocates of policies and procedures,
and our own financial, emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual needs require us
to place a premium on critical listening and the thinking that accompanies it. Effective

7
critical listening requires careful judgment about the expertness and trustworthiness of
the speaker. In fact, ethos or speaker credibility may be the most important single
factor in critical listening and thinking. However, ethos without logos is not enough.
The final type of listening is discriminative listening. It may be the most
important type, for it is basic to the other four. By being sensitive to changes in the
speaker‘s rate, volume, force, pitch, and emphasis, the informative listener can detect
even nuances of difference in meaning. Detection of differences between sounds made
by certain instruments in the orchestra, or parts sung by the a cappella vocal group,
enhances appreciative listening. Finally, sensitivity to pauses, and other vocal and
nonverbal cues, allows critical listeners to more accurately judge not only the
speaker‘s message, but his intentions as well.
In my opinion, the effectiveness of listening, whether informative, relational,
appreciative, critical, or discriminative, requires skills. In some cases, the skills are the
same for the various types of listening; in some cases, they are quite different.
1.1.3. The difficulties in learning listening skill
The listening process is often described from an information processing perspective
as an active process in which listeners select and interpret information that comes from
auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are
trying to express (Thompson& Rubin1996: 331). Considering various aspects of

listening comprehension, Underwood (1989) organizes the major listening problems as
follows:
1. lack of control over the speed at which speakers speak ,
2. not being able to get things repeated,
3. the listener's limited vocabulary,
4. failure to recognize the signals,
5. problems of interpretation,
6. inability to concentrate, and
7. Established learning habits.
Underwood (1989: 15), sees these problems as being related to learners' different
backgrounds, such as their culture and education. She points out that students whose
culture and education includes a strong storytelling and oral communication tradition
are generally better at listening comprehension than those from a reading and book-

8
based cultural and educational background. Moreover, learners whose native language
possesses the stress and intonation features similar to those of English are likely to
have less trouble than the learners whose L1 is based on different rhythms and tones.
Focusing on EFL learners with Chinese language backgrounds, Goh (2000: 55 -
75) investigated listening comprehension problems in students in college EFL studies.
The data were collected from learner diaries, small group interviews, and immediate
retrospective verbalization. Findings include ten listening comprehension problems in
relation to three cognitive processing phases which are perceptions, parsing, and
utilization, proposed by Anderson (1983, 1995). Perceptual processing refers to
maintaining attention to spoken input, parsing means encoding the input to establish a
meaningful representation in short-term memory, and utilization concerns using the
background knowledge to interpret the input for storage.
In my opinion, listening is vital not only in language learning but also in daily
communication. Maybe, the difficulties in learning listening skill are caused from
listeners' lack of control over the speed at speakers and listeners‘ limited vocabulary.

To acquire an acceptable listening skill, listeners themselves should have much more
exposure to a variety of listening. Teacher plays an important role in teaching learners
strategies and how to apply them to the listening task.
1.2. Motivation
1.2.1. Definition of motivation
Motivation is defined in different ways by different researchers.
According to Gardner (1985: 134), motivation in his socio – psychological model
is the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language
plus favorable attitude toward learning the language. Penny (1996: 95), considers
motivation difficult to give a definition; she prefers to think about motivation in terms
of motivated learners, that is, learners who are willing to involve themselves in
learning activities to progress. She states that teaching and learning can become much
easier and more pleasant when there is learners‘ motivation. Psychologists have made
the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
According to Penny (2004: 375), it is difficult to define motivation as it is better
to think of the motivated learner: ―One who is willing or even eager to invest in

9
learning, activities and making progress. Learners‘ motivation makes teaching and
learning immeasurably easier and more pleasant as well as more productive‖.
Williams and Burden (1997: 120) see motivation as a state of cognitive and
emotional arousal, a state which leads to a conscious decision to act and gives rise to a
period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort.
Relating motivation to learning a second language (L2), (1997: 75), stated that
motivation involves the attitudes and effective states that influence the degree of effort
that learners make to learn an L2, Brown (2000: 160) indicated that motivation is some
kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve
something.
Literature shows that different researchers have different ways of defining
motivation. However, they all share the same point of view that motivation combines

effort and desire plus favorable attitudes and occurs as a result of a combination of
internal and external influences.
From my little experience, I have found out that it is important to be interested in
what students like or who they admire. Then it is easier to get them closer to the
teacher because then they can speak more together about the issue that they are
interested in. The author agrees with the definition of motivation proposed by Gardner
(1985). According to Gardner (1985:50), motivation includes four aspects: goal,
effortful behavior to reach the goal, desire to attain the goal, positive attitudes towards
the goal. However, a goal is not necessary a measurable component of motivation, but
a stimulus that gave rise to motivation.
1.2.2. Types of motivation
According to the self-determination theory, there are two types of motivation,
one based on intrinsic interest in the act vity and the other based on extrinsic rewards
to the activity itself (Deci & Ryan (1985), cited in Lucas (2010: 6)).
Intrinsic motivation is generally possessed by people having personal interests
in doing something and helping to set their goals. People are intrinsically motivated
not because accomplishing the activity they do bring a reward, but because doing the
activity itself is a reward (Drnyei‘s 1998: 51).

10
Drnyei‘s (2001: 55) notes that a student with intrinsic motivation participates
in his or her learning for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provides, the learning it
permits, or the feeling of accomplishment it evokes.
Richard Ryan and Edward Deci (1985: 201) believe that intrinsic motivation is
founded upon innate needs for competence and self-determination (cited in Lucas,
(2010: 6)).
Another type of motivation is extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, derives
from an anticipation of rewards such as praise, awards, prizes, and evaluation, and fear
for punishment. An extrinsically motivated student does the activity in order to obtain
some reward or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself, and this kind of

motivation refers to learning situations where the reason for doing a task is something
other than an interest in the task itself (Williams and Burden (1997: 40)).
Foreign language teachers should be conscious of the fact that learners bring to
the classroom not only their intelligence but also attitudes and interests which are
consequences of a variety of psychological and sociological factors. Therefore, that is
part of responsibility for teachers to channel these affective elements (Girard (1997:
71)).
Apart from intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Ellis, R. (1997: 76) adds another
type of motivation, which is resultative motivation. In his opinion, motivation is result
of learning.
Gardner and Lambert (1972) first made the most famous distinction between
two types of motivation: integrative and instrumental.
Integrative motivation is the desire to learn a language to integrate successfully
into the target language community. According to Garner and Lambert (1972, cited in
Ellis, 1997:509), motivation is strongly influenced by integrative orientation to
language learning. In their words, an integrative orientation involves an interest in
learning an L2 because of a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture
represented by the other group.
Instrumental motivation, on the contrary, is something which concerns the
practical value and advantages of learning a new language‘ (Lambert 1974: 98, cited in
Ellis, 1997), and which is characterized by ‗the wish to learn the language for purposes
of study or career promotion (Penny 1996: 276) and the desire to obtain something

11
practical or concrete from the study of a second language (Hudson 2000). In other
words, instrumental motivation is the learner‘s desire to learn a language for utilitarian
purposes (such as employment/travel/exam purposes) in the context of language
learning.
Both kinds of motivation are essential elements of success in learning a second
language, but it is integrative motivation which has been found to sustain long-term

success when learning a second language Ellis (1997). In some of the early researchers
by Gardner and Lambert (cited in Ellis, R. 1997), integrative motivation was viewed
more important in a formal learning environment than instrumental motivation.
Integrative motivation was regarded as superior to instrumental motivation for
predicting the success of second language learning However, from another
perspective, instrumental motivation is meaningful for the learner who has had limited
access to the L2 culture, or foreign language settings Dornyei's (1996, cited in Vaezi,
2008:55) opposed Gardner by claiming that instrumental motivation is more important
than the integrative motivation.
In my opinion, it is important to note that instrumental motivation has only been
acknowledged as a significant factor in some research, whereas integrative motivation
is continually linked to successful second language acquisition.
To sum up, there are many kinds of motivation. However, it is the author's
belief that intrinsic motivation produces more potential benefits than extrinsic
motivation. Intrinsically motivated students tend to try harder and think more deeply
than extrinsically motivated ones.
1.2.3. The importance of motivation in listening classes
Listening to English is regarded to be hard for students who are not English
majors. From the researchers‘ observation and discussion with students, the author has
realized that many students have associated listening courses with pain and boredom
and often complain that they become tired of listening to the tape from the beginning
to the end and benefit little from listening lesson. Therefore, it is necessary for English
teachers to realize the importance of how to make listening classes more interesting,
especially at the first stage of the lesson and how to know motivate students so that
they can develop their listening comprehension (Broughter 1978)

12
Motivation is a basic principle of all kinds of teaching – the language of the
students is best motivated by practice in which he senses the language that is truly
communicative, that is appropriate to its context, that his teachers‘ skills and

techniques are moving him forward to a fuller competence in the foreign language
(Broughter 1978:.47)
So, how to keep students‘ interest in learning must be focused. Without interest,
motivation and variation in teaching and learning, students certainly feel bored with
listening.
In conclusion, it is known that motivation is difficult to be measured, but
teachers can notice when their students are motivated by their facial expressions,
attitudes and also by their participation in class. Motivation is an important factor that
contributes to the success in teaching and learning foreign languages in general and in
teaching and learning listening skills in particular.
1.3. Songs as a motivator for students to listen
The importance of motivation in second language teaching and learning has
been discussed for many years. Teachers and researchers believe that motivation plays
an important part in the process of acquiring an additional language because motivated
students are usually those who participate actively in class, express interest in the
subject-matter, and study a great deal. But since motivation is something very
personal, it is not easy to develop (Lightbrown & Spada 1999). If we can make our
classrooms places where students enjoy coming because the atmosphere is supportive
and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students‘ motivation to
learn. For this sake, songs seem to do very well.
Songs have a great tendency to attract the attention of students that other forms
of the mass media lack. Even the person who is totally tone deaf may at times
considers himself a good singer and a person who cannot understand the words of a
song can still appreciate the song itself. Songs, especially current pop songs exert a
great influence over the young generation from which our students come. And because
songs deal with the whole realm of human emotions and experiences- from love, hate,
joy, to loneliness and sadness, they really appeal to the young people.
While many students find it difficult and stressful to learn a new language,
songs can help wash away these feelings. Each song has its own lyrics and as the lyrics

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come out from the composer‘s heart with tempo and rhyme, it is easy to penetrate into
other people‘s hearts. That is the reason why when students mumble the words of the
songs along the lyrics, they gradually get used to the language and find it easier to
learn. According to McDonald (1984:187), the use of the songs in English classroom
allows the students to hide behind the music and then avoids the heat of an early
spotlight landing on timid students. By that way, it also wraps the students‘
perceptions of how difficult it is to use the new language.
In addition to that, when songs are played, the group spirit is really fostered,
which is a great help to students in their practice of the language skill. And because the
students can carry the songs beyond classroom doors and sing for their family and
friends. This, in turn, tends to reinforce the students‘ interest in learning English.
From the opinions above, it can be concluded that songs are one of the best
methods to teach and motivate students to learn listening skill. So teachers should take
advantages of songs to stimulate and help students improve their listening skill.
1.4. Review of related studies
In the context of Vietnam, there have been few studies on the use English songs
and its effectiveness on learning English skills.
Tran Thi Tuyet Mai (2010) at Duy Tien High school conducted a study titled
―Using English traditional songs to improve students‘ pronunciation‖ with its aims are
finding out whether the use of English traditional songs to teach pronunciation for high
school students is effective or not and working out the most effective ways of using
English songs to teach pronunciation for high school students.
Tran Thi Oanh (2008) conducted a study titled ―The use of song to improve
listening skill for students at ITC foreign language center in Hai Duong‖. In her study,
she focused mainly on investigating the effectiveness of using songs in teaching
listening skill.
Bui Thi Thu (2011) exploited songs to motivate students in learning English
grammar. She illustrated that the English songs have an important role in helping
students memorize the grammatical rules more easily.

Not only in Vietnam, there have been so many foreign researchers investigating
the teaching language methodology with the use of English songs.

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Andrew Yau Hau Tse, a teacher of English in Malaysia conducted a thesis on
―Malaysian teachers' perspectives on using songs in English language teaching‖. The
purpose of his study is to probe the angles of Malaysian ESL teachers on the
employment of songs. Specifically, it aims at inquiring their philosophy on the
pedagogical value, attitudes, and cerebration on the impact of songs in English
teaching. Based on appropriate literature, songs have proved to be the most impressive
characteristics of ESL programmes that they are helpful listening materials, and the
most relaxing and language learning strategy reported by young learners of English. In
addition, they are vital and indispensable elements.
Kwong, Suk-mun, Elsa, (2006) also studied about English through songs:
factors affecting students' motivation in English as a second language classroom.
Knowing that students at school did not have a desire to learn English songs but are
attracted by the popular songs, the researcher would like to take her dual role as a
teacher of English and teacher of music to use the English songs to investigate the
factors that affect students‘ motivation in learning English through songs.
Neil T. Millington in Japan had a thesis on ―Using songs effectively to teach
English to young learners‖. This paper starts by analyzing why songs should be
considered as useful pedagogical tools. The author then proposes using songs as
language learning tasks to maximize the benefits of using songs and attempts to show
how this might be done using practical examples. The paper also explores how classic
children‘s songs could be modified to help teachers use them more frequently to teach
a wider variety of topics.
Hans Mol in Australia investigated the use of songs in English classroom. He
explained that songs will help learners become familiar with word stress and
intonation, and the rhythm with which words are spoken or sung and that songs also
help memorization.

As a teacher of English, the author realized that songs will enable learners to
remember chunks of language which they can then use in conversations or in writing. As
language teachers, we can use songs to practice listening, speaking, reading and writing.

1.5. Summary

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This chapter has provided the relevant literature, which has helped to form the
theoretical and conceptual framework for the study. Firstly, the definition of listening
skill, types of listening process and the difficulties in learning listening skill are given
based on some authors‘ ideas in which listening has been considered as a vital role in
communicative language teaching. Secondly, the importance of motivation in listening
classes and songs as a motivator for student to listen are also presented in this chapter.