INTRODUCTION OF ENGLISH JOURNAL

ENGLISH SONG LYRICS IN IMPROVING GRAMMAR SKILLS  FOR INDONESIAN LEARNERS : HOW POWERFUL?

Rina Risnawati

Department of English Education, Kuningan University, Indonesia

E-mail : rinarisnawati2401@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION

            In revolution industry 4.0 era, English become a big language. As we know that every aspect of human such as technology and economy relate to English language. It makes people compete to learn English. But, in mastering English as a foreign language, some people face all kinds of learning problem, such as grammar. In Indonesia itself, there is no grammar like English. For examples, “Aku menulis jurnal, kemarin”, “Aku sedang menulis jurnal”, “Aku akan menulis jurnal, besok”. For show the time we just put the word “besok, kemarin and sekarang” without changing the verb “Menulis”. Meanwhile, in English it could be change depends on the time are showed. “Write” word for the present tense, “Writing” wor d for the continous tense and “Wrote” word for past tense. Without word “yesterday”, we also know that the verb “Wrote” refers to events in the past.

Grammar is rules for forming words and making sentences. It needs to use correctly in daily E nglish speaking and academic writing. The use of grammar for Indonesian learners quite difficult, but there is a great method that can make learn grammar easier. Song, is one of the great method to teach English grammar. There are so many aspects of a language that can be delivered and recycled through the use of songs. English songs are fun, authentic materials, and also good for teaching grammar, vocabulary and pronounciation. There are many types of songs which can be used in the classroom, ranging from nursery rhymes to pop music. There are also songs written specifically for English language teaching. Songs that the students listen to and play every day could be motivating in the classroom. Claudia Smith Salcedo (2002) describes on her journal “ The effects of songs in the foreign language classroom on text recall and involuntary mental rehear sal”, she found suggest that the use of songs in foreign language classroom may aid memory of text. The results evidenced that the occurrence of the din is increased with music, and therefore may be a more efficient way to stimulate language acquisition.

Music is a universal in human culture. All cultures on this planet have music and most of people in the world love music.  Language and communication are also universal. According to Wilcox (1996), work songs were the answer to group efforts: “Work songs comprise a vast literature o f music as each country has songs that have been handed down by generations to add rhythm and pacing to group work efforts. Some of these are rowing songs, marching songs, and harvest songs”. Related to that research, the learners can memorize the formula of English grammar  by its lyrics. Every teacher have different way to teach song on their lesson. Regardless of the way it is taught, the key to successful use of a song is its application. So the questioning cycle explains how learners process the new language in a song. They first recognise the new language forms, and then they try to analyse the grammar so that they can finding out the meanings. Teachers need to prepare appropiate follow-up activities.

In relation to this research, there were some previous researches having similar theme which have been conducted before. First, research conducted by Farhati (2011) focused on explaining the effectiveness of using English songs as a medium enhace students’ ability in pronouncing the English voiced plosive consonant (b, d, g)sounds. Second, research conducted by Nihada Delibegovic Dzani (2016) focused on the effect of using songs on young learners and their motivation for learning English. Basically, those researches investigate the effectiveness of songs in learning English. Then this research aim to give deep explanation about how powerful English song lyrics  in teaching grammar. To achieve that purpose, this research attempts to address the following research questions: 1) What is students’ achievement in grammar skills through English song lyrics ?, 2) What factors are influencing students’ achievement in grammar skills through English song lyrics? And 3) How powerful  English song lyrics can improve  grammar skills?.

Reference

a.      APA citation: Gusrayani, D. (2015). Story and song in teaching English to young Indonesian EFL learners: How powerful? Indonesian EFL Journal, 1(1), 63-69

b.      LSU Doctoral Dissertations : Claudia Smith Salcedo (2002). The effects of songs in the foreign language classroom on the text recall and involuntary mental rehearsal.

c.       An Interdisciplinary Journal Volume 1, Issue 2 (2016) pp. 40-54, Nihada Delibegovic Dzani. The effect of using songs on young learners and their motivation for learning English.

d.      APA Citation: Khoiriyah, H., Waris, A. M., & Juhansar, J. (2018). The students‟ achievement in pronouncing English song using Smule application. Indonesian EFL Journal, 5(1), 45-58. doi: 10.25134/ieflj.v5i1.1610. 

e.        http://ejournal.unp.ac.id/index.php/jelt/article/view/7310/5741 : Aulia Fransischa, An Fauzia Syafe’i (2016). Using songs to teach English to young learners. Volume 5 No.1 Seri D.