![]() ![]() The first corpus comprised 408 songs listed in recent US billboard charts. Two pop song corpora were analyzed to determine the vocabulary size necessary to comprehend 95% and 98% of words in pop songs. Questions arise regarding their lexical demand and vocabulary-learning opportunities they afford. Songs are popular among language learners and a text genre that is yet to be fully exploited in language teaching. It is argued that, while certain structural characteristics of songs (and poems) have the potential of rendering text (and the lexis therein) memorable, it is the way that songs tend to be exploited in the classroom that capitalizes on this mnemonic potential. In response to the overall question, this thesis provides evidence that songs as they currently tend to be used by language teachers around the world indeed benefit certain aspects of lexical learning, perhaps in particular the entrenchment in memory of already (half-)familiar words in association with their phraseological patterning. Results indicate that a song-based language lesson but also a poem-based lesson result in significantly higher recognition and cued recall of verbatim text than a lesson based on a prose text. For the sake of ecological validity, the procedures and the materials used in the classroom intervention study were informed by the findings of the teacher questionnaire (study one) and the song corpus analysis (study two). The third study investigates whether participating in a song-based lesson results in higher verbatim text retention compared to a lesson based on a poem or a prose text. Little difference was found in terms of the overall vocabulary demands between songs intended for use with beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. Knowledge of the 4000 most frequent word families of English provides 98% coverage of the running words in this song corpus. Results indicate that teacher-selected songs are short, repetitive and relatively undemanding as far as lexis is concerned compared to other authentic text genres. For this purpose, a corpus of 635 songs used for ESL/EFL purposes, comprising 177,384 tokens, was compiled and analysed. The second study investigated the lexical characteristics of teacher-selected songs and the vocabulary learning opportunities they afford. The questionnaire also elicited information from the respondents about the way they incorporate songs in lessons, including details about how often a song is played and what types of form- and meaning-focused activities are used to engage learners with the lyrics of a song. The responses of 568 informants in 41 countries indicate that a majority of respondents believe in the usefulness of songs for language learning and that many respondents utilize songs in class for clearly defined pedagogical purposes, including vocabulary learning. ![]() In the first study an international questionnaire explored teacher cognitions as well as actual teaching practices involving songs. To answer this research question, three methodologically distinct studies are reported. The present thesis addresses the following question: Can popular songs as they are currently used in second and foreign language classrooms benefit lexical learning? Lexical learning is defined as the acquisition of new vocabulary as well as the consolidation and further elaboration of familiar words and phrases. Songs are recommended as suitable for lower level EFL learners. The vocabulary load of chorus sections was lighter than the rest of the songs. There were, however, differences among different artists and among different albums by the same artist. The results indicated that around 95% of words in the songs were made up of the most frequent 1,000 words of English, suggesting that the vocabulary load of English songs is lighter than other authentic spoken genres. The data were analysed through vocabulary frequency profiling. The present study investigates these suggestions in a corpus of 177 English song lyrics that appeared in fourteen most recent albums by four artists. While most authentic texts have been shown previously to be too loaded with unfamiliar vocabulary for lower level learners, there are suggestions in the literature that songs have a light vocabulary load consisting mainly of high frequency vocabulary. English songs are very popular with EFL learners and thanks to the natural repetitions of vocabulary they provide through choruses, repeated listening as well as through a special type of 'language din' in the head, they offer great opportunities for vocabulary learning. ![]()
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