REFLECTION

MARIA ANAK JAMES CHAYAK (921210-13-5832)

First and foremost, I would like to express my humble gratitude to LGA 3102 subject lecturer,
Madam Hajah Norliza for her guidance throughout this coursework completion. Second is to
my dearest families and friends who share their sincere support and knowledge both directly
and indirectly.
The experience of building the kit had taught me, personally, that it is an effective teaching
approach. Making use of variety teaching materials and aids add to an optimum learning.
Young learners especially love learning what they can really see and hear. I believe at their
age, they are at the stage of learning effectively in a concrete way.
I should bear in mind to keep improving myself. I notice that there is strong practical
evidence supporting the use of music in the English language classroom; there is also a
growing body of research confirming that songs are a useful tool in language acquisition. In
fact musical and language processing occur in the same area of the brain.
I learn the types and suitability of songs and poetry relating to pedagogical principles. There
are many types of songs and poetry which can be used in the classroom, ranging from
nursery rhymes to contemporary pop music, 4-lined stanzas to limericks. There is also a lot
of masterpiece written specifically for English language teaching. A criticism of the latter is
that they often lack originality and musical appeal but there are good examples to be found
of stimulating music and poetry, appealing to the real tastes of language learners. However,
the lyrics may not always be suitable: they may, for instance, contain slang or offensive
words, there may be grammatical mistakes and they may only marginally teach the language
points you want to focus on. These are all listed in the pedagogical principles.
Cultures, content, interest, values, age, proficiency level, resources and exploitability are the
key elements in pedagogical principles of teaching songs and poetry in the primary ESL
classroom. These are the considerations needed in choosing the right teaching materials for
young learners because they have effects consequences. For an example, the content
should have a connection with students here and now learning context. It would be
motivating for them to study the literature which is currently being discussed in their society,
particularly when that literature has been interpreted through other media, such as movies or
musicals.
Having given a chance to be in the teachers desk has given me a wider realizations and
perspectives on teaching. In a country where non-native speakers of English are likely to
produce the majority of songs in English, learners have the opportunity to listen to
pronunciation in a wide range of varieties of the language. Songs and poetry will help
learners become familiar with word stress and intonation, and the rhythm with which words
are spoken or sung also helps memorization. Again, this 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.
Overall, I love to generalise that songs and poetry have characteristics that help learning a
second language: they often contain common, short words; they are written at about year 2
level; the language is conversational, time and place are usually imprecise; the lyrics are
often sung at a slower rate than spoken words and there is repetition of words and grammar.
Furthermore, they are also known to lower the affective filter or, in other words, to motivate
learners to learn.