Lang III - Essay II

TASK: YOU HAVE BEEN DISCUSSING AUDIOVISUAL AIDS WITH YOUR PEDAGOGY LECTURER, SHE HAS ASSIGNED AN ESSAY ON THE BENEFITS OF MUSIC ON LANGUAGE 2 LEARNING. WRITE YOUR ESSAY.

Nowadays, the use of audiovisual aids in the English classroom has become naturalized. But although even the older generations of teachers have adapted their lesson plans to include this kind of didactic materials, there are still many educators who refuse to make use of some audiovisual aids in their lessons; especially music. However, the benefits of using this sort of input in lessons of English cannot be overlooked.

Recent resarch has shown that music patterns – and chanting in particular – resemble the underlying structures in our brains, thus making music naturally appealing to all human beings. Apart from this, it has been acknowledged that music helps people to calm down.

Furthermore, we should bear in mind that playing music at lessons of Englishc can be profitable in a number of ways. Firstly, musical support is a most valuable resource through which culture can beshared: playing typical American or British songs is a wonderful way to create positive feelings towards the target language. Secondly, using music to introduce an exercise, for example, is a good way to activate prior knowledge, since it helps students to make associations. Last but not least, including songs in the English classroom results in the creation of contexts for our teaching, which prove meaningful for students of all ages.

However, there is a common assumption among some people - older and more traditional teachers in general - that since auditory aids were not used in the past and students learnt all the same, music is a source of input that can be dispensed with.

There might be some truth in this argument, but it cannot be denied that working with music in the English classroom is a fruitful and motivating way of teaching, apart from a meaningful and enjoyable way of learning.