Enriching vocabulary through authentic

audiovisual materials in EFL classrooms: Music video

clips and song lyrics

Prepared by: Kristina Qosja First Supervisor: Eriada Cela, M A Second supervisor: Prof. Dr. Lynn Zimmerman

• Research Questions • 1. To what extent, does exposure to authentic audiovisual materials

enrich students’ vocabulary?• 2. What are the differences in students’ vocabulary learning and

acquisition when listening and watching a music video clip and when just reading the song’s lyrics?• Hypothesis If 6th graders are exposed to authentic audiovisual materials, then their vocabulary will be enriched more than those who only read a text, because watching and listening to these materials simulate authentic situations.

Literature Review• The focus of my study, is to find out, through different activities with

music video clips, whether its usage in classes has impact in students’ vocabulary extension or not.• There is a need to increase this research knowledge about using

authentic materials in Albania. • This issue, at least in Albania, has not received much attention. • The literature contains several references to using authentic materials

in foreign language learning. • Authentic materials refer to materials we encounter in everyday life,

such as newspapers, movies, music, etc. They narrow the gap between the class and the real-life situations (CALPRO, 2007).• According to Ianiro (CALPRO,2007) these are divided into two main

types: auditory and printed materials..

• The relationship between language and music has been investigated by many researchers. Language and music are connected to each other (Haynor & Stone, n.d.). Language is universal, so is music. •People communicate through music.•Music is related to “culture, vocabulary, listening and grammar” (Ataee & Abdolmanafi-Rokni, 2014, p.491).•Vocabulary “is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together” (Zoghi & Mirzaei, 2014, p.31). •Students of English Language are exposed to little or no spoken language contexts, compared to native speakers of English. This leads the need of the use of authentic materials (Deng, 2010).

• Krishnasamy and Nayan (2015) found out that one of the two most useful learning vocabulary strategies is listening to songs. • Listening is an active process. • In the traditional methods of teaching teachers focused more on grammar.• Exposure to listening input inside and outside the classes. • The research literature says that educators should integrate technology in

language teaching. • It is much simpler to listen to a song or watch a video rather than reading

a text. • From a video clip, students are engaged in some areas of intelligence

(MI).• Regarding the theory of multiple intelligences, the application of it in the

educational system in Albania is of course difficult and may take time.

• Watching a video clip attracts students’ attention and motivates them more than just

reading; it is interesting. •People in general will remember:

“10% of what they read; 20% of what they hear; 30% of what they see; 50% of what they hear and see” (Wiman and Mierhenry, cited in Cruse, 1969, p.5). • Researchers, such as Muniandy and Veloo (2011) and Denning (n.d.) show the

positive and negative impacts of the videos. • Characteristics and advantages of videos

• Videos allow students to experience a certain situation as real as possible• Videos allow students to ‘go and come’ to different places and times• a video works on several skills

Skinner stated that learning happens only when new behavior is acquired or certain conditions are met (cited in Faryadi, 2007).

Madrid et al. (1992) found that music helps students keep in touch with the Foreign Language community more than any other means does.

• For both listening to music and watching a music video, there are before, while and after activities whose information was provided by Harmer (2013), Hattingh (2014) and Denning (n.d.). •In conclusion, as treated through the literature review, learning and teaching English as a second language, is a challenge. Methods and techniques can be used to facilitate this process, especially the learning and teaching of vocabulary from means of authentic materials such as music video clips. There is a need to increase this research knowledge in Albania as it has not received much attention. •Generally English vocabulary is encountered in the written form, more attention must be paid to listening skill and vocabulary.

• All in all students by themselves and with the help of the teachers should be exposed to audio and visual materials, inside and outside the classrooms.

Methodology •This project is analyzed through qualitative and quantitative research (mixed method) in order to show the situation here in Albania•Participants • forty-eight 6th grade students, aged 11-12• two groups, 24 students per class• the musical-mode group (the experimental group, exposed to the treatment of

using English music video clip )• the non-musical-mode group (the control group, experienced text-based method )

• Instruments and materials- Survey questionnaire (to select the music video clip regarding the students’ musical interest. )

1. Do you listen English music at home? In the classroom?• • 2. Have you ever learned English using music? If so, write a few words that you learned through listening to an English song. • • • 3. Make a list of your top 5 favourite singers or groups.          • 4. Make a list of your top 5 favourite songs.        

- Music video clip• “Sorry” of Justin Bieber and “Work” of Rihanna(the most preferred songs and

singers)• “Boyfriend” of Justin Bieber (chosen) - Tests • Vocabulary tests• a multiple choice (listening) cloze activity (both groups were given sheets of

paper of the lyrics) • sheets of paper with four sections (“Musical Words” for the musical group)• after activity test (for both groups, T/F questions and other open-ended

questions )• Post-test 1. Write down as many new words as you can remember that you learned from

the song “Boyfriend”.2. Use 5 of these words in your review of the song.

Procedure (three stages)• The 1st stage• The survey questionnaire ( 15 minutes)

• The 2nd stage• The experimental group (45 minutes)• pre-listening activity (brainstormed the title of the song +six key content

words from the song)• while-listening activity (the song was played, its duration 03:30 mins +

Musical Words + a multiple choice listening cloze activity with the lyrics handout, 10 words to choose from )• after-listening activity (4 T/F questions and 4 other open ended questions)

• The non-musical-mode group (40 minutes)• Pre activity (brainstormed the title of the song +six key content words from

the song)• While activity (the lyrics was read, + 5 Rhyming Words + a multiple choice

listening cloze activity with the lyrics handout, 10 words to choose from + 3 words 3 sentences )• After activity (2 T/F questions and 2 other open ended questions)

• The 3rd stage (30 minutes)• Post-test (the same for both groups)1. Write down as many new words as you can remember that you learned from

the song “Boyfriend”.2. Use 5 of these words in your review of the song.

Findings Question Listen to

music at home

Listen to music in class

Have learned words through English songs

Have not learned

Do not remember the words

Remember 1-2 words

Remember more than two words

#participants

46 6 40 8 3 6 31

# participants

95.8 % 12.5 % 83.3 % 16.7 % 6.25 % 12.5 % 64.58 %

Table 1. Results from first and second question of the questionnaire (N=48)

00:39-01:08 01:08-01:29 01:30-01:58 02:20-02:400

2

4

6

8

10

12

# of words and lines written per each section of the video clip

# of words and lines written per each section of the video clip

Chart 1. Number of words and lines written per each section of the video clip.

Correct answers

6 7 8 9 10

Nr.of students 3 4 5 9 3

Table.4 Results for the multiple choice listening cloze activity for the musical-mode groupSo only 9 students out of 24 could choose 9 correct words, while only 3 could hear all the correct words. From results, the majority of students, had difficulty in choosing between ‘chance-dance’ and ‘light-fight’.

Correct answers 7 8 9 10

Nr. Of students 2 5 6 11

Table.5 Results for the multiple choice listening cloze activity for the non-musical-mode group So 11 students out of 24 could choose all the correct words. This result is satisfactory as no one chose below 7 correct answers. From results, the majority of students, had difficulty to choose between ‘weak-week’ and ‘chillin’-fillin’’

Post-test results

• Chart.3 Words and lines remembered by the students of the non-musical-mode group after the treatment.

• Chart.2 Words and lines remembered by the students of the musical-mode group after the treatment.

gentl

eman

boyfr

iend

spin

chilli

ngsw

ag sad

girlfri

end

neve

r let y

ou go

neve

r

If I w

as yo

ur bo

yfrien

dda

nce

every

thing

you w

ant

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2421 20 20 19

1614 13 12

31 1

boyfr

iendmon

ey

blow/in

g fire

girlfri

end

gentl

eman

anyth

ing

my arm

hand

s

becau

seda

nce

swag lov

ene

ver

alone

every

thing tal

k go0

5

10

15

20

25

21 21

15

12 11 10 9

6 5 4 4 3 2 2 2 1 1 1

•Sample result from the post-test from one of the students of the musical mode group.

•Sample result from the post-test from one of the students of the non-musical mode group.

Analysis of Results •Considering results from the second stage, for the multiple choice listening cloze activity, the non-musical-mode group performed better than the students of the other group. There was a significant difference for the correctness of word perceptions when spoken and read and when just sung. •In the second stage again, the musical-mode group performed well in the activity ‘musical words’ but the non-musical-mode group did not do well in the task of writing three sentences with new words from the lyrics and in the task ‘rhyming words’. •For the last activity of this stage, T/F and open-ended questions, both groups did well. In the question “Does it seem like a happy or sad song?” the majority of students of the non-musical-mode group said it was a sad song while for the majority of the students from the musical-mode group it seemed a happy one. This was the main difference between two groups for this last task, showing how visual presentation may effect one’s perceptions and conclusions•On average, the experimental group performed better in these activities, by giving more positive outcomes, than the other group, but the difference in achievement was slight.

•Comparing both groups for their outcome in the post-test, the non-musical group’s vocabulary after the treatment was diverse, in number of vocabulary items (18 in total), but there were written fewer words by each student compared to the musical-mode group. The vocabulary items written by the musical-mode students were not that diverse but they remembered long lines and on average remembered more words than the students of the non-experimental group. •The new vocabulary items remembered by students of both groups were different compared to one another, except some of the basic words. Students of both groups wrote with grammatical mistakes or misspelled, but this is another issue to be treated by other researchers. •Both groups tried to learn new vocabulary items.

Discussion of Results• Both the music video clip and the text lyrics, are authentic materials, effect students’

vocabulary enrichment, giving in this way answer to the first research question. The language presented in classes of both groups was authentic, and as a result closer to the real-life situations (Widdowson as cited in Berardo, 2006).

• In answer to the second research question, the students who were exposed to the music video clip, express higher vocabulary retention than the students who are exposed only to the printed lyrics. The new vocabulary learned and acquired items are words that have to do with what is presented in the video clip or related by the plot, while the vocabulary items of the students who are exposed to printed lyrics are words explained during the discussions about lyrics or words fixed randomly during the read of the lyrics.

• The post-test was administered to test the hypothesis. The musical-mode group showed higher vocabulary retention than the non-musical-mode group, with significant difference. The results support the hypothesis. Specifically, the subjects who were exposed to the music video clip obtained higher posttest results on vocabulary learning and language usage one week following the treatment.

Limitations and Areas for Further Research•The foreign language for the experimental group was presented sung in the video clip. So one reason that the unfamiliar vocabulary items might have been difficult to be listened to and understood, is because the language when is spoken or sung sounds fast and makes the words “seem to run together in a rapid-fire stream” ( Haynor & Stone, p.325). That is why more practice should be done with students with such audiovisual materials. •One thing that should have been emphasized more in this study is to have done the treatment with more than three stages for higher results in both groups. Furthermore, learning new vocabulary items requires a lot of time as relying on the first language might require time, too. Again more practice should have done with both groups.•Grammatical and spelling mistakes were noticed on the part of students. Also as listening is related to grammar as well, I suggest further research on audiovisual authentic materials related to grammar teaching and learning. Also another area for further research would be to see if students will use the new vocabulary learned in other contexts besides the classroom.•The results of this study are important, as they show that students in Albania are not taught by audio visual authentic materials. But when they are exposed to them, these materials influence the improvement of their learning and especially the learning of the vocabulary. The learner needs to hear and understand authentic spoken language. Changes in curricula and teaching techniques, by using such materials, must be undertaken to improve students’ learning.