Using the melody and rhythm of music to teach english sentence types m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DUY DUC LE USING THE MELODY AND RHYTHM OF MUSIC TO TEACH ENGLISH SENTENCE TYPES SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL SUPERVIOR SIDSEL MILLERSTROM, Ph D HO CHI MINH CITY, APRIL 2009 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DUY DUC LE USING THE MELODY AND RHYTHM OF MUSIC TO TEACH ENGLISH SENTENCE TYPES SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL SUPERVIOR SIDSEL MILLERSTROM, Ph D HO CHI MINH CITY, APRIL 2009 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: USING THE MELODY AND RHYTHM OF MUSIC TO TEACH ENGLISH SENTENCE TYPES In terms of statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programmed issued by Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, April 2009 DUY DUC LE I RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, DUY DUC LE, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, April 2009 DUY DUC LE II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Madam Sidsel Millerstrom, Ph.D who read my manuscript with great care, detailed and sensible guidance and encouragement, gave thoughtful and insightful comments, and provided valuable support in the preparation and completion of the thesis I would like to express special thanks to Tuan Hoang Nguyen, Ph D for his kind introduction to Madam Sidsel Millerstrom, Ph.D I am also grateful to thanks to Mr Dung Minh Nguyen, a Bachelor of music, who helps me with the melody and rhythm of music to make English songs My special thanks go to the teachers and the students of Binh Dinh College who were very responsive to the survey questionnaires In addition, Mr Tuan Minh Tran, my colleague, was particularly of great help in my experiment of the thesis and I am indebted to my colleagues and friends who give me valuable advice and assistance in developing the study Finally, I am greatly indebted to Minh Duc Le and Sau Thi Vo, my parents who, as always, have been whole heartedly supportive For the months of writing the thesis, Dad and Mum have taken care of everything so that their son could devote all his time to the writing of the thesis III ABSTRACT In this thesis I investigate the effectiveness of using music in teaching English sentence types to the students of the English majored class of Binh Dinh College Especially, I will offer some solutions in teaching grammar with music In order to find out the answer to the effectiveness of teaching English sentence types through music, a two week-experiment was implemented in two classes of English major at Binh Dinh Teacher’s Training College After the experiment, the test’s scores were compared to regular classes to prove the effectiveness of using music in teaching English Beside the experiment, questionnaires and interviews were also carried out to the teachers and students of different colleges and universities The data collection and analysis from the questionnaires and interviews were the answer of students’ involvement and the possibility of using music to teach English at the English major class at the college From the findings, educational implications and recommendations were pointed out and further research was suggested with the hope that more English grammar should be composed to become songs that can help students to become motivated and aid in memorization IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality I Retention and use of the thesis II Acknowledgement .III Abstract IV Table of contents V List of tables X List of abbreviations XII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Rationale of the study 1.3 The research questions 1.4 Assumption 1.5 Definitions of terms 1.6 Research methodology .9 1.7 Significance of the study 1.8 Summary 10 1.9 Organization of the remainder of the study 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERRATURE REVIEW 13 2.1 What is music? 13 2.1.1 The definition of music 13 2.1.2 The effects of music 14 V 2.1.3 The function of music 17 2.2 The role and position of music in learning and language teaching 19 2.2.1 Music in learning .19 2.2.2 Music in language teaching 22 2.3 The errors of English sentence types 26 2.3.1 Run on sentences 26 A) What is comma splice? 26 B) What is a fused sentence? .26 C) What cause the problems? 27 D) How to correct the mistakes? 27 2.3.2 Fragments of sentences .28 A) What is a sentence fragment? 28 B) What cause the problems? 29 C) The problems .29 D) How to correct the mistakes? 30 2.3.3 Misplaced modifiers 30 A) What are misplaced modifiers? 30 B) What cause the problems? 31 C) The problems .31 D) How to correct the mistakes? 32 2.3.4 Types of parallel structure .33 A) What are the types of parallel structure? 33 B) What cause the problems? 34 VI C) The problems .34 D) How to correct the mistakes? 35 2.4 The definitions of sentence types from different view points 36 2.4.1 Simple sentence 37 2.4.2 Compound sentence 38 2.4.3 Complex sentence 40 2.4.4 Mixed sentence 42 2.5 Summary 42 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 44 3.1 Research design 44 3.1.1 Population 44 3.1.2 Students .45 3.1.3 Teachers 46 3.1.4 Instruments 46 3.1.4.1 Experiment .46 3.1.4.2 Survey questionnaire 48 3.1.4.3 Questionnaires to students 49 3.1.4.4 Questionnaires to teachers .50 3.1.4.5 Interview 51 3.2 Data analysis 52 3.3 Summary 53 CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSTION 54 4.1 Result from the experimental teaching 54 VII 4.1.1 Pre- experiment .54 4.1.2 The differences in the post-test versus 58 4.2 Questionnaire results 61 4.2.1 Questionnaire analysis with the students 61 4.2.1.1 Questionnaire filler’s background 61 4.2.1.2 Students’ writing mistakes 62 4.2.1.3 The importance of the English sentence types to the students .62 4.2.1.4 The importance of music to the students 63 4.2.1.5 English sentence types with the melody and rhythm of music and their attraction to the students 65 4.2.1.6 The VCD of the English sentence types can become an excellent visual aid for the students 67 4.3 Interview results 68 4.3.1 The benefits of using music to teach English 68 4.3.1.1 Providing a relaxing atmosphere to the students 68 4.3.1.2 The new teaching method and its effect on the class .69 4.3.2 Frequency of using music in the classroom .71 4.3.3 The teachers’ role .74 4.3.4 Problems and solutions 77 4.3.4.1 Problems with high noise level .77 4.3.4.2 Misunderstand the sentence types of the English songs .79 4.3.4.3 Difficulty to sing the songs .80 4.4 Summary 80 VIII Skill of teaching : Writing Level of students : The first year of English majored student (TA3a class) Number of students: 20 Time : 90 minutes (The periods of 3, and 4) Topic : English sentence types (Complex sentence and mixed sentence) Studying aids : Projector, laptop, VCD, and pictures Objective : The students know how to use the English sentence types Phases Duration Activities Setting students’ Teacher’ activities activities Theory Pre- 10 Warming A gap hand The Teacher To build First teaching minutes up out with the students sings the up an preparation two English listen to songs exciting step for the songs will be the songs air in the class sent to the and class students complete the two songs 110 Aim Phases Pre- Duration Activities 20 teaching minutes Setting Students’ Teacher’ activities activities Brain- The two The students storming songs with listen and the discuss to karaoke each will be to find out shown on the right other Aim Theory Teacher goes to help the difficulties for the students The students will be more familiar with the topic First preparation for The class Teacher presents the examples on the screen The students know the rules of using the English sentence types Presentation is a part of activities the screen songs on their hand out 10 minutes While teaching 111 presentation Complex sentence and mixed sentence will be shown on the screen Write down on their notebooks Phases While teaching 112 Duration Activities Setting Students’ Teacher’ activities activities Aim Theory 10 minutes Working in pair, asking, and answering A list of two sentence types about 20 sentences is shown on the screen Pair work The students are in pair and the students show out the sentences that what kind of the sentence types are there Teacher listens to the students and helps the right work The students have more understanding the sentence types Practices and pair works are common in writing 15 minutes Team Role playing The students are divided in After minutes preparation, the groups Teacher listen to the students The students have a change Group work is an important part of a communicative While teaching 15 minutes 113 The whole class to group Each group will be received a paper to build the two English sentence types take turn to present the sentences that they have written and to work class correct together the doing that build up their friendship The VCD of the two songs will be on the screen again Each song will be listened for one time The students look at the screen and sing the songs in chorus Teacher sings the songs with students To help the students about memory Whole class working is a part of activities in a communicative class 114 Phases Duration Activities Post teaching minutes Comment minutes Feedback gathering Setting Each student will be sent a small piece of paper Students’ Teacher’ activities activities Aim The students listen to the teacher comments about their performance Teacher tries to give many good comments as possible The students realize their strengths and weaknesses The students will be told to write a short journal about the class Teacher collects the journal as information The students’ opinions may be useful for the next class Theory Giving comment is a good way to build up the selfesteem Skill of teaching : Writing Level of students : The first year of English majored student (TA3B class) Number of students: 20 Time : 90 minutes (The periods of and 2) Topic : English sentence types (Simple sentence and compound sentence) Studying aids : Projector, laptop, and pictures Objective : The students know how to use the English sentence types Phases Duration Activities Setting Teacher’ activities activities Aim Theory 10 Warming Pictures of The Teacher To build First minutes up famous students asks who up an preparation people talk to look at they are in exciting step for the each the the pictures air in the class pictures and what class other with wrong sentences will and see they are be talking sent to what they the students 115 students’ are about talking and so on Phases Preteaching Duration Activities 10 minutes Setting Students’ Teacher’ activities activities Teacher goes to help the difficulties for the students; then, shows the wrong sentences The students will be more familiar with the topic First preparation for the class Teacher presents the definitions and examples on the screen The students know the rules of using the English sentence types Presentation is a part of activities Brain- Asking the The students storming students in discuss to pairs each other to find out the wrong sentences in the pictures 20 minutes While teaching 116 presentation The definitions and examples of simple sentence, and compound Write down on their notebooks Aim Theory sentence will be shown on the screen Phases While teaching Duration Activities 20 minutes Setting a list of the Asking and two answering sentence types about 20 sentences is shown on the screen Students’ Teacher’ activities activities The students show out the sentences that what kind of the sentence types are there 117 Teacher listens to the students and helps the right work Aim The students have more understanding the sentence types Theory More practices are common in writing While teaching 118 20 minutes Team Role playing The students are divided in to group Each group will be received a paper to build the two English sentence types After minutes preparation, the groups take turn to present the sentences that they have written Teacher listen to the students and correct the doing The students have a change to work together that build up their friendship Group work is an important part of a communicative class 119 Phases Duration Activities Post teaching minutes Comment minutes Feedback gathering Setting Each student will be sent a small piece of paper Students’ Teacher’ activities activities Aim Theory Giving comment is a good way to build up the selfesteem The students listen to the teacher comments about their performance Teacher tries to give many good comments as possible The students realize their strengths and weaknesses The students will be told to write a short journal about the class Teacher collects the journal as information The students’ opinions may be useful for the next class Skill of teaching : Writing Level of students : The first year of English majored student (TA3B class) Number of students: 20 Time : 90 minutes (The periods of and 4) Topic : English sentence types (Complex sentence and mixed sentence) Studying aids : Projector, laptop, and pictures Objective : The students know how to use the English sentence types 120 Teacher’ activities activities Duration Activities Pre 10 Warming Pictures of The Teacher To build First minutes up famous students asks who up an preparation people talk to look at they are in exciting step for the each other the the pictures air in the class with wrong pictures and what class teaching Setting students’ Phases sentences will and see they are be sent to the what they talking students are about talking and so on Aim Theory Phases Preteaching Duration Activities 10 minutes Setting Brain- Asking the storming students in pairs 20 minutes While teaching 121 presentation The definitions and examples of complex sentence, mixed sentence, Students’ Teacher’ activities activities Aim Theory Teacher goes to help discuss to the each other to difficulties find out the for the wrong students; sentences in then, shows the the wrong pictures Sentences The students will be more familiar with the topic First preparation for The class Write down on their notebooks The students know the rules of using the English sentence types Presentation is a part of activities The students Teacher presents the definitions and examples on the screen will be shown on the screen Phases While teaching 122 Duration Activities 20 minutes Setting a list of the Asking and two answering sentence types about 20 sentences is shown on the screen Students’ Teacher’ activities activities The students show out the sentences that what kind of the sentence types are there Teacher listens to the students and helps the right work Aim The students have more understanding the sentence types Theory More practices are common in writing While teaching 123 20 minutes Team role playing The students are divided in to group Each group will be received a paper to build the two English sentence types After minutes preparation, the groups take turn to present the sentences that they have written Teacher listen to the students and correct the doing The students have a change to work together that build up their friendship Group work is an important part of a communicative class Phases 124 Duration Activities minutes Post teaching Comment minutes Feedback gathering Setting Each student will be sent a small piece of paper Students’ Teacher’ activities activities Aim The students listen to the teacher comments about their performance Teacher tries to give many good comments as possible The students realize their strengths and weaknesses The students will be told to write a short journal about the class Teacher collects the journal as information The students’ opinions may be useful for the next class Theory Giving comment is a good way to build up the selfesteem ... foragers in the highland 17 Malaysia Foragers are, as a rule, egalitarian Their musical traditions emphasized balance and complementary between males and females Music is used as a mean of self-expression,... prefer teachers to use the traditional method to teach the English sentence types 5) Teachers find it hard to apply the melody and rhythm of music to teach the sentence types at Binh Dinh Teacher’s... timbre is the tonal quality of the musical sounds 2.1.2 THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC Some people are happy and want to listen to music; whereas, some people are sad and want to listen to music too Musical