Research On Application Of Music In English Education

Music is one of the most ancient arts and ancient people had noticed that music still could be applied in a great many of aspects except as an entertainment to enjoy them. In modern society, application of music has been broadened more widely. In recent decades, as music has been utilized more widely and more intensively in human life, there have been relatively mature study results in some areas, such as music for medical treatment, music for fetus, advertising music, film music, etc. And the function of music in language education is also noticed by more and more people. Music can be applied in language education thanks to its positive impacts on people's physical and psychological actions. And it has been a field where lots of scientists, linguists and educators, domestic and international, are exploring actively. Nowadays, music is employed relatively widely in language education, especially in English education, and some researches have good results in the reality, but there is still some deficiency in these researches:many songs and some background music are widely noticed, while other forms of music are neglected. And music is little applied to help learn linguistic and cultural knowledge. In addition, domestic and international research and practical experience are mainly embodied in English education for children.In recent years, for realizing importance of applying music to English education, some English teachers in secondary school and college make some small-scale short-term experiments in their teaching. And there are some developments in both range and depth of application of music. But music is still hard to find in present domestic English education. There are lots of difficulties in popular application of music in English education for teenagers, both due to the neglect of teachers and students, and the limits of the examination system in China.Lots of theoretical and practical results could be carefully analyzed and re-classified from subjects of musicology, linguistics, physiology, psychology, pedagogy, etc. And they can testify significance of application of music in English education from following four aspects:music can improve mood and inspire interest; music can promote comprehension and enhance memory; music can exploit intelligence; music has close connections with language. Feasibility of application of music in English education can be also testified from the following areas:in accordance with new educational concepts in China; music being teaching background sound, linguistics knowledge materials and cultural background materials; optimistic survey and favorable test results in some colleges; sufficient conditions of material and technique.Moreover, music can be infiltrated into the forms and contents of English teaching in many ways. The process of music applying could be mingled with the process of English education, and help the appraisal goals of teaching complete smoothly and efficiently. And application of music could be extended to teaching cultural background knowledge, on the basis of keeping positive effects of applying music in language knowledge learning and language skills training. Positive effects of music in English education for children also exist in other periods of English education, because music can influence on people in the whole life. So, there are wide applying field and exploiting space in English education of secondary school and college. Therefore, based on example of application of music in college English education and concrete explanation, three main forms of applying music could be generalized as teaching background sound, linguistics knowledge materials and cultural background materials. As a result, application of music in English education could be divided into three aspects, and it could be elaborated by plentiful evidence, observation and analyses, particularly applying forms of music drama, dance drama and symphonic music to exploit the range and depth of it.As teaching background sound, music should has evidence of physiology and psychology; as linguistics knowledge materials and cultural background materials, music should be able to help realize the purpose of English education; music should be selected flexibly according to the ability and interest of students, and corresponding requirement levels should be set; music materials should be combined systematically and could be utilized in different projects and occasions, and music should be employed in long-term. All of these requirements could be generalized into four principles of applying music in English education:scientificity, purposiveness, flexibility and systematicity. They are important to application of music and can enhance the effectiveness of it.Therefore, considering the above analysis and demonstration, three conclusions could be obtained:first, music is important to improve results of English education, and it could be applied in actual daily teaching including college English teaching; second, there are broad spaces of applying music in English education. In addition to English songs and background music, other lots of forms of music such as music drama, dance drama and symphonic music could be exploited; third, the great practical value and theoretical significance of applying music in language education could be certified by above analysis and discussion on significance, feasibility, forms and principles, and by a mass of exploration and practice of predecessors. And the research in this field would be a special one with comprehensive and profound study in the future as other areas of medical treatment, advertising, film & TV, and so on.In short, from the angle of application of music, the dissertation analyzes and certifies the significance and feasibility of applying music in English education, and discusses and summarizes three forms and four principles of applying music in English education. Moreover, the concept of "music for language education" is put forward on the basis of above discussions.