A Study On The Effect Of Lyrics Dictation In Chinese EFL Classroom

In recent years, whether English songs, the perfect combination of music and English language, can play an essential role in EFL teaching has caught the eye of numerous overseas and domestic English teachers, scholars and linguists, and has aroused their enthusiasm in conducting a great deal of research work concerning the teaching practice:introducing English songs into EFL classrooms and the subsequent effects it may bring. However, a general survey of both overseas and domestic researches in this field indicates an adequate amount of theoretical studies while a severe lack of empirical studies.The present study intends' to explore the teaching practice of introducing English songs into Chinese EFL classrooms, investigating the effect of lyrics dictation, one of its most frequently used forms, on lower-intermediate English learners'listening ability and grammar. 107 private college students in three classes, respectively treated as CG, EG1 and EG2, participated in the present study. The results of the pretest reveal no significant difference between any of the two groups in terms of listening and grammar. During the experimental semester, these three classes were instructed by the same teacher and used the same coursebook. The results of the questionnaire on extraneous variables suggest that these three groups were also homogeneous concerning their English learning outside class. The only difference is that in class EGl received lyrics dictation practice and EG2 received compound dictation practice while no dictation practice was given to CG. The results of the posttest demonstrate that lyrics dictation is an effective teaching tool in helping improve lower-intermediate English learners'listening ability and grammar, especially grammar.