A Study On The Application Of English Songs To English Vocabulary Teaching In Junior High School

Vocabulary is an important element of English knowledge and serves as the foundation for English language learning.Accordingly,vocabulary plays an incredibly important role in EFL learning.In addition,the English Curriculum Standard for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition)states briefly that junior high school students should learn and use about 1600 words.It is a really big challenge for most students as students in junior high school have some problems in vocabulary learning,such as difficulty in memorizing vocabulary,easy forgetting,and low efficiency.English songs as an important resource for English learning,provide students with authentic,diverse and abundant language materials,and thus are recognized as an effective way to facilitate students’ English vocabulary learning.Therefore,this study attempts to take full advantage of English songs by designing various classroom activities involved English songs to investigate the effects of English songs on junior high school students’ vocabulary memory and vocabulary learning interests.Based on the Multiple Intelligences Theory,Input Hypothesis and Affective Filter Hypothesis,this thesis studies the following three questions:(1)What effects do English songs have on junior high school students’short-term memory of vocabulary?(2)What effects do English songs have on junior high school students’ long-term memory of vocabulary?(3)What effects do English songs have on junior high school students’ interest in English vocabulary learning?This study was carried out in a junior high school in Gansu province.The research participants included in this study were two parallel classes in Grade 7,one of which was randomly assigned as experimental class and the other as control class.And the duration of the experiment was 12 weeks.Before the experiment,the pre-test and pre-questionnaire were administrated to explore the vocabulary proficiency and the vocabulary learning interest of students.During the experiment,the experiment class was taught English vocabulary with English songs while the control class was taught vocabulary with the traditional teaching mode of presentation,practice and production.After that,four immediate post-tests and one delayed post-test are carried out in two classes to explore whether the application of English songs to vocabulary teaching has any effects on junior high school students’ vocabulary memory and retention.After the experiment,the author implements the post-questionnaire to investigate students’ interests about the integration of songs in vocabulary teaching and whether it will change their English vocabulary learning interests after the implementation of the experiment.The results show that:(1)The difference between the experimental class and the control class was not obvious in the four immediate post-tests,which indicates the application of English songs to vocabulary teaching has no evident effect on students’ short-term memory of vocabulary.(2)The delayed post-test score in the experimental class was greatly higher than that of the control class,which indicates that the application of English songs to vocabulary teaching has significant effects on students’ long-term memory of vocabulary.(3)According to the questionnaire results,students in the experimental class show a significant improvement in their English vocabulary learning interest which indicates using English songs to teach vocabulary in junior high school was significant effectively in stimulating students’ interest to learn vocabulary and helping them hold positive attitude towards English vocabulary learning and song teaching method.Therefore,results of this study showed that integrating English songs in teaching vocabulary could indeed contribute to students’ vocabulary memory and retention as well as vocabulary learning interests.However,this study also has shortcomings such as short experimental cycle and small sample,but the author still hopes that this study can provide some information support for junior high school teachers to use English songs in English vocabulary classes.