邱靜婷

Many scholars have devoted themselves to research how to inspire students to learn English effectively， especially teenager-aged students in junior and senior high school. As a middle school English teacher， I have a deep interest in learning more about this group of language learner as well. They are teenagers， who are experiencing huge changes psychologically and physiologically， and have been learning English for years. So， they may get tired of being taught with the traditional ‘spoon feeding method， and feel disappointed with memorizing grammar rules and vocabularies like robots. Also， they have acquired the ability of autonomous learning to some extent. All of these require teachers to discover new ways to make their lesson more attractive and effective. Under this situation， I am occasionally inspired of using English songs in my class as materials， and surprisingly it is found to work well.

So， why English songs are believed to make good work l in ESL classrooms？

It could be traced back to the history. In ancient Greek， lyric poems were normally accompanied with string instruments as a kind of art to show in the public. According to Maniago （2010， cited in Abdullah， 2013）， song lyrics present the same written pieces and categories like any other literacy works， which means that songs have a high literary value and are worthy of being studied. According to Palacios and Chapeton （2014）， 11th-grade students aged from 15 to 19 years old at a Public School in Bogotá have an extremely positive response after the application of using songs in their English classes. Students who took part in the experiment in Bogotá were proved to achieve a huge improvement in both learning efficiency and grades.

Also， playing songs can always create a friendly communicating atmosphere.

The free， relaxed and democratic atmosphere has always been regarded as one of the main features of a high effective class. English study is an interactive process of communication which needs both inputting and outputting. Compared with learning in the stressful and teacher-centered classroom， it would be more efficient for young students at New Time to have more chances to free their voices and minds （Palacios and Chapeton， 2014）. In this case， learning in accompany with music seems to be an interesting and motivating way for young people. In this entertaining and relaxed environment， students are active to open their mouths with the cover of melody to reduce their pressure and nervousness of speaking in public.