The Effectiveness of Using Songs to Teach Pronunciation in Libyan Secondary Schools

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The effectiveness of using songs to teach pronunciation in Libyan secondary school English as a foreign language classroom

Chapter 1

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In the most ways than not, the teaching of English is always a polemic. In a way, emphasis is put on accuracy (rules) than fluency (smoothness of speech) and vice versa. However, to possess a full command of the language, one has to be proficient in both areas (Watkins, 2005, p. 83,84), even though it is not an easy task. This means, communication is as important as grammar. One of the most important aspects of the language is pronunciation. However, pronunciation teaching is a crucial factor to be considered even though it is difficult. Different methods are used to teach pronunciation. One of these methods is songs.

As to intelligible, pronunciation is important. Some areas that need to be considered are sounds, stress, length of vowels and intonation. A slight difference in these areas can change the intended meaning of the speaker. According to Kelly (2000, p11), a speaker who ''consistently mispronounces a range of phonemes'' can be hardly understood by his or her listener.For example, / ˈðei / as in they and /dei/ as in a day are easily mispronounced especially by L2 learners which leads to distortion of meaning.Other than that, the speaker's pronunciation error may inhibit successful communication (Ebong, Sabbadini, 2006; Kelly, 2000).Hence ,incorrect pronunciation may strain communication which leads to frustration to the speaker and the listener .Consequently ,the speaker refuses to repeat the message too many times and the listener might get intimidated for not being able to process what is being said. Perhaps, this is the reason second language (henceforth ...

... middle of paper ...

... function (Harvey, 2004). Meanwhile, Fraser (1994, p.104) defined "effectiveness" as a measure of the match between stated goals and their achievement. It is always possible to achieve 'easy', low-standard goals. In other words, quality in higher education cannot only be a question of achievements 'outputs' but must also involve judgements about the goals (part of 'inputl')

Songs: As defined by the free dictionary.com, songs are a piece of musical work that is composed with words for the voice. In other words, songs can also be interpreted as a brief composition, written or adapted for singing .

Pronunciation: Kelly defined this term as the sounds of language that may occur in isolation or as part of a loner stream of sounds. Kelly also added that listeners can detect patterns in the way sounds are organized and also the meanings they carry (2000, p. 49(

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