日本大学歯学部紀要 41，29‑35，2013

Using Music in the University EFL Classroom
Daisuke Akagi
Abstract
The field ofTeaching English as a Second or Other Language(TESOL)has spawned a vastarray of educational methods as well as textbooks that are based upon them.One approachthat holds particular promise is that of involving music in the process ofteaching EFL classes
with children, adolescents and adults. This paper takes a closer look at this idea, first by
focusing on the so‑called “musical”aspects ofthe English language.Second,it discusses someof the advantages of using music to teach English,especially for university students includingadults. Finally, specific ideas for classroom activities are described and evaluated.
Key words: EFL, music, university, classroom activities, prosody

１. Introduction
The relationship between music and language has been a topic of discussion among teachers,linguists and philosophers for centuries. In recent years it has also become a topic of interestin the scientific community.Of particular interest to EFL teachers is the notion that experience
with music could somehow assist or support what they are trying to accomplish in theclassroom.This paper is written with the idea that one common element of language and music―rhythm―deserves much closer scrutiny in this regards. Special attention has been given to
the rhythmic systems of English and Japanese.

２. Musical elements of the English language
2.1. Stress accent vs. pitch accent
In comparison with the Japanese language, English needs a beat. This observation is basedon the fact that English employs stress for its sense of temporal organization,whereas Japaneseemploys pitch.And because of the basic differences between speaking a stress‑timed language
and a pitch‑timed language, Japanese EFL learners have tendency to be unaware of thecharacteristic rhythmic patterns of natural English speech. English prosody requires that themore important syllables of a word as well as the more important words of a sentence be
stressed and delivered in a slightly louder voice. When combined with the varied intonation
patterns of English, the result is a constantly shifting soundscape that has much in common
with music (Kubozono & M izokoshi, 2000, p.97).
By way of contrast, the Japanese language tends to maintain a fairly equal sense of length
日本大学歯学部

英語

Nihon University School of Dentistry (English)
1‑8‑13 Kanda‑Surugadai, Chiyoda‑ku, Tokyo 101‑8310, Japan〒 101‑8310 東京都千代田区神田駿河台１‑８‑13(受理：2013年 10月９日）

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日本大学歯学部紀要 41，29‑35，2013

and volume for each mora,and their relative importance is marked by pitch rather than stress.
M oreover, the structure of each mora is quite different than English syllables in that they
consist either of a single vowel (V),two vowels (VV)or a consonant and vowel pair (CV).This
creates a strong sense of two beats in repetition (Kubozono & Mizokoshi, 2000, p.40). The
options for English syllables are much more varied with multiple consonants before and aftera vowel all being possible.
2.2. Rhythm
The flexible aspect of rhythm in a stress‑timed language such as English results in there
being a basic background pulse created by the stressed syllables of the content words.As moresyllables are added,the background pulse stays the same while individual words and syllables
accelerate in order to catch up with the main beat. This can be a very difficult concept forJapanese EFL learners to understand as well as a difficult skill for them to master. A recent
study by Tierny& Kraus (2013)has shown that there is a strong correlation between a personʼsrhythmic sense for music and the efficiency with which his/her brain processes the sounds oflanguage.Theyalso suggest that participating in musical activities that emphasize rhythm may
improve reading skills.
One way to overcome these difficulties is through music since the melody of English songs
relies on the stress of a musical downbeat, the first beat of each bar. According to Kubozono& M izokoshi(2000,p.118)the downbeat of each bar of an English song receives what are known
as content words,the nouns and verbs and other important words that carry the main meaningof the lyrics. The weaker beats of each measure contain the function words such as articles,
prepositions, conjunctions and similar parts of speech.

３. Effectiveness of music for teaching university EFL classes
3.1. Rationale
A major difference between song lyrics and other types of translations is that melody andrhythm are involved. At first this might not seem like such a difficult task, however songmelodies and their rhythms are known to contain a trace of the language of the original text
and even the first language of the composer (Patel,2008,p.78).This means that even though thelyrics are translated,the melody keeps some prosodic features of the original language.In thissection, some prosodic differences between Japanese and English are discussed in terms oflyrics translation and the use of songs in more that one language for EFL study.
3.2. Memorable input
Today many people listen to music while commuting.Some like to listen to western pops inEnglish, and the melody and rhythm can help them to memorize the words and experience
English prosody firsthand. If they happen to especially like the song they may also findthemselves singing a phrase or two on the street or in the shower. Frequent listening andrepetition is a good way to rehearse English prosody,and songs make the process of repetition30

M usic in the EFL Classroom

pleasurable. Further research needs to be done to determine whether listening to music does
indeed improve prosodic competency.
3.3. Affective filter
It is interesting to note that, while Japanese people are very enthusiastic about singing
karaoke, this enthusiasm does not carry over into English language education. Krashenʼsconcept of affective filter is very important to the understanding of this phenomenon, andperhaps finding a way to remedy it (Krashen, 1985, p.44). As language learning can be very
stressful and make students nervous about getting the right answers on difficult entrance
examinations, singing songs in EFL classes can be a way of lowering the affective filter anddissolve whatever may be standing in the way of students getting the most out of the learning
experience.
3.4. Motherese: infant‑directed language
The phenomenon of infant‑directed language or “motherese”has been documented in manydifferent countries and cultures around the world (Kuhl,2000).The basic concept at work hereis that caregivers who have no specialized training in the theory of language acquisition quite
naturally exaggerate the prosodic features (especially pitch and rhythm) of their native language as a way of making it more attractive and effective as children are in the process oflanguage learning.In a way,speaking motherese is like singing.Kuhl has proposed that hearing
songs in a second language might have a parallel effect for adult second language learners.

４. Application of these ideas to the classroom
4.1. Singing vs. listening
The main obstacle to implementing music‑based EFL activities with university students thatinvolve singing is quite simply getting them to sing. Numerous writers over the years havesupported the common wisdom that, while getting children to sing in English class is a cinch,
from adolescence on,young people are reluctant to sing in public and prefer simply to listen tosongs in class rather than sing along (Jordan & MacKayas cited in Murphey,1990,p.190).While
this shyness may largely be due to peer group psychology, it is also a part of the larger issueof Japanese English education system having centered on the translation method for so long.
Students are accustomed to having a silent relationship with printed texts rather than readingthem aloud,and they likely transfer this preference to the situation of songs and their lyrics aswell.
4.2. Solution
Although the full benefit of song‑based EFL activities comes from listening and singing,there
are some things that can be done to ameliorate the situation.One is to create listening activities(e.g.cloze,choose words heard from a list,dictation,etc.)that are done while listening to a songin class. After the correct text has been established the students can then be asked to say thewords in the rhythm of the song, perhaps at a slower tempo at first, then along with the31日本大学歯学部紀要 41，29‑35，2013

recording. This method retains many of the benefits of singing but circumvents the non‑participation problem that arises from students being unwilling to sing in front of their peers.
Basing their work on Chafeʼs (1988)concept of covert prosody,Downing,Ina & Noonan (1992)
have suggested that oral reading of texts is an essential part of developing greater linguistic
proficiency.Covert prosody,the aural image of how a spoken text “sounds”to our “mindʼ
s ear”
as we read silently. Although actually singing a song would be ideal, reciting the lyrics aloudas a group and then individually can still have many of the same benefits as long as rhythm,
stress and intonation matters are kept as high priorities.
4.3. Materials
Browsing the catalog of most EFL/ESL textbook publishers will yield one or more examples
of books that touch on the topic of music in some form or another. In terms of a guide forteachers who want to incorporate songs into the university EFL classroom the best resource
remains the Oxford Resource Book for Teachers Music and Song (Murphey, 1992). Based onthe authorʼ
s doctoral research and extensive classroom experience, the book provides both asurvey of the theoretical and practical aspects of how music can be integrated into manydifferent classroom settings and for various educational goals.
4.4. Song types
Of particular interest is M urpheyʼs list of the main types of songs that are most useful for thepurposes of teaching EFL classes (p.152). They are as follows: (1) made‑for‑EFL songs, (2)Traditional and folk songs, (3) Contemporary songs and (4) Student selected material. The
following comments put each of these categories in context.
4.4.1. Made‑for‑EFL
The best point about songs that are especially written for EFL use is that they usually havea particular teaching point in terms of vocabulary, grammar or the like. The downside canoften be in the quality of the music as well as the musical idioms employed since they areusually written by teachers rather than by professional musicians. The most successful songsof this are usually ones intended for classes with children.
4.4.2. Jazz chants
A parallel type of material in this category is that of the jazz chant,“a rhythmic expressionof spoken American English”(Graham,n.d.).As with the suggestion above to read lyrics aloud,the process of learning, memorizing and reciting jazz chants has many of the advantages ofsinging songs even though they lack melodies.One good point about using this approach is thatteachers can easilylearn to create their own original jazz chants that reinforce certain teaching
points of ongoing lessons,and also work in topics of current interest to students at a given timeand in a certain place.
4.4.3. Folksongs, traditional songs
M oving on to the topic of pre‑existing folksongs and other traditional songs, this type ofmaterial requires considerable preparation on the part of the teacher. While some folksongs
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from English speaking countries are famous around the world, others are not. Moreover, thetopics, obsolete vocabulary and obscure regional references can take considerable time toexplain to the students.While this can offer some good teaching points in terms of cultural andhistorical matters, it can also be very time‑consuming. On the positive side, the tunes andrhythms are often attractive and easy to learn and encourage group singing.
4.4.4. Contemporary songs
The use of classic rock ʻnʼroll and pop songs by groups from the 60s,70s,and so forth suchas the Beatles,the Carpenters,the Bee Gees,Simon & Garfunkel have a long history of use in
the EFL classroom. The good news is that the melodies and words are often well known tostudents of all ages because so many of the songs are used in TV commercials and department
store background music. M oreover, as they are included in the songs available on mostJapanese karaoke machines, students can then experience singing them when they go tokaraoke. Beyond singing, reciting, and other activities, the lyrics can also be used as starting
points for writing assignments or presentations.This type of song can also have some overlap
with the next category by doing a class survey of rock, pop and other types of singers andgroups from English speaking countries with which the students are familiar.
4.4.5. Student‑selected songs
The final category of student‑selected songs has the advantage of higher motivation byasking the students to contribute songs that they would particularly like to study. The mostdifficult part of this approach is what to do when the songs the students contribute are rife withobscenities,portrayals of violence,racism,etc.In that case perhaps it is best simply to view it
as an opportunity to teach such aspects of contemporary culture as the boundaries of free
expression and censorship.
4.5. Example of a prosody‑based learning activity
This idea is based on the task of discovering which words fall on the downbeat of a song.A
good example for this activity is to use the song “The Rose”sung by Bette Midler (see Fig.1).
The first step is to teach the students to conduct a “four‑four”pattern so they can get aphysical sense of upbeat and downbeat. Next, they are asked to conduct as the recording isplayed and to discover which words fall on the downbeats of the melody. They should noticethat the same words are repeated every four bars (e.g. Group 1 “love”) to understand theGroup 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

love

し（さを）

river流すdrowns

愛reed

川love

し（いを）

razor

裂くleaves

愛bleedナイフlove（とめ）どない

hunger（渇）きがend‑less

愛need

けれど

love

は花

flower花

you（きみ）はseed

種子

Fig.1 The song “The Rose”

33日本大学歯学部紀要 41，29‑35，2013

Fig.2 English & Japanese lyrics compared with the same melodyrhyming patterns. The last step would be for them to indicate whether the words should beclassed as “content”or “function”. Since the words that fall on the downbeat often contain
important keywords, this activity can help them guess the story behind the lyrics.
A good spinoff activity would be to follow the same steps with the Japanese cover versionof this song and to note how the concepts of content/function words,stress,rhyme and so forth
are not present in this version of the lyrics. Another aspect of prosody to focus on is how theJapanese translation requires extra notes (rhythms)to be added to the melody to accommodate
the extra words (see Fig.2).
Finally,a replacement exercise could involve taking a song and extracting one characteristicphrase of the melody. The next step is to ask the students to replace the existing lyrics withwords of their own. For example, the phrase “Some say love”can be replaced with other one‑syllable words, or they can try to fit in two‑ and three‑syllable words to see how the words
need to fall according to the accent rules.The various new snippets of text would next be sungto the original melody and then evaluated and discussed by the class for how well they fit therhythm, stress and melodic shape.

５. Conclusion
This paper has dealt in short order with a vast topic,that of using employing music as a tool
for teaching English as a foreign language.Special emphasis was placed on the role of rhythmin language and how English and Japanese differ with this regard. In addition, it has beensuggested that the study of songs that have been performed in both English and Japaneseversions holds some special clues to helping students experience and understand these differences.
Works citedChafe,W.(1988).Punctuation and the Prosody of Written Language. Written Communication,5(4),395‑426.
Downing, P.A., Lima, S.D., & Noonan, M . (1992). The Linguistics of Literacy. Amesterdam : John
Benjamins Publishing.
Graham, C. (n.d.). Jazz Chants. Retrieved September 27, 2013, from http://jazzchants.net/what‑is‑a‑jazz‑chant34

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Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypotheses : Issues and implications. New York : Longman.
Kubozono,H.,& M izokoshi,A.(2000).Eigo no hatsuon to eishi no inritsu［English poronunciation andprosody of English poems］(5th ed.). Tokyo : Eichosha.
Kuhl, P.K. (2000). A new view of language acquisition. Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences, 97(22), 11850‑11857. doi:10.1073/pnas.97.22.11850
Murphey,T.(1990).Song and music in language learning : An analysis of pop song lyrics and the useof song and music in teaching English to speakers of other languages. Bern, Switzerland : PeterLang.
Murphey, T. (1992). Music and Song. Oxford : OUP.
Patel, A. (2008). Music, language, and the brain. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
Tierney,A.,& Kraus,N.(2013).The Ability to Move to a Beat Is Linked to the Consistency of Neural
Responses to Sound. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33(38), 14981‑14988.

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