Use of Action Songs and Total Physical Response to Promote the Development of Listening Skills among Year 4, Low Enrolment-Tamil Vernacular Primary School Students in Malaysia

Abstract

Total Physical Response (TPR) is built around the coordination of speech and actions. Action songs promote dance or acts while singing. In this study, we look at action songs as part of TPR to investigate its effectiveness in enhancing students’ listening skills to develop their mastery of the English Language. Seven Year 4 students from a Low Enrolment (SKM) Tamil Vernacular Primary school type (SJKT) were selected as the participants of a within-group experimental design. Upon completing a pre-test on listening skill, students were given six treatment lessons, whereby one hour per lesson was allocated. The treatment was conducted once a week, for every listening lesson. The data was collected while and after the pupils were taught through a series of lessons or interventions that incorporated songs and TPR to complete a variety of listening tasks. The finding shows that even though action songs and TPR are not commonly used among English Language teachers, teachers should implement the method especially for students from Low Enrolment Vernacular Primary School Type as the students in this study showed a significant increase in their post intervention scores of the listening test. The findings also discusses SJKT English Language teachers perceptions on the use of songs and TPR and suggests that there is still a lack of understanding among the teachers on the potential benefits of action songs and TPR for their particular students who have high levels of anxiety and inhibitions to learning English.

Perceived Functions of Playfulness in Adult English as a Foreign Language Learners: An Exploratory Study

“…Movies and music (providing audio- and visual authentic input) were also considered as a source of enhancing other language skills such as listening, speaking, grammar and pronunciation (reported in the mastery orientation category of playfulness in the results section). This is in line with different studies that also confirmed the effective role of movies and music in enhancing listening skill (e.g., Qiu and Huang, 2012 ; Kumar and Sandaran, 2018 ) and speaking acquisition (e.g., Porcel, 2010 ), grammar (e.g., Mushtaq and Zehra, 2016 ) and pronunciation mastery.…”

Jazz Chants to Motivate Language Learning among Sarawakian Primary Pupils Towards Positive School Climate: An Inquiry on Teachers’ Perspectives

“…Utilising songs in the language classrooms can motivate passive pupils to become active listeners and participants thus improving their lack of motivation to learn English. This is echoed by Kumar and Sandaran (2018) who identified the potential of employing songs in language classrooms that makes learning fun and meaningful, especially in teaching listening skills. Furthermore, studies have showcased that music enables primary pupils to gain positive impacts, thus reiterating its advantageous point in enhancing literacy development (e.g.…”

Perceptions of ESL Teachers from Tamil Vernacular Type Schools (SJKT) About Online Teaching and Learning During Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Since Malay is the main medium of instruction in National Schools, English is taught as a second language. As for the vernacular schools where mother tongue such as Mandarin or Tamil is the medium of instruction, Malay is taught as a second language whereas English is taught as a third language (Kumaran & Krish, 2021;Kumar & Sandaran, 2018). Learning English as a third language is one of the reasons for vernacular school students' poor English language proficiency and they perceive it as a difficult subject (Maniam, 2010).…”

“…Students from Tamil vernacular schools thus, have less exposure to the English language which may hinder their acquisition of the English language. As stated by Kumar & Sandaran (2018), using the first language which is Tamil is prohibited among teachers and students during English lessons, and students struggle to understand the teachers' instructions, which are solely in English language. Since code-switching is not allowed in the classroom, some students have apprehensions about learning the English Language (Kumar & Sandaran, 2018).…”

“…As stated by Kumar & Sandaran (2018), using the first language which is Tamil is prohibited among teachers and students during English lessons, and students struggle to understand the teachers' instructions, which are solely in English language. Since code-switching is not allowed in the classroom, some students have apprehensions about learning the English Language (Kumar & Sandaran, 2018). Apart from that, most Tamil vernacular schools lack adequate infrastructure and learning facilities, particularly those required for ICT learning while the teachers are under-trained and only accessible temporarily (Raja, n.d.).…”