Using Music: An Effective Medium of Teaching Vocabulary in ESL Classroom (Published)
Music can be used in ESL classroom to create a learning environment. It can be used in teaching second language acquisition as an effective vehicle for the rich literary content that lyrics hold. Music can be applied as a powerful instrument to help second language learners to acquire vocabulary. Learners of second language always perceive vocabulary acquisition as boring task. As listening to music and singing songs are enjoyable to students, it can be used effectively to acquire vocabulary in second language. This paper reports a study to find out how music accelerates vocabulary acquisition as the learners stay relaxed and thus learning becomes more enjoyable. To conduct the study, the researcher formed two groups namely Music and Non Music group. Data were collected through class observation, test, questionnaires and interview. The finding shows that music group performed well in acquiring and remembering vocabulary than non-music group. They also enjoyed vocabulary learning activities based on listening songs.
Keywords: ESL Classroom, Effective Instrument, Music, Relax Environment, Vocabulary learning
THE EFFECT OF PROVERBS ON LEARNING VOCABULARY THROUGH VISUAL ORGANIZERS (Published)
The acquisition of vocabulary items constitutes a major bulk of second language learning. The studies investigating the most appropriate method of presenting and teaching vocabulary have proliferated in recent years. However, the effect of proverbs on the acquisition of lexical items has not been explored yet. This investigation attempted to explore the influence of learning vocabulary through proverbs and to find out whether proverbs can be used to improve vocabulary learning through time. In addition, the study explored to what extent the visual organizers and picture cues can facilitate the learning of lexical items and their retention. To this end, 90 pre-intermediate EFL learners were assigned to two experimental and one control groups. The first experimental group was instructed through proverb whereas the second experimental group was instructed via proverbs accompanied by pictures in five different sessions. Results indicated that the proverb plus picture and the proverb group outperformed the control group in the immediate perception and production tasks. Additionally, the proverb plus picture had the highest gain of word and retention in the delayed tasks. The study reveals the effectiveness and higher rate of retention of learning lexical items through proverbs especially via pictures compared to the traditional method
Keywords: Picture, Proverb, Retention, Vocabulary learning