Non-native English teachers’ views on the use of music and songs in teaching English as a foreign language to primary school learners

Abstract

Teaching English to children through music has gained considerable attention. The use of songs in the English language classroom has become a subject that has increasingly drawn more interests. This is because songs have many values of language. Songs could be particularly effective for supporting foreign language teaching. Implementing educational songs in teaching English to young learners can develop students’ pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. This study illustrates the situation of teaching English through songs in the time of Covid-19 pandemic in primary schools of Kosovo. The aim of this article is to examine current English teachers’ views and perspectives towards the use of music and songs in the language classroom. The instrument used to obtain data is an interview for primary school teachers who teach English in different cities of Kosovo. Five teachers were interviewed to better understand their thoughts towards music utilization into their language classrooms. Questions were mainly designed to elicit attitudes of participants related to the research questions. The results of the study indicate that English teachers have positive attitudes toward the use of music in language teaching and view songs as a significant didactic tool that should be employed in EFL classes. Regarding the utilization of music and songs in the context of Covid 19 pandemic, teachers did not face any difficulties during online learning, on the contrary the music activities kept the enthusiasm alive and made learning interesting and fun. However, during face-to-face learning, the pandemic has affected the employment of songs in the English language classes as the students have to use hand sanitizers all the time and wear masks while singing songs. Teachers have also restricted the movement and group work which might have sought the touching of hands with one another and so on.