Our objective is to examine how songs are used to teach languages to 1st and 2nd grade pupils in Finland, and how teachers perceive the use of songs in classroom situations.
Our research questions are:
Do teachers use songs in their teaching?
For what purposes are songs used in teachers' lesson descriptions?
What determines teachers' use (or non-use) of song in their language lessons with young learners?
The theoretical background of our study lies in foreign language didactics and early primary education. Early teaching of foreign languages (ETFL) as a nationwide obligatory subject being a new phenomenon in Finland, our research will provide knowledge on a topic that has so far not been much studied in this country. With the implementation of ETFL, both subject teachers and class teachers are required to develop new skills: subject teachers must expand their knowledge of teaching young children, and class teachers might have to develop their foreign language and language pedagogy skills.
Music and song in their many forms have been shown to enhance foreign language learning. They provide a useful context for bringing meaningful repetition to studying and practicing a new language, which is required in language learning and acquisition.
Answers were collected from teachers via an online questionnaire including both multiple choice and open-ended questions in late 2020 and early 2021. In this paper, we examine a number of the open-ended questions by conducting a content analysis to identify the different functions of song in classroom situations and to gain answers to the research questions listed above.
Preliminary results suggest that the use of songs appears to be widespread and popular among teachers of young learners, and songs fill many different roles in the classroom, some more commonly used than others. There are, however, examples of situations where songs are not used much or, in some cases, at all. Reasons for this range from lack of time for preparation and insufficient materials, to the teacher not considering themselves a "musical person" and thus feeling ill equipped or uninterested in incorporating songs in their teaching.
Considering the many benefits of songs and singing for language learning, it is encouraging to see that songs are used by many teachers when teaching young learners. It is also evident that songs and singing can serve multiple purposes in a classroom setting. For the benefit of the teachers who do not feel comfortable using songs, it might be interesting in the future to consider different ways of making songs easier for all teachers to use.
