The Use of Poetry and Music in Learning or Teaching English

Name: Muhammad Rafel Herviansyah

Class: Literature in ELT B

After I read some journals, I have arguments and some experiences regarding the use

of poetry and music in learning or teaching English. But before that, there was something

that made me wonder, is it effective to use poetry or songs in learning English? As we know

how important English is, which is an international language and is taught in almost all

countries. By making it a subject in elementary schools and junior and senior high schools,

this makes the important components that we get such as vocabulary, grammar and others.

In this study, there is an English learning strategy using songs or poetry. These songs and

poems themselves have become part of our lives, we can get additional literacy knowledge

which is very useful in our lives. So of course it is very effective for learning at school and

outside in learning English. I had an experience when I was in middle school when I was

given the assignment to come forward in a group to sing some songs in English. When we

sing a song together, the teacher will ask about the structure and some meanings of words

that are foreign to us at that time. So we don't just sing but we also analyze the intent or

meaning of the song. Another point we get is that we can know the pronunciation of the word.

So, of course, this is very useful because apart from interesting and fun strategies, we can

also get useful things, such as when reading material books that we usually read.

References:

Rosová, V. (2007). The use of music in teaching English (Doctoral dissertation, Masarykova

univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta).

Ma’rifat, D. (2017). A case study of using songs in teaching English vocabulary to young

learners. Journal of English and Education, 5(1), 49-55.

Cabasan, H. C. (2014). Appreciating poetry: The teaching-learning analysis.