As mentioned previously, Question 20 of the questionnaire gathered data on the activities teachers use to teach songs; this was examined in greater depth through the questionnaire’s open-
ended question, Question 24, in addition to Questions 4 and 5 in the interview. The options for activities included in Question 20 are based on what Saricoban and Metin (2000) suggested as techniques that can be used with songs in the classroom, namely, gap fills or cloze texts, focus questions, true/false statements, arranging lines into the correct sequence, dictation, adding the final verse and discussion. The researcher also added ‘sing along,’ which is an activity that appeared in other research from the literature review. Mishan (2005) stated that ‘sing along’ is
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impact on affect. Teachers were given the option to add other types of activities through the questionnaire’s open-ended question, Question 24.
Table 12 below shows that out of 58 participants who use songs, the types of activities that they use songs the most with are:
1- Discussion: 47 responses (81%)
2- Focus or comprehension questions: 46 responses (79.3%) 3- Cloze/gap-fill activity: 46 responses (79.3%)
4- Sing along: 44 responses (75.9%)
The activities participants use the least are:
1- Dictation (full or partial text): 22 responses (37.9%)
2- Writing activity, e.g. composing an additional verse, writing a letter or writing an essay about the song's topic: 21 responses (36.2%)
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What activities - if any - do you use in the classroom when you use songs? Table 12: Answers of Q20
Count Row N %
[True/false statements] 25 43.1%
[Focus or comprehension questions] 46 79.3%
[Ordering activity, i.e. putting verses, lines, parts of lines or words in order]
33 56.9%
[Cloze/gap-fill activity] 46 79.3%
[Dictation (full or partial text)] 22 37.9%
[Sing-along] 44 75.9%
[Writing activity, e.g. composing an additional verse, writing a letter or writing an essay about the song's topic]
21 36.2%
[Discussion] 47 81.0%
The same four activities that received the highest agreement in the questionnaire were favored by the participants in Tegge’s questionnaire, with a slight change in their order as
‘cloze/gap-fill’ activities received the highest number of responses (74.6%), whereas ‘discussion’
received the highest number of responses in the current study. While dictation received the lowest number of responses (26.4%) in Tegge’s study, in the current study the ‘writing activity’
received the lowest number of responses. These findings indicate that for teachers in both studies, discussion activities are among the most utilized activities for FL instruction. However, this contradicts what both studies found regarding the purposes for using songs, wherein subjects in both indicated that using songs to instigate spoken interaction (e.g. a class or pair discussion) is the purpose for which songs are used least (as per Table 3). On the other hand, the results of both studies regarding ‘writing activities’ reveal that the actual activities used match with
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activities and low numbers identify writing as a purpose for using songs. Other studies - like Petrus (2012) - did show positive results for using songs to improve writing, but it should be noted that the number of participants in Petrus’s study was only ten participants, which is much fewer than both the current and Tegge’s studies.
In interviews and open-ended question, ‘discussion’ was the activity most cited by
participants. For example, Participant 60 wrote, “Songs reflect culture and I like using them for running discussions.” Participant 45 shared, “It makes the class more fun, open up new topics for discussion, break the ice, and introduce different ways for pronunciation.” In interviews,
Interviewee E described a discussion activity for a song in an AFL class, (The Pharmacy13) is a song by Mahmoud Elessily that is talking about the pharmacy as a metaphor for how people in Egypt are suffering in the society itself, and how they are living, and how they are taking certain types of medicine as a metaphor too in order to overcome such changes, and it is talking about the negative side of the society and the country. We discuss about the problems mentioned in this song and compare it to the problems in students’ countries.”
The other activities that received higher responses in the questionnaire (sing along, fill gaps, and focus/comprehension questions) were scarcely mentioned by the interviewees. Interviewee A mentioned focus or comprehension questions, stating, “Students elicit the meaning of words
rather than translate them. Then, they directly process the words and become productive by moving to the speaking stage and using the stock of words they have learnt.” Interviewee C
mentioned cloze/gap-fill activities, stating, “Songs are an effective tool in teaching grammatical rules that elementary students might find hard, such as the active participle and the verb tenses,
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and in activities like filling in the gaps.” As for ‘sing along,’ Interviewee B said, “I see that for
elementary levels, songs can be used so that students try singing them, get introduced to the music, atmosphere changing and memorize some vocabulary.”
Furthermore, Interviewee B mentioned that in the institute where she works, they have supplementary materials developed by the teachers that use songs, as they had suggested these be used in addition to other activities covered in the course syllabus. She added that, “We have
prepared tasks for many songs such as fill in gaps, teaching vocabulary. A new activity we designed which is giving the lyrics to the students with all the words attached to each other and asking the students to listen and detach the words.”