Abstract

Musical intelligence, regarded as one of the multiple intelligences, plays an important role in foreign language learning, no matter at what age learners are. Therefore, integrating experiences with music in the TEFL classroom for children supports English language learners’ literacy development. And the purpose of this thesis focuses on the effect of music on students’ English pronunciation at primary school. Two classes of Grade Four from Hangzhou Foreign Language School were selected by the author, one as the experimental class and the other control class. The experiment lasted for one month.  Music was used in the experimental class for facilitating students’ pronunciation learning, but not used in the control class. Data were collected and analyzed through an oral test and a questionnaire. The oral test aims at investigating whether music facilitates students’ pronunciation learning, in the aspects of phoneme accuracy (articulation) and stress (rhythm). All the audio data were recorded while in the oral test. And the purpose of the questionnaire is to investigate students’ interest in the songs and their willingness to participate the class. The results of this study reveal that music has a positive effect on improving students’ English pronunciation at primary school, both in the perspectives of phoneme accuracy and stress. Besides, it is found through the questionnaire that music helps boost student’s interest and willingness to participate the class. 

Key words: music; English pronunciation; primary school students

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-2

2.1 English pronunciation-2

2.1.1The concept of English pronunciation-2

2.1.2 The issues of English pronunciation in China-3

2.2 Musical intelligence-4

2.2.1 The concept of musical intelligence-4

2.2.2 Musical intelligence and language learning-4

2.2.3 Musical intelligence and Pronunciation learning-5

3. Research Design-6

3.1 Research questions-6

3.2 Participates-6

3.3 Research tools-6

3.3.1 Tests-6

3.3.2 Questionnaire-7

3.4 Procedure-7

3.5 Teaching cases-7

3.5.1 Teaching case 1-7

3.5.2 Teaching case 2-9

3.5.3 Teaching case 3-10

4. Results and Discussions-11

4.1 The results and discussion of research question one-11

4.2 The results and discussion of research question two-12

5. Conclusion-15

5.1 Major findings-15

5.2 Implications-15

5.3 Limitations and further study-16

References-17