Analysis of Songs and Rhymes in Children English Textbooks

• Main Authors: Yu-cheng Teng, 鄧郁臻
• Other Authors: Dr. Mei-chen Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/71242251009074717558

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 兒童英語研究所 === 101 === In the field of children English education, the substantial pedagogical value of teaching songs and rhymes in elementary schools is massively promoted by English teaching practitioners and has attracted an enormous proliferation of research. However, the presentation and instructional design of songs and rhymes in elementary school EFL English textbooks is rarely explored. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the English textbooks used at elementary school level in Taiwan by means of content analysis, with an attempt to probe the extent to which songs and rhymes are properly designed for English language instruction. The sample consists of six elementary school English textbook series approved by the National Institute of Compilation and Translation in Taiwan, 48 in total, which are currently adopted in elementary schools in Taiwan. Overall, 457 songs and rhymes were examined in the present study. The findings of the present study show that most of the songs and rhymes in these textbook series were written with rhyming words, aimed at an easy level of comprehensibility, oriented to themes related to the learners’ background knowledge, rich in repetitive patterns and presented in various modes of presentation. With regard to the instructional design of the songs and rhymes, the findings pointed out that the instructional objectives were oriented primarily toward the learning of language skills. The great majority of the songs and rhymes in the six textbook series were designed as stand-alone teaching activities with controlled teaching techniques but not semi-controlled or free techniques. The provision of teaching resources centered on suggestions for teaching procedures and the use of teaching aids but were lacking in diversity. Furthermore, with regards to compliance with the Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guideline, it was found that the design of the songs and rhymes in the textbooks did not fully reflect the goals in terms of the promotion of Communicative Language Teaching and the proportion of the four language skills. Therefore, the findings suggest that both the authorities and textbook designers take the multi-faced roles of songs and rhymes into consideration when constructing curriculum guidelines and textbooks. It is also recommended that the design of EFL teachers’ guides should be written from the perspective of non-native English teachers in order to facilitate the implementation of songs and rhymes into elementary school EFL classrooms.