Influence of Songs in Primary School Students' Motivation for Learning English in

Lima, Peru

Students show greater interest in learning English as a second language in class with songs.
In a class with no music, students don't pay much attention, they don't seem interested in
the class topic, they understand being distracted very easily, and they seem unmotivated. In
music class, students are more involved with the class and interested in the class topic. In
addition, they pay more attention, they participate more often, and they perform all their
tasks with enthusiasm.

We can say that there is a relationship between songs and student motivation. The results of
the research which are also based on several opinions such as following the song can make
learning a second language easier (Defaz, 2011). According to (Joyce, 2011; Medina, 1990;
Schunk, 1999) students can learn new vocabulary or improve their pronunciation if songs
are used in class. Overall, songs can help to learn a new language because the student's
learning process becomes unconscious. This shows that students can have positive aptitude
for learning English as a second language subject if teachers use appropriate songs in their
classrooms. The reason for this is because the song creates a pleasant atmosphere in the
classroom environment and students usually prefer to do activities that involve audiovisual
material.

Future research can focus on students' motivation when learning English as a second
language. In addition, this study can be used as a starting point to conduct similar research
with adults to explore whether a song can serve as a motivational element when learning
English. Moreover, it would be interesting to compare the two situations (children and
adults). In addition, further research can be done on what audiovisual materials are most
preferred for children. In this way, we can investigate most of the children's selected