Do you remember the situation from your childhood, that used to happen every single night before going to bed or just before
falling asleep? You chronically annoyed your parents asking to read you the same story or poem again and again every night for months. Your parents’ torture finished the moment you were able to recite the story by heart without a single look at the page. Little did you know at that time about the process of education, learning to speak, acquiring language, phonemes and
vocabulary. Listening to your favorite rhymes, repeating them after your (sick and tired) mum or dad was a great fun for you and that was the only reason why you wanted to do it.
Therefore, as learning through rhymes, poems and songs is still undoubtedly useful as far as first language acquisition is concerned, the implementation of those materials has also a great value in foreign language teaching.
The use of
authentic materials while learning a foreign language is broadly recommended by methodologists and teachers. There is no doubt that songs and poems are authentic and therefore being a great motivator, arouse the curiosity in language learning. It is proved by H.G. Widdowson that the language presented to learners should not be simplified, but authentic.<1> As C.Wallace says, authentic texts are those “not written for pedagogic purposes”<2>, whereas non-authentic texts are especially designed for language learner and are, therefore, in many ways artificial. What is worth mentioning, authentic materials enable learners to interact with the real language. The focus is rather on content, not on the form so they fulfill the expectations of a good communicative task . Furthermore, it gives our students the sense of achievement, mainly because they are given an opportunity to try their knowledge out in a real-life situation.
In this perspective, poems, rhymes and song lyrics, regarded as different kinds of authentic texts, bring not only methodological benefits, but are also enjoyable, trendy, they face up the students’ expectations and make the process of learning vivid and almost effortless.
Moreover, the newest trends in methodology underline the importance of teaching vocabulary, as “without it, nothing can be conveyed”<3>. Many authors such as J.A. Bright, J. McGregor or E.L. Judd emphasize the need to perceive learning vocabulary as a separate skill.<4> However, all the authors agree that the vocabulary has to be presented in context, as it is “impossible to teach learners all words they need to know”<5>. Guessing strategies, ways of reviewing , revising, expanding and organizing their word stores should be taught. In brief, we should learn how to learn vocabulary. Bearing all that in mind, we can easily notice that poems, rhymes and songs provide whole chunks of words, which can be learnt successfully one at a time, using rhythm, putting emphasis on words stress, and what is more, on pronunciation simultaneously.
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