The role of songs in the portuguese EFL primary classroom

• Autor(a) principal: Ferreira, Ana Rita Camões
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/12584
• topic: Inglês como língua estrangeira; Alunos jovens; Canções; Educação primária; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Ciências da Educação

This report aims to understand if the Portuguese teachers of English in Primary Education are familiar with the pedagogical value of songs and if they make use of them in their classrooms in order to reap most of their benefits. This research replicated a previously conducted study by Mustafa Sevik, in Turkey, in 2011, entitled “Teacher views about using songs in teaching English to young learners”. The purpose of this replication was to verify if the Turkish and Portuguese realities were as different as I imagined them to be. While analyzing the results obtained in both studies, conclusions were drawn in light of, first attempting to understand what the Portuguese reality was, and second, comparing the results of this study with the previous one. A questionnaire was applied to various Portuguese teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), working either in state or private schools along the country. The original study received 52 answers, this study was able to collect a total of 85 answers. The participants were all teachers of English with experience in Primary Education. Findings showed on the one hand, that for both Turkish and Portuguese participating EFL teachers, songs are pedagogically valuable in the YL contexts, and that they should be an essential part of the EFL curriculum. On the other hand, it demonstrated that in the Portuguese study the majority does not find it difficult to find appropriate songs to use in their classes and is capable of measuring their students’ success when using songs in the classroom, as opposed to what happened in the original study. Portuguese teachers of English had to have proper EFL training, due to a recent government regulation and there is an extensive variety of materials available through course books and websites that teachers can freely access.