Thursday, May 10, 2007

R 132 F

The subject of this thesis is exploitation of songs in two course books. The author's choice of subject is up-to-date as she presents ways how to make teaching as well as learning English as a Foreign Language more varied and attractive. Choosing the topic of this work is useful because it is based on practical, tried experiences and it gives different kinds of opportunities to show how teachers can use songs, music during the English lessons. This thesis gives concrete samples how songs can provide enjoyment and variety in language lessons. It has been proved that music - instrumental and, in particular, vocal - is an extremely effective device of foreign language teaching.

The state of intent is clear, the problem is exposed with thorough consideration and discussed in a structurally and methodologically explicit way. The writing is well-arranged and the message is concise. The structure of this thesis is logical. It seems a bright idea to start with the abstract which contains the aim and the theory of this work. The aim is to illustrate how and in what ways music can be used in the classroom, what kind of possibilites songs can give to exploit them on the basis of Students' Books including these two books contain only few songs and do not give sufficient varied and interesting facilities for utilization of songs extensively.

Structurally, this thesis contains Abstract, Table of Contents and Introduction parts which are followed with three main chapters. Chapter 1 is a literature review, a general description. It gives a summery of the role of music generally and the role of music education. It also discusses several advantages of using songs in the English class. The second chapter concentrates on the techniques and activities in connection with songs of WOW 1 and Discoveries 1; particularly, the role of presentation of songs during the lessons and concrete examples for exploitation of the songs of WOW 1 and Discoveries 1. The writer comes up with an ingenious conception, suggesting several various methods for teaching a song. She even introduces and offers ideas and activites invented by her students. The collection of pop songs for Suggestopedia is the theme of the third chapter. After all, this thesis is finished with the conclusion. At the very end, appendices and the bibliography follow this part. The conclusion is a good summery of this thesis which attempted to emphasize that there is a great motivating factor in teachers' hands with using songs in the classroom.

The aim of thesis work was fulfilled. This thesis can prove that music and songs encourage teachers and learners to use them bravely and creatively for any purposes in teaching languages. Meanwhile, they are interesting and funny sources to develop both learners' and teachers' knowledge and personality simultaneously.

The literature in Hungarian and English used by traine is sufficient. Not only methodological books but different journal articles relevant to the topic were used. It seems that the writer has studied the adequate bibliography deeply. It shows the trainee' s creativity that her techniques exceed the techniques indicated in the teacher's books.

Taking the language of this thesis into consideration, it fills requirements grammatically. The work is written in an easy - flowing style with great competence and correct usage. The lay-out is highly pleasing. However, in some cases literal mistakes can be found in it. But these mistakes do not disturb the understanding of the meaning. Paragraphs are contentful, thoughtful, and well - separated; furthermore, she uses the different types of quoting. Samples can be found for the direct and the indirect quotations, too.

Uniform method is used for elaboration of songs. Exploitation of each song starts with the description of the aims, and it is followed with the demonstration of the certain method everywhere. Appendices are colourful and I have to emphasize that they are made by students.

I would like to give some suggestions how this thesis can be developed. This work contains nine songs which are exploited in different ways but the thesis could have been a little bit longer if another songs apart from those two books ( WOW 1, Discoveries 1 ) had been shown in a new chapter. In addition to this, I can imagine another way to follow this thesis concentrating on the problem of motivation. It gives wider opportunity to elaborate the motivational factors of music and songs more detailed. It is to be noted here that it would have been advisable to append the taped course book songs to the thesis as an illustration.

Cseke Ildikó's work, even in this form, is complete. It can serve as a useful resource material for teachers. In addition, the subject is well worth developing.

I would suggest grade 4 or 5.

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