Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

In this thesis, I set out to investigate whether the use of songs can help L2 speakers learn to better perceive and produce suprasegmental phenomena. Effective pronunciation skills are necessary for successful communication and as such can greatly impact one’s personal, social, and professional life. Studying the use of songs for teaching pronunciation is interesting because as a linguistically rich material, songs can enhance learning due to their positive affective, social, and cognitive influence in the L2 classroom. Using songs to teach pronunciation within a Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) framework constitutes a novel approach to an underexplored area of classroom research. In order to learn how using songs might help native Spanish speakers learn English suprasegmentals, I conducted a mixed methods exploratory short-term case study of Chilean university students studying English Language and Literature at the Universidad Católica de Chile. Using three groups: a control, songs, and no-songs group, the pre- to post-course progress was measured first with the two treatment groups combined and then with them separated. In this way we were able to measure the effectiveness of songs compared to other materials as well as to no intervention whatsoever. After two weeks of instruction, we found that using songs can significantly help in the production of the schwa when reading a text and of thought groups when speaking freely. Results obtained in listening tests were not statistically significant. However, closer examination of the performance of individual songs- group participants showed not only a greater than average progress in different suprasegmental areas in both listening and speaking, but also an appreciation of songs as an effective and enjoyable means of learning pronunciation. It would be advantageous for future research to explore the effects of teaching the pronunciation areas using the same methodology but for longer periods of time with delayed post-course testing to determine whether the effects are long-term. In addition, further exploration into the relationship between pronunciation perception and production could provide insight for the development of more effective teaching techniques.

A thesis presented to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, 2008. / Judging from what several of teachers have generally said about the poor performance and low levels of English proficiency, (how poorly they spoke, read and wrote), there seems to be a lack of interest or motivation among rural high school learners to acquire English proficiently. Thus, motivation being what initiates, sustains and directs thinking and behavior, as Louw and Edwards (1997:425) put it, and that motivational processes make us seek and find the things we need for our survival and development (approach motives) - one of the three variables on which good language learning depends, in Pride’s (1979) words, lack of it (motivation) is considered a worrying enough a situation, which warranted scrutiny and careful study. Many factors could account for such a decline or loss of interest in learning English, which is a need for survival in a cosmopolitan country like South Africa and in the world today. Only some kind of misunderstanding of freedom and language rights or misinformation and ignorance or even some form of a misguided ethnic endeavour suicidal in nature on the part of learners, could create or inform such an unfortunate situation of lack of motivation to learning English, when competition for jobs is so high. This research has investigated factors, which might account for what seems to be clearly a decline in interest or motivation among the rural KZN high school learners to acquire English proficiently. In order to meet the aims and objectives of the study, four different groups of people key to the study (people directly involved in the learning and teaching taking place in high schools situated in the rural communities of KwaZulu- Natal) had to be questioned about the matter: 1) learners from several rural high schools 2) high school educators - English subject specialists from a wide selection of rural high schools, as well as few primary school educators 3) parents of children learning in different rural high schools. 4) Some officials, too, from the KZN department of education were interviewed, from whom official information and statistics were obtained.

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