The use of Afrikaans lyrics to improve the pronunciation of first year students Elbie Adendorff Jaydey Sass 26 november 2015

PRESENTATION STRUCTURE Introduction. Background information on students. Research methodology. Data-analysis. Results. Conclusion.

AFRIKAANS

INTRODUCTION Numerous methods are used in foreign language teaching. Music with lyrics is usually used for entertainment or recreational purposes in foreign language classroom. Advantages of using music: authentic, informal language; offers resources to develop the four skills; contains a variety of vocabulary; prepares learners for real world language use. Music is a good way to teach pronunciation and phonetics to language learners. Leith (1979): “There is probably not a better or quicker way to teach phonetics than with songs.”

INTRODUCTION Needs of students to learn Afrikaans sounds. Purpose of paper: report on research undertaken with first year students learning Afrikaans. Needs of students to learn Afrikaans sounds. Afrikaans have some typical sounds: [x]; [r]; [v]; [eeu]; [oei]. These sounds are difficult for students. Do the use of Afrikaans music with lyrics help the students to learn the correct Afrikaans pronunciation?

STUDENT INFORMATION 34 participants. Students (mostly first years) enrolled in the module Afrikaans Language Acquisition 178. Have little or no knowledge of Afrikaans. 9 different home language speakers. Module focuses on development of generic academic and social communication on campus. Students have expressed the need for more teaching and help with pronunciation.

HOME LANGUAGES OF STUDENTS

METHODOLOGY Open and closed questions. February: questionnaire (34 students): Open and closed questions. Knowledge of Afrikaans and importance of pronunciation and accent. Attitude towards Afrikaans and Afrikaans music. Home language and skills level rate. Recordings (transcript): 22 students: 3 weeks after classes started: pronunciation mistakes. Sounds and words in hand book and a reading passage. Class observations: 10 45 minute observations (2 weeks). Pronunciation different as in recording.

METHODOLOGY Experimental group: 12 students: 22 students divided into two groups: Experimental group: 12 students: Outside of classroom listened to recommended music for 30 minutes per day for 7 days. Music-roster. Recorded again and sounds analysed. Control group: 10 students: No extra input on sounds.

DATA ANALYSIS

DATA ANALYSIS To avoid confusion and misunderstanding. All 34 students stated that it is important to pronounce words correctly: To avoid confusion and misunderstanding. To understand each other. Built the students’ self-confidence in the language. Words pronounce wrong can mean disrespect in and for the language. Music can help to learn the sounds. See next slides.

RESULTS: QUESTIONNAIRE “I honestly feel uncomfortable and embarrassed to speak Afrikaans as my pronounciation [sic] is bad. It limits my ability and desire to speak the language. Hence why I took Afrikaans as a subject as I really want the ability to feel comfortable speaking Afrikaans.” “Language is about communication. If you are unable to pronounce words correctly it may cause confusion in the listener and the communication is broken.” “By singing or at least listening, you can find out what it sounds like and practice by yourself through already, preceedingly [sic], knowing what it sounds like. This is truly an ideal way to learn, which is both enjoyable and informative. Also, it really opens you up to the Afrikaans culture, which is rich and interesting.” “The music will be too fast and I will not understand anything.” “Talking is different than singing. It will not improve my vocabulary.”

CASE STUDIES

PARTICIPANT 9

PARTICIPANT 9 Home language Zulu with no prior knowledge of Afrikaans. Attitude towards Afrikaans and Afrikaans music is 1 (negative). Rate Afrikaans pronunciation and accent as 1 (weak). With first recording, made 7 pronunciation mistakes: Leaves out the [r]; [oey]-sound pronounced [e:]; [ə] left out at the end of words; [u] pronounced as [oe], [v] pronounced as [f]; [h] pronounced as [x]; [Ɛ] pronounced as [Ə]. Listened to 5 Afrikaans rock songs for 20 minutes each on 5 days. Second recording: only improved in 2 of the 7 pronunciation mistakes: [X] > [ɦ]: “heel” [ə] > [ɛ]: “en” Reasons: unsure.

PARTICIPANT 16 FIRST RECORDING: SOUNDS FIRST RECORDING: READING

PARTICIPANT 16 Home language Swati with 5 years’ prior knowledge of Afrikaans. Attitude towards Afrikaans is 3 and Afrikaans music is 1. Rate Afrikaans pronunciation and accent as 1. With first recording, made the following mistakes: Leaves out the [r]; [k]-sound pronounced as [x]; [x]-sound pronounced as [g]; leaves out [ŋ]-sound. Listened to 3 Afrikaans songs for 30 minutes each on 7 days. Second recording: Improved on all 4 pronunciation mistakes. Reasons.

PARTICIPANT 31 Attitude towards Afrikaans and Afrikaans music is 3. Home language English with some prior knowledge of Afrikaans. Attitude towards Afrikaans and Afrikaans music is 3. Rate Afrikaans pronunciation and accent as 3. With first recording, made the following mistakes: [y]-sound pronounced as [e:]; [x]-sound pronounced as [g]; [f]-sound pronounced as [v]; [i]-sound pronounced as [ə]. Listened to 1 Afrikaans song twice a day for 3 days. Second recording: Improvement on 2 out of 4 pronunciation mistakes: [i] pronounced correctly: “liewe” en “heksie”. [x]pronounced correctly: “haastig” BUT pronounced it wrong when it is used between two vowels: [bəgən] > [bəxən]: “begin”. Reasons.

PARTICIPANT 31 First recording: reading Second recording: reading

RESULTS

CONTROL GROUP No prior or very little knowledge of Afrikaans. Results of 10 students. No prior or very little knowledge of Afrikaans. Rate their Afrikaans pronunciation and accent as poor (1). No music input. Results of 4 students: Participant 1: only 1 out of 2 improvement; Participant 4: only 1 improvement out of 4; Participant 11: only 1 improvement out of 4; Participant 23: no improvements. Improvement of 25%.

EXPERIMENTAL GROUP 61% improvement. Direct relation between listening to the music and improvement in pronunciation. Direct relation between attitude towards Afrikaans music: low affective filter: chose their own music. English speakers: [v] as [w]: “verf” x “werf”; [x] as [g] when between two vowels: “begin” BUT “lag’. Xhosa speakers: [u:] as [oe]: “moere” x “mure”. [oe] pronounced as [o:].

CONCLUSION Music is a valuable resource to be used in the class room. Students benefitted when listening to Afrikaans music with lyrics. Music is a valuable resource to be used in the class room. Limitations of study: Small scale research. Students forgetting numbers and to listen to the music. Students dropping out of the project. More research and input needed from experts.

REFERENCES Donaldson, B. 2000. Colloquial Afrikaans: the complete course for beginners. Abingdon: Routledge. Hismanonglu, M. & Hismanonglu, S. 2010. Language teachers’ preferences of pronunciation teaching techniques: traditional or modern? Procedia – social and behavorial sciences 2(2): 983-989. Leith, W. 1979. Advanced French conversation through popular music. The French Review 52(4): 537-551. Thanasoulas, D. 2000. Pronunciation: the “Cinderella” of language teaching. [www.developingteachers.com] Wei, M. 2006. A literature review on strategies for teaching pronunciation. Journal of Languages and Linguistics 25(1): 14-26.

Thank you Email: elbie@sun.ac.za Website: www.sun.ac.za