English Song Lyrics in EFL Underachievers’ Phoneme Categorization

This study examined the effectiveness of teaching phoneme categorization and segmentation to EFL underachievers using songs and rhymes as instructional materials. Two distinct groups of 11th-grade EFL underachievers from Taiwan participated in this quasi-experimental study. The instructional materia...

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Main Authors: Sandy I-Ching Wang, Eric Zhi-Feng Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2025-04-01
Series:SAGE Open
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251330350
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author Sandy I-Ching Wang
Eric Zhi-Feng Liu
author_facet Sandy I-Ching Wang
Eric Zhi-Feng Liu
author_sort Sandy I-Ching Wang
collection DOAJ
description This study examined the effectiveness of teaching phoneme categorization and segmentation to EFL underachievers using songs and rhymes as instructional materials. Two distinct groups of 11th-grade EFL underachievers from Taiwan participated in this quasi-experimental study. The instructional materials consisted of lyrics sourced from online resources of the British Council. The quantitative tool employed in this study was a questionnaire based on National Reading Panel’s Assessment of Phonemic Awareness tool, and qualitative data were analyzed. In terms of results, there was a small positive effect when using song-lyrics instruction to help EFL underachievers understand phoneme categorization, song-lyrics instruction did not significantly improve EFL underachievers’ understanding of phoneme segmentation, and EFL underachievers provided positive feedback on song-lyrics instruction during interviews. This study is likely to encourage educators and researchers to explore the potential advantages of using song-lyrics instruction to enhance learners’ English listening skills.
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spelling doaj-art-3ab6028e3edd47daa431196ffa1eafae2025-08-20T03:14:09ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402025-04-011510.1177/21582440251330350English Song Lyrics in EFL Underachievers’ Phoneme CategorizationSandy I-Ching Wang0Eric Zhi-Feng Liu1National Central University, Jhongli, TaiwanNational Central University, Jhongli, TaiwanThis study examined the effectiveness of teaching phoneme categorization and segmentation to EFL underachievers using songs and rhymes as instructional materials. Two distinct groups of 11th-grade EFL underachievers from Taiwan participated in this quasi-experimental study. The instructional materials consisted of lyrics sourced from online resources of the British Council. The quantitative tool employed in this study was a questionnaire based on National Reading Panel’s Assessment of Phonemic Awareness tool, and qualitative data were analyzed. In terms of results, there was a small positive effect when using song-lyrics instruction to help EFL underachievers understand phoneme categorization, song-lyrics instruction did not significantly improve EFL underachievers’ understanding of phoneme segmentation, and EFL underachievers provided positive feedback on song-lyrics instruction during interviews. This study is likely to encourage educators and researchers to explore the potential advantages of using song-lyrics instruction to enhance learners’ English listening skills.https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251330350
spellingShingle Sandy I-Ching Wang
Eric Zhi-Feng Liu
English Song Lyrics in EFL Underachievers’ Phoneme Categorization
SAGE Open
title English Song Lyrics in EFL Underachievers’ Phoneme Categorization
title_full English Song Lyrics in EFL Underachievers’ Phoneme Categorization
title_fullStr English Song Lyrics in EFL Underachievers’ Phoneme Categorization
title_full_unstemmed English Song Lyrics in EFL Underachievers’ Phoneme Categorization
title_short English Song Lyrics in EFL Underachievers’ Phoneme Categorization
title_sort english song lyrics in efl underachievers phoneme categorization
url https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251330350
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