Teaching Strategies to Apply Music in English as a Tool to Enhance Listening and Speaking Skills in Latin American EFL Classrooms

Abstract

This research synthesis aims to report the most effective teaching strategies used to apply music in English as a tool to enhance students' speaking and listening skills in Latin American EFL classrooms. To answer the research questions established on the topic, 20 empirical studies were collected and analyzed. All the selected studies were conducted in an EFL context of language learning in Latin American classrooms involving all educational levels and published within the last 15 years. After the data analysis, the results obtained are that six strategies, which are booklets; oral-related activities; song tasks; song repetition, imitation, and memorization; body movement; and having two teachers in the classroom; gathered positive results as the increase in motivation and the improvement in pronunciation; therefore, they are the ones reported as the most effective strategies. Two strategies, songs as warm-up activities and song tasks, reported negative effects as distraction and loss of interest. Finally, some of the reasons for the different drawbacks are the lack of follow-up activities and methodological strategies, and poor songs repertoire. Based on the found results, the recommendations to teachers and institutions are to implement strategies that resulted in students' improvement in both skills and to consider the reason for obtaining drawbacks. Additionally, the recommendations for future research are to conduct studies on the topic in Latin American countries and to create a teachers’ guide on the topic of how to effectively implement music in English as a teaching tool.