Song as Text

It has been suggested that a song can be employed in any of the same ways that we use other written texts (Murphey 1992). For example, song can be used for teaching specific grammatical points and functions, to introduce new vocabulary, for reading practice or for almost any other purpose in the language classroom. Song is also authentic text which gives learners an opportunity to engage in real-world texts and may lead to higher levels of learning opportunities and motivation. Authentic texts which are perceived as relevant to the learners' lives and thus authenticated by them are even more valuable (Breen 1985, Nunan 1989:54, Widdowson 1979:165). The language used in songs is a unique register, influenced substantially by the fact that songs are meant to be heard and not read. Murphey (1990) carried out a lexical analysis of the lyrics of pop songs and concluded that the words are short and repetitive, the sentences are short and the discourse structure is close to a narrative or a conversation. Brown and Helegesen (1986) agree when they describe song as "a lot like a story, but the rhythm is better." These features make song lyrics easier for learners to understand than many other forms of authentic text. Compared to newspapers or literature, songs can be used in discussion without a large amount of explanation or dictionary work.