MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
------------

NGUYEN HUU TOAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO
THE USE OF ENGLISH CHANTS TO TEACH ENGLISH
FOR YOUNG LEARNERS AT PRIMARY SCHOOLS
IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts,
Hue University of Foreign Languages

HUE, 2017


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
------------

NGUYEN HUU TOAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO
THE USE OF ENGLISH CHANTS TO TEACH ENGLISH
FOR YOUNG LEARNERS AT PRIMARY SCHOOLS
IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
CODE: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYEN VAN LONG

HUE, 2017


BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
------------

NGUYỄN HỮU TOÀN

KHẢO SÁT VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG
ĐỌC THEO NHỊP ĐIỆU TRONG GIẢNG DẠY
TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH TIỂU HỌC
TẠI TỈNH QUẢNG TRỊ

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP
DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH
MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC:
PGS. TS. NGUYỄN VĂN LONG

HUẾ, 2017



STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a
degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another
person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Date: 9 / 11 / 2017.
Signature

Nguyen Huu Toan

i


ABSTRACT
This research aims to investigate the use of English chants in teaching
English to young English learners in Quang Tri province. In particular, this research
explored the teachers and students’ perception with English chants. In addition, the
research pointed out several difficulties in applying English chants and suggested
appropriate solutions.
This paper reports a quantitative research with a survey research design. In
this research, there were 2 groups of participants. The first group includes 34
English teachers who are teaching at primary schools in Quang Tri province. They
contributed their opinion in a questionnaire which was designed with 20 items.
There are five random teachers who were chosen to take part in an interview. The
interview aims to digging deeply in difficulties of teachers when applying the
English chants in their teaching. In the second group, there were 85 primary
students. The students’ perception was investigated by a questionnaire which
included 19 items. The data collected were quantitatively analyzed and presented in

tables and figures.

ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am fully aware of that my thesis can never finished without the
help of others during the process of writing. Therefore, on this occasion, I
would like to express my greatest appreciation to all those who gave me the
possibility for the fulfillment of this thesis paper.
My initial thanks go to the young learners from primary schools in
Quang Tri province, who provided important information to the research. I
also appreciate the precise contributions of English teachers from primary
schools in Quang Tri province.
Most importantly, I owe a major debt to my supervisor — whose rich
resource of materials and enthusiastic guidance over research methodology.
Due to limited time, he had to pay precious time to correct my research.
This makes me feel ashamed because of my fault. He was a critical editor
who contributed positively to the final result. Besides, he created chances for
me to be able to continue doing research.
Another major debt is to my beloved family. My father, my mother
and my younger sister are always beside me to take care of and encourage me
when I feel tired and want to give up through the race.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................... i

ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. iii
Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1
1.1 Rationale of the Study .......................................................................... 1
1.2 Research Scope ..................................................................................... 2
1.3 Aims and Brief Outline ........................................................................ 2
1.4 Significance of the Thesis .................................................................... 4
1.5 Research Questions............................................................................... 4
Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................... 6
LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................. 6
2.1 Young Language Learners ...................................................................... 6
2.1.1 Children Characteristics & Children Language Acquisitions: ........ 6
2.2 English Chants ........................................................................................ 8
2.2.1 Definition ......................................................................................... 8
2.2.2 How to Create a Chant? ................................................................... 9
2.2.3 Classification .................................................................................... 9
2.2.4 How does it work? ......................................................................... 12
2.2.5 What are the advantage of using English chants in teaching? ....... 13
2.3 Review of the Previous Studies ............................................................ 14
Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................... 17
METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 17
3.1 Research Design ................................................................................. 17
3.1.1 Research Approach ........................................................................ 17
3.1.2 Research Procedure ........................................................................ 18
3.2 Participants ......................................................................................... 19
iv


3.3 Data Collection and Data Analysis .................................................... 20

3.3.1 Data Collection............................................................................... 20
3.3.2 Data Analysis ................................................................................. 23
3.4 Summary ............................................................................................. 23
Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSIONS............................................... 24
4.1 Teachers’ perceptions of chants and its related issues .......................... 24
4.2 Perceptions of the Students ................................................................... 29
4.3 Difficulties in Teaching English Chant................................................. 38
Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................... 42
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ........................................................ 42
5.1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 42
5.2. Summary of the key findings ............................................................... 42
5.2.1
What Are the Perceptions of Teachers and Pupils about Using
Chants in Teaching English for Young Language Learners at Some
Primary Schools in Quang Tri? ............................................................... 42
5.2.2
What Are the Difficulties of Using Chants in Teaching English
for Young Learners? ............................................................................... 43
5.3. Implications .......................................................................................... 44
5.3.1. For teachers ................................................................................... 44
5.3.2. For Administrators ........................................................................ 44
5.3.3. Limitations of the Study ................................................................ 45
5.4. Suggestions for Further Research ........................................................ 45
REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 47

v


LIST OF TABLES


Table 4.1 The correlation between training status and creating a chant ...................24
Table 4.2 Difficulties in creating English chant .......................................................25
Table 4.3 Teachers’ perception of definition ............................................................26
Table 4.4 What skills do English chants aim to? ......................................................28
Table 4.5 The purposes of teacher when use English chants ....................................29
Table 4.6 The attraction of English chant with young learners ................................30
Table 4.7 What aspects of linguistic English chants improve? ................................31
Table 4.9 English Chant Purposes ............................................................................33
Table 4.10 The speed of English chant in the course book.......................................34
Table 4.11 Sentence pattern in chants .......................................................................35
Table 4.12 Vocabulary in chants ...............................................................................35
Table 4.13 Have you ever done English chant at home? ..........................................36
Table 4.15 The suggestion of students for English chant activity ............................37

vi


LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 4.1 Role of musical talent in teaching English chant ....................................27
Figure 4.2 The frequency of students' English chant learning ..................................30
Figure 4.3 The content of English chants should be related to .................................32
Figure 4.4 Do you have any difficulty in learning English chant? ...........................36
Figure 4.5 The difficulties in teaching English by chants.........................................38
Figure 4.6 The number of students in each class ......................................................39
Figure 4.7 English chants teaching places ................................................................40

vii


CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the Study
Becoming a part of globalization, the economy of Vietnam is developing
rapidly. English becomes more and more important. Many organizations,
companies, and people are using English as a communication tool. Therefore,
English speaking people have the advantage over the others in job interview and
promotion. In addition, many people learn English to get a good job and high
income. Hence, Vietnamese government puts in the effort to raise the English
proficiency of students. Therefore, English has been taught at primary schools for
several years. The students are obligated to learn English at the age of eight. In
several schools, students learn English at very young age. A number of students
learn English at the age of 6-7. Many parents believe that their children will be
better at English when they learn it at young age. This is a good opportunity for
children to explore the language and get a high English proficiency.
Teaching English for children is different from teaching English for adults or
teenagers because young language learners have many differences in psychology,
mental development and motivation. Therefore, using supporting instruments will
make the lesson become more efficient. According to Moon (2000), children learn
another language effectively with physical actions such as making things, action
songs, games, chants and drama which bring excellent contexts for language
learning. Using chant activity is popular in several text books which are being used
in Vietnam. In addition, Vietnamese children start learning English at young ages.
Children feel difficult when they use language to talk about language such as
grammar structure and discourse (Moon, 2000). In addition, Vietnamese children
learn English as a foreign language. They do not have many opportunities to use
English in daily life. Hence, they are lack of motivation for learning another
language. Besides, most of the students in Vietnam are inconfident and afraid of
teachers. They need an activity that is funny and flexible. The activity can motivate

1



them to use English. This research was conducted with the aim to find out the
perception of teachers and student to using English chant activities in English
teaching.
Having work as an English teacher at some primary schools in Quang Tri
province. I find that English chant can help me much in teaching English skill such
as listening and speaking. However, beside some advantages, I also met some
difficulties. For above reasons, I decided to carried out this study which is entitled
“An investigation into the use of English chants to teach English for young learners
at primary schools in Quang Tri province”
1.2 Research Scope
The research was carried out in Quang Tri province, Viet Nam. The research
field is Quang Tri province because it is convenient field for researcher to collect
the data.
The research focused on the perceptions of teachers and students in teaching
and learning English through English chant activities. It also pointed out the
difficulties of using English chants in teaching and learning English.
The research did not focus on the teaching procedure and teaching result that
English chant could bring to students.
The research was carried out with 34 teachers and 85 students from primary
schools in Quang Tri province. Teachers are expected to work with English chants
in their classrooms. Young learners are learning English as a foreign language.
They learn English through various activities such as Songs, Games, English chants,
etc.
The study focused on an investigation into the use of English chants in terms
of “Jazz Chant” which was developed and introduced by Carolyn Graham.
1.3 Aims and Brief Outline
The research aims to investigate the perceptions of teachers and students in
the use of English chants as a tool for teaching and learning. In addition, the


2


research helps to point out the difficulties of using English chants in English
teaching and give solutions.
This research paper consists of five chapters. Each of them will deal with its
own functions to contribute to the completion of the research.
Chapter 1 - Introduction, this chapter was used to provide the introduction
to the research. The rationale provided reasons why this study was conducted. It
was based on both theory and practice. The scope of the research will be also
included to indicate the limitation of the research in terms of the numbers of
participants and teaching activity design. The purposes of the research will be
explained and then followed by the research questions.
Chapter 2 - Literature Review was conducted to examine the previous
studies related to the application of English chants in education. Additionally, in
this chapter, the literature about the key concepts related to the research will be
carefully reviewed from the perspectives of previous researchers who also had a lot
of consideration with the topic of English chants in education.
Chapter 3 - Methodology provided the information about research method
which this research was conducted based on. The research approach applied for the
study is mentioned at the very first place to guide the whole research procedure.
Next, the context in which the study will take place and participants who play an
important role in the success of the study will be carefully described. After that, the
procedure of data collection and data analysis will be depicted in terms of datacollecting instruments and data-analyzing methods.
Chapter 4 - Findings and Discussions was considered as the most
important part of the research paper in which the results of the research will be
revealed. After the data is collected and analyzed, the findings will be clearly
presented in the form of charts and tables. Then, these findings are discussed in
order to answer the research questions

Chapter 5 Conclusion and Implications, the last chapter of the research
paper consisted a brief summary of the whole study and discussed some

3


implications drawn out from the study results that are expected to be useful for
administrators, teachers, and students to improve the situations.
1.4 Significance of the Thesis
Vietnam’s National Foreign Language 2020 Project requires students to
reach a specific level of proficiency. For this purpose, teaching English for children
at the young age has been carried out in Vietnam for several years. Course books
which were designed for young age learners were published. They included many
kinds of activities which are attractive such as songs, games, chants, drawing
pictures, etc. These book sets were developed for grades from 3 to 5 that were
published by Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training. They introduced the
English chant activities called “Let’s chant. The English chants have been used in
teaching English for years in the world. However, it would be new to Vietnamese
English teachers. Therefore, the researcher would like to investigate the actuality of
the English chants application in teaching English for children. This research
provides a reference material to English teachers in Vietnam who are interested in
English chants. The researcher hopes that this research can solve the problems when
teachers use English chants in teaching.
1.5 Research Questions
The research was conducted for the purpose to improve researcher’s own
teaching practice. In addition, this research aims to investigate the use of English
chant in teaching English to young language learners at several primary schools in
Quang Tri province. It is hoped that the researcher can find out the problems when
applying the English chants in education and solutions. This research also aims to
bring to teachers in primary schools in Vietnam an effective activity. It will help

teaching become more and more vivid.
For the above purposes, the research aims to find out the answers to three
following research questions:

4


1. What are the perceptions of teachers and pupils about using chants in
teaching English for young language learners at some primary schools in
Quang Tri?
2. What are the difficulties of using chants in teaching English for young
learners?

5


CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Young Language Learners
2.1.1 Children Characteristics & Children Language Acquisitions:
Teaching English for young language learners is becoming a trend in many
countries in the world. According to Tucker (2001), many countries followed this
trend such as Costa Rica, Korea, Japan, and Thailand. And they tended to depend
on the target that “earlier is better” (Tucker, 2001). Vietnam is one of the countries
in this trend. Many previous psychologists and linguists have chosen children as
their subject of studies. They have tried to put the children into different periods of
age. According to Sketchley (2014), young learners are classified in 5 groups:
Kindergarten (2-3 years), Primary (4-7 years), Junior (8-11 years), Adolescent (1216 years) and Young Adult (17-18 years). He stated that there are a lot of
differences in learning and teaching methods, style and approaches. However, the
teacher may reach success when they apply rational methods and style (Sketchley,

2014). According to Scott and Ytreberg (2011), they divided young language
learners into 2 groups of age: five to seven years old and eight to ten or eleven years
old. They also claimed that the abilities of children are truly different between
children of five and eleven (Scott & Ytreberg, 2011). According to Piaget (1964),
his hypothesis of children’s intellectual development classified children in 4
stages: Sensorimotor stage (1-2 years), Preoperational stage (3-7 years), Concrete
operational stage (7-11 years), Formal operational stage (11 years and over). These
stages represented for the development of children’s perception, things students can
understand (Piaget, 1964). There were many ways in which scientists classified the
periods of age. However, my research will be carried out at several primary schools
in Vietnam. The primary students in Vietnam are from 7 to 11 years old. Therefore,
this research assumes that young language learners are from this period of age. In
Vietnam, the age of students who start learning English is around 8-9 years old.
Students these ages are developing both mentally and physically. However, their

6


intellectual development has an important move. Many previous studies worked in
the field of children’s development. For example, according to Piaget’s Theory of
Cognitive Development, the children’s cognitive development goes through 4
stages. Young learners at primary school are at the age of 7 to 11 years old. This
stage was called Concrete Operations (Piaget, 1964). According to Simatwa (2010),
children in Concrete Operations stage are able to solve the conservation problems.
Students do not focus on one aspect of the subject or object. They have the ability to
think about many aspects at the same time (Simatwa, 2010). According to Piaget
(1964), in this stage, children have abilities of classification, ordering. They have
the ideas of number, spatial and temporal operations. They also get all the
fundamental operations. However, they are not able to understand the linguistic
hypothesis (Piaget, 1964).

Many characteristics of children at the age of 7 – 11 were presented by Scott
& Ytreberg (2011). For instance, children’s view of the world is formed. They can
distinguish between fact and fiction. They can make their own decisions and have
their own hobby. Especially, they are able to work in group. They base on both
verbal and nonverbal language to explain and understand the meanings. They have a
lot of questions. They begin to ask for decisions from the teacher of things happen
in the classroom (Scott & Ytreberg, 2011). These characteristics showed that
children in this period of age are forming the awareness to learn and raise their
interest in learning. Meaningful context plays an important role to young language
learners. Teachers always want to understand how students learned a language.
According to House (2005), young children are standing between learning and nonlearning situations. It means that any situation can be a learning situation for young
children. They gain knowledge positively from the activities they take part in rather
than teacher’s presentation. Therefore, teachers should exploit this advantage. The
order of language acquisition was presented by House (2005). First of all, students
will listen to the language. Then they try to stimulate the sound. Thirdly, they will
see the language in written form. Finally, they practice the language by writing.
This teaching process helps students (House, 2005). This teaching process is the

7


same as the process of children learn to speak their mother tongue. Firstly, children
will listen to the sounds of their parents and practice how to speak. Then they go to
school and learn how to read and write. In my opinion, this is the best order of
language teaching. The children’s concentration span is concerned as a typical
characteristic of children. Children’s concentration span is short and they are
distracted easily by the other factors. Therefore, teachers have to create attractive
lessons that can attract students’ attention to the lesson.
2.2 English Chants
2.2.1 Definition

English chants were known in education by the term “Jazz Chant”. It was
developed and applied successfully by Carolyn Graham. According to Zhang
(2011), Carolyn Graham discovered “Jazz Chant” by accident while she went to a
bar with jazz music. Then her friend came and told her several words. Suddenly, she
found that it followed the beat of the music which had been playing. Then she
realized that there is a connection between traditional American jazz and spoken
American English. After that, she worked with the idea and did the research. The
term “Jazz chant” was introduced (Zhang, 2011). Graham (2006) claimed that “Jazz
Chant” is a rhythmic presentation of natural language, links the rhythms of spoken
American English to the rhythms of traditional American jazz” (Graham, 2006, p.
1). “Jazz Chant” uses authentic speaking language with its natural rhythm. It can be
any sentence, word that native English speaking people use in daily life. Therefore,
students have a chance to practice the stress, intonation, pronunciation, and rhythm
as native speakers in common conservations. “Jazz Chant” is based on the rhythm
of jazz music and natural spoken American English. Therefore, it is easy for
teachers to create their chants. Teachers need to focus on the stress and intonation.
The chant is a small part of the structure, spoken expression, grammar, or
vocabulary as a mosaic. Many chants will build a full picture.

8


2.2.2 How to Create a Chant?
It is important that teachers know how to create a chant on their own.
According to Graham (2011), the most important thing is you believe in yourself.
You can do it. It is necessary for teachers to know how to make their own chants.
They will support directly to their object of the lesson. These are several steps
which will help teachers to create a chant. Step 1: Based on the students need and
requirement of the lesson, teachers can choose the topic of the chant. Step 2,
Choose vocabulary bank for your chant. They are words that you think it is useful

and interesting. You will not need more than 10 words. Step 3, Identify the number
of syllables for each word. It is important because it will decide the rhythm of the
chant. Put them in groups. Step 4, Choose several words that have the same rhythm
with your words. They may not be the same topic with the words you have chosen.
Group them by the number of syllables. Step 5, Make a list of descriptive words
that you can use with your topic. Group them into syllable count. Then you have
your own chant. These are basic steps to create a chant (Graham, 2011)
2.2.3 Classification
Carolyn Graham introduced several kinds of Jazz Chant. She grouped the
chants by their function and meaning. The first type of Jazz Chant called “Holiday
Jazz Chants”. According to Graham (1999), Holiday Jazz Chants are the chants
related to the holiday in the United States. The linguistic competencies used in these
chants such as vocabulary, expressions, and language function are exploited in each
holiday. For example:
“Easter Eggs, Pink and Blue
Easter eggs, pink and blue.
One for me, one for you
Easter eggs, one, two, three.
One for you, two for me
Easter eggs, pink and blue.
One for me, two for you.

9


Easter eggs, one, two, three.
Two for you and one for me!
One for you, one for me.
One for the teacher.
One, two, three”

(Graham ,1999, p. 1)

This chant used the vocabulary related to Easter Day. One of the holidays in
the United States occurs annually in April. The holiday jazz chants will help
students in ESL to increase their vocabulary and understand the cultures of people
using the target language. The Holiday Jazz Chant can be adapted to learners’
country culture. Holidays in leaners’ country are topics to create chants. It is a
positive way to use language as real situations. Secondly, Fairy Tales Jazz Chant,
the chants were written based on fairy tales. These chants require students and
teachers to play the roles. There are narrator and characters. For example:
NARRATOR
MAMA BEAR
PAPA BEAR
BABY BEAR
GOLDILOCKS
VOICE OF THE HOUSE
CHORUS
NARRATOR

Once upon a time there were three bears.

NARRATOR

Three bears.

CHORUS

Three what?

NARRATOR


Three bears.
Once upon a time there were three bears.

CHORUS

How many bears?

NARRATOR

Three bears.
One (clap).

10


Two (clap clap).
Three bears.
One (clap).
Two (clap clapikl).
Three bears.
First there was the Mama, Mama Bear.
(Graham, 1988, p. 1)

This is a small part of a fairy tales jazz chant. The chant was created with
obvious characters. Each character had their own sentences. The participants will
tell the story in a vivid way. According to Graham (1988), Fairy Tales Jazz Chant
can be used for both beginning and advanced students. To begin, teachers should
help students practicing with each line. Until the students have fair performance of
the chant, they can do the chant as a play. To advanced learns, teachers can play the

recording, then students practice the chant individually. Then students and teacher
retell the story as a play. The third type is Grammarchants. The Grammarchants
have been designed to present basic aspect of grammar in English. These chants are
suitable for low-intermediate adult learners. For instance, this is the chant entitled
“Are you French?”
ARE YOU FRENCH?
Are you French?
No, I’m not. I’m Italian.
Is he Korean?
No, he's not. He's Japanese.
Is she Spanish?
No, she's not. She's Venezuelan.
Are they Indonesian?
No, they're not. They're Taiwanese.
(Graham, 1993, p. 2)

11


The chant presented the verb “to be” and Yes/No questions. It brings to
students an interesting method to remember English grammar.
2.2.4 How does it work?
English Chant have been used as an official activity in English course book
for Vietnamese primary school. In particular, there is a chant for each unit.
Therefore, there are total 60 chants in the book set which have been used for
primary students in Vietnam. It’s a large number of the chants that students are
encouraged to learn. However, the methodology in teaching a chant is not common
in teacher training course in Vietnam. The following method in teaching chant was
introduced by Carolyn Graham. I’m in the agreement that this method produces an
effective result in teaching English in Vietnamese classroom.

Graham (2001) presented four basic step to teaching the chants to children.
Step 1: Preview: Teachers introduces the chant to students. Students will
share their thinking about the tittle of the chant. Students predict the content of the
chant. This step will help student have a connection to the content of the chant.
With young learners, the chants will be introduced by using languages that students
have learnt.
Step 2: Listen: In this step, teachers read the chant or uses a CD player to
play the chants. Students get used to the rhythm and words. Teachers help students
to identify the stress of sentences. Teachers and students are encouraged to use
instruments such as drums, tambourines, hands, rulers and play them in the rhythm
of the chant.
Step 3: Choral chanting: Students use a copy of the chant in their book or
provided by the teacher on the board. Then they can read along the teacher or CD
player. If there are problems with their pronunciation of words or phrases, teachers
can isolate them from the text and practice it until students do it well. It is expected
that students should practice the small chunks first in order not to get lost in the
written words or be distracted by the natural rhythm.

12


Step 4: Group/ Individual Chanting: In the final step, students do the
chant in groups. Teachers can also guide different groups of students to read the
chant in different parts. Then students can work in pairs or in individual to practice
the chants. Teachers can add another activity related to the content of the chant
when students remember the chant by heart (Graham, 2001).
2.2.5 What are the advantage of using English chants in teaching?
Teaching English as a second language faced with many challenges.
However, teaching English for children is more difficult. For years, arts have been
applied in teaching languages to young language learners such as songs, role plays,

nursery rhythms, chants, etc. Jazz Chant was developed in the purpose that making
language learning become easier. Using Jazz Chant in teaching English has several
advantages. First of all, Jazz Chant is one of the effective activities that could be
used for many ages (Graham, 2006). Because of the variety of the chants, it can be
applied for teaching children, teenagers and adults. Teachers who is teaching Jazz
Chant should create their own chants which are suitable for their students’ needs. In
other words, teacher can make a simple chant to teach children and a more complex
chant to teach adults. According to Zhang (2011), to children, chanting helps
students to use the language. They can repeat the structure and vocabulary they
have learnt. Iterativeness is essential with children to remember. In addition, to
adults, suitable chant would help students deal with difficult words and phrases
(Zhang, 2011). Jazz Chant was believed to improve students’ listening and speaking
skill. According to Graham (as a cited in Zhang, 2011), “Jazz Chant” was designed
based on the natural spoken American English. Therefore, students acquire English
in a natural way. Students have a chance to stimulate the words, phrases and
sentences in the way of native speakers. Forster (2006) stated that learning through
chants, students improve their English speaking rhythms, intonation and
pronunciation. I strongly agree with the author that when students follow the
melody of the chant, they learn a lot about rhythms and intonation of English
sentences. Thirdly, the chants would work with any sized classroom (Graham,

13


2006). It is difficult for teacher who is teaching large classes. With a large number
of students, Jazz Chants would be a great idea that can work. On the other hand, it
can be applied with the small group of students too. Another benefit is that teaching
aids and materials are unnecessary in teaching chants. “Jazz Chant” in teaching
language is used to teach both grammar structures and vocabularies. It creates an
effective and flexible classroom.

2.3 Review of the Previous Studies
There are many studies which were conducted in teaching English chants for
young learners. In this chapter, I review some previous studies which were carried
out by Jin Zhang from Chuzhou University, Chuzhou, China; Maribel Peralta from
Cuenca University; and Muhammad Jona Lumintu from Semarang State University.
The first study was written by Jin Zhang (2011) of Chuzhou University,
Chuzhou, China entitled “Jazz Chants in English Language Teaching”. The
research aims to emphasize the roles of the supplemental materials such as Jazz
Chant in teaching English. Especially, The application of chants in teaching
children. The author gave the information about the effect of chanting and singing
in development of listening and speaking skills. These skills play an important role
in teaching foreign languages and even in mother tongues. The results of the
research show that Jazz Chant is loved by students at young ages. It is actually
motivating students in learning a new language. It made the lesson become more
active and flexible. That is a good environment to teach children. However, the
author warned teachers about using only chanting to teach a foreign language. It
should be combined in a usual lesson. In addition, teacher should create their own
chants suitable with students, and keep a recording of them. The study contributed
in the field a stronger agreement of applying Jazz Chant in teaching language for
YLLs. It also gave valuable advice in application of Jazz Chant. However, in my
opinion, the result of the study presented quite general information. The application
of Jazz Chant in teaching English should be clarified then it may emphasize the
importance of Jazz Chant.

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The second study I reviewed was carried out by Maribel Peralta (2010)
entitled “The Use of Jazz Chants for Children in the Teaching-Learning Process of
English”. The study emphasized Jazz Chant as a great supplementary tool of

Communicative Language Teaching method. The aim of the study was providing an
effective activity to young leaners which helps them to improve speaking and
listening skills. In addition, Jazz Chant also helps students to reinforce knowledge.
The research produced a great result. Jazz Chant is a fascinating activity which
really attract children’s attention into learning language and it creates a fun lesson
for both teacher and children. In addition, “Jazz Chant” provides young learners
chances to practice English intonation and stress as same as native speakers.
Besides, Jazz Chant was built by using the vocabularies, sentence patterns and
grammar structures. Therefore, children learn the language naturally. On the other
hand, Jazz Chant worked effectively as a tool of Communicative Language
Teaching method. It has characteristics of the Communicative Language Teaching
method. For example, the language was built based on real-life communication,
students communicate to each other in a meaningful way, etc. Jazz Chant also helps
to reduce the teacher talking time and increase the student talking time. In my
opinion, the study contributed a lot of beneficial information. For example, Jazz
Chant was introduced as a great tool of Communicative Language Teaching. The
method is in consideration of many teachers nowadays.
The final study I reviewed was done by Muhammad Jona Lumintu (2015)
entitled “The Use of Jazz Chants to Improve Young Learners’ Mastery of Body
Parts Vocabulary”. The research purpose is finding out how effective Jazz Chant
would be in teaching body parts vocabulary to young language learners. An action
research was carried out to find the answers. Jazz Chant actually improved students
learning result. A lot of evidences from the interviews, tests, questionnaires were
collected to demonstrate this result. In addition, the research showed that the
students were interested in using Jazz Chant in learning a foreign language. The
author suggested that using Jazz Chant in teaching body parts vocabulary helps
students to pay attention and increase their curiousness in learning vocabulary.

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