Pop songs effective in learning English

English teacher Kim Jin-sung, center, poses with second-grade students during a class at Hyundo Information High School in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, in May. He has developed teaching methods using pop songs to help students learn English easily. / Courtesy of Hyundo Information High School

By Chung Hyun-chae

“ABBA’s old hit song ‘I Have a Dream’ taught me that having a dream helps to overcome hardships. It also helped me improve my English listening and speaking abilities,” Lee Jae-beom, 17, said.

Lee is a second-year student at Hyundo Information High School in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. He first listened to the pop song in an English class taught by his English teacher Kim Jin-sung.

“Having familiar everyday expressions, pop songs are easily accessible to students like me who are not good at English at all,” Lee told The Korea Times.

Kim, 47, has developed his own teaching methods using pop songs for his English classes.

“The English level of students attending schools specializing in vocational education, including our school, is far below the national average, almost the same as the level of elementary students,” Kim said. “While trying to have those students awakened and interested in English during the class, I came up with the idea of using pop songs as teaching material.”

He wrote a book titled “Miraculous Hunminglish Class Using Pop Songs,” which contains his teaching methods.

Hunminglish is a combination of Hunmin Jeongeum and English. Hunmin Jeongeum refers to the Korean script, or Hangeul, which was invented by King Sejong in 1443.

His book has been listed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), a larger version of the Science Citation Index (SCI), a citation index covering thousands of notable journals, and the Scopus, a bibliographic database containing citations for academic journal articles.

“Every other week, I have my students choose a pop song during the class from my book which has 104 pop songs I have selected to study with the kids,” Kim said, describing himself as a DJ for the class.

He cited split-brain research by Roger Wolcott Sperry, who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine, saying that both the left and the right hemisphere of the brain may be conscious simultaneously in different mental experiences.

“According to the study, learning a language while listening to music can improve long-term memory,” Kim said.

Kwon Soo-ryeo, 17, another second-year student, said that her English score has nearly doubled after studying with pop songs.

“I was surprised that I have remembered new English vocabulary and expressions because all I did was just hum pop songs that I learned in English class, without memorizing the words,” Kwon said.

Kwon’s classmate Noh Eui-jung, 17, also said that he was amazed how her English has improved.

“When I walk down a street, I can partly understand some pop songs, which is marvelous,” Noh said. “I can also notice similar changes in my classmates; we can now sing a number of pop songs together.”

Besides these three students, there are many more students whose English proficiency has improved with the help of pop songs.

One of them is Shin Tae-hoon, now a junior majoring in business administration at Chungbuk National University in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

“Shin was not able to spell out the word ‘apple’ when he was a high school student,” Kim said. “After studying English with pop songs in my class, his English improved so much so that he could be accepted to Chungbuk National University.”

He also recalled one of his students, Min Eui-ghee, now a junior majoring in English education at Seowon University in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

“Min, who had no dreams and hopes before I met him, is now preparing for the teacher qualification exams to become an English teacher,” Kim added.