1.1. Background of the research 

Vocabulary is an important aspect of teaching and learning a language, especially in teaching and learning a second or foreign language. Teaching or learning another language after their first language may be a difficult task for the students. [1] stated that learning English as a Second Language (ESL) or as a Foreign Language (EFL) is not as easy as learning the first language as they have to master the vocabulary well, poor vocabulary mastery reduces their ability to communicate in their Second or Foreign Language. Lexical Approach contains a taxonomy of lexical items: Content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), Polywords, Collocations, Institutionalized utterances and Sentence frames and heads, which shows what kind of vocabulary the learner should develop. Based on this approach it suggests that vocabulary learning is the comprehending grammatical lexis. Therefore,vocabulary mastery should pay attention to the aspects of pronunciation, meaning, spelling and the grammatical usage of specific words.

1.2. The statement of the research problem 

Vocabulary plays an important role in learning English as a Second Language as learners rely heavily on vocabulary knowledge [2] For some learners, vocabulary learning is a challenge in the process of language learning. According to [2] in Sri Lankan ESL context, most of the learners face challenges due to the lack of vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, he stated that most ESL learners feel frustrated by the enormous mass of English vocabulary. Hence, the necessity of using various strategies to teach vocabulary in the Sri Lankan context is indicative. 

The use of songs and poems is one of such strategies to overcome the barriers in vocabulary learning.  [3] stated that the usage of songs in the classroom can solve most of the problems concerning motivation by gathering enthusiasm among the learners. Although there has been a considerable amount of research related to the vocabulary learning for the young learners and adult learners by using either songs, pomes or both, in Sri Lankan context the prevailing research studies on vocabulary teaching and learning [2] mainly focus on the identifying the challenges in vocabulary learning, academic vocabulary learning etc. Only a few studies have been conducted on vocabulary learning strategies to overcome challenges in vocabulary learning yet, there are limited studies on the use of English songs and/or poem to teach vocabulary in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using both songs and poems to teach vocabulary as a strategy to overcome the challenges existing among the Secondary level learners in the ESL classroom. 

1.3. The purpose of the study

Knowledge of vocabulary plays a significant role in almost all domains of language pedagogy . Taking into account all the above, this research aims to investigate whether there is an improvement in vocabulary learning after being taught by using songs or poems and which is the most effective among these two for the secondary level ESL learners in Sri Lanka. Through this study, the researcher attempts to strengthen the body of research done on vocabulary teaching and learning in the ESL context in Sri Lanka by looking at the effectiveness of the use of songs and poems in the teaching process for the secondary level learners.

1.4. Research objectives 

The objectives of this study are: 

• To investigate whether the use of English songs and poems can enhance learning vocabulary by the secondary level ESL learners 

• To observe whether English songs are more effective than English poems in teaching vocabulary

• To observe whether there is a significant difference in using English songs and poems in grade 10 than the grade 6 

1.5. Research questions and Hypotheses 

This study intends to provide an answer to the following research question. 

• How does the usage of English songs and poems enhance the ESL students’ knowledge in vocabulary at the secondary level? 

The following two Hypotheses intend to claim in this research study. 

• The use of English songs is more effective than using English poems in teaching vocabulary. 

• There is a significant and positive impact after the usage of songs and poems in grade 10 with compared to grade 6

2.1. Research Design and Sample 

This research incorporated Pretest-Posttest Design in order to find out the effect of the use of English songs and poems in increasing students’ vocabulary learning. The population of the research is the grade six and grade ten students at H/Rajapaksha Central College Weeraketiya. The research has employed two classes from each grade to form two song groups and two poem groups. The researcher has randomly selected twenty-five students from each class and the total sample size for the present study was a hundred students.

The design has used four classes: two classes from both grade six and ten as the experimental classes. Two classes: one class from grade six and another from grade ten, received the tasks by using English songs whereas the other two were done with using English poems during the teaching sessions. The both pretest and post-test included same vocabulary which were common to both selected song and poem. In this research pretest was given before the teaching sessions to measure the students' competence before they are exposed to the tasks. Then, the tasks were given five times by either using English songs or poems to identify the learners' performance in vocabulary learning. The posttests were given after the teaching sessions using either English songs or poems to measure how far the students have improved after they exposed to the tasks. 

2.2. Songs and poem selection

In this research, in order to know about whether there is an improvement or not after being taught by using either songs or poems for the secondary learners of ESL, the researcher has selected five English songs and five English poems as the teaching material for the study.  The rationale for selecting songs and poems can be shown as follows: a)               A selected song and a poem should have one common theme b) Same vocabulary items were there in the selected song and the poem as common vocabulary items will be tested in the pretest, the posttest and the delayed test.  c) All the selected songs and poems should belong to the contemporary period (19th century onwards) d) The selected songs and poems should appropriate for the learners in terms of its context and its vocabulary.

The selection of both five songs and poems can be illustrated as in the Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: The Selection of Both Five English Songs and Poems

2.3. Selection of the Vocabulary 

Eighty target words (content words) were selected from the above-selected songs and poems for the teaching sessions. Altogether one set of a song and a poem contained twenty target words. However, the common vocabulary for both songs and poems were tested in the pretest and the posttest. 

2.4. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures 

The data was collected using a pretest and posttests. The pretest was given in order to measure the students’ competence before they are given the tasks. The posttest was given to measure the students’ improvement after they complete the tasks of the day itself. 

Before running any analysis, the test papers were scored with one for a correct response and zero for an incorrect response. The data obtained from pretests and posttests were analyzed using statistical computerization: i.e. A One-Way ANOVA of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22 for windows to observe whether there is/ are significant difference/ differences in the performance of these groups. If the p <0.05, there is a significant difference between/among the groups. 

3.1. Answering the Research Question 

The main aim of this study was to investigate whether there is an improvement in vocabulary learning after being taught by using songs and poems for the secondary level ESL learners in Sri Lanka. The research question of the study is "How does the usage of English songs and poems enhance the ESL students’ knowledge in vocabulary at the secondary level?". To provide an answer to this question, the data obtained from song groups and poem groups in both grade six and ten were analyzed using paired sample T-Tests separately. 

By the analysis of the pretest and posttest marks of grade six-song group as in Figure 3.1, for the song A pretest, the mean value is 3.48 while the posttest mean value is 5.24. In that way, for each song, there is an enhancement of mean values in posttest marks than in pretest marks.

Figure 3.1: Grade 6 Song Group Pretest vs Posttest Marks

Table 3.1: Grade 6 Song Group Pretest vs Posttest Marks

As in Table 3.1, in each song p-value is lesser than 0.05. If the p-value < 0.05, there is a significant difference between or among groups. Therefore, it is found out that in grade 6 song group for each song there is a significant difference between the pretest and the posttest marks which indicates the improvement in vocabulary learning.

By the analysis of the pretest and posttest marks of grade ten-song group as in Figure 3.2, in all the songs the mean values of the pretests have increased in the posttests. In song A, mean value of the pretest is 7.28 and it has been increased to 8.08 in the posttest. In that way, for each song, there is an enhancement of mean values in posttest marks than in pretest marks.

Figure 3.2: Grade 10 Song Group Pretest vs Posttest Marks

This result indicating that songs can improve vocabulary learning is in line with many of the previous research studies. The study by [1] found that the students' mastery of vocabulary is improved significantly, and nouns were noted as the most improved among other content words. [1] found that after the learners were taught through songs, there was a statistically significant increase in students' vocabulary learning. Moreover, pointed out that the use of popular songs in teaching vocabulary (regular and irregular verbs) to the eighth-grade students were effective and that the teachers should be selective in finding the songs which were appropriated with the topic as well as the learners.

The analysis of the pretest and posttest scores of grade six poem group, as in Figure 3.3, demonstrated that the use of poems to teach vocabulary can have a positive effect with statistically significant enhancement. This finding is aligned with the previous study by [4] Their study ascertained that there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group students receiving vocabulary instruction through the poems.

Figure 3.3: Grade 6 Poem Group Pretest vs Posttest Marks

However, in grade ten poem group data analysis as in Table 3.2 showed that out of the five poems only in two poems (poem C and E) there was slight enhancement which is not statistically significant. In the rest of three poems, there was a reduction of scores in posttests. This reduction was significant in poem A and poem B and D, it was not significant. Therefore, in the grade 10 poem group, it is discovered that there was a reduction of scores than the increase of marks. With close analysis, this may due to the nature of the test papers or differentiation in teaching methods.

Table 3.2: Grade 10 Poem Group Pretest vs Posttest Marks

This result is indicating that poems are not effective in teaching vocabulary for the grade ten secondary level ESL learners. These findings are in accordance with the findings of the study by [5] That study demonstrated that teaching vocabulary through traditional poetry-based methods was not effective in vocabulary teaching. 

3.1.2. Supporting Hypothesis 1 

The first hypothesis of the present study is " The use of English songs is more effective than using English poems in teaching vocabulary." and it intends to examine the most effective method of teaching vocabulary between the use of songs and poems for the secondary level ESL learners in Sri Lanka. To claim this hypothesis, the data obtained from posttest from each grade was analyzed separately using One-Way ANOVA. 

The findings of the grade six were that there was an increase in mean values in song posttest than poem posttest yet, the improvement was not statistically significant as shown in Table 3.3. Similarly, it is found that in grade ten, there was a statistically significant increase. Overall, these findings indicate that songs are more effective in teaching vocabulary than poems for the secondary level ESL learners. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was confirmed by the results of this study. 

Table 3.3: Grade 6 Song Posttest vs Poem Posttest

This finding confirms previous research findings. For instance, the results of the study .indicated that the integration of action songs is an effective way to facilitate the young, low proficiency ESL learners in comprehending vocabulary. Moreover, they emphasize the fact that with the globalization the incorporation of more interesting and new teaching approaches and strategies foster all the learners to study in ESL context. That fact is also confirmed the present study findings.   

3.1.3. Supporting Hypothesis 2 

The second hypothesis of the present study is that there is a significant and positive impact after the usage of songs and poems in grade 10 with compared to grade 6. To test this hypothesis, the data obtained from song groups and poem groups in both grades were analyzed. 

The finding for the song group was that grade ten posttest scores were higher than grade six scores. This enhancement in grade ten was significant in three songs out of the five songs. As the researcher expected this finding indicates that grade ten learners who are in the upper secondary level have the vocabulary knowledge than the lower secondary level grade six students. However, in the poem group, it is found that the grade six students have scored higher marks than the grade ten students and there is a statistically significant difference in the reduction of the mean values in grade ten than in grade six. Reasons for the reduction of the scores of grade ten poem posttests might be the unfamiliarity of the poem for the learners, variation in the teaching methods and the structure of the test papers.  However, the researcher has identified the learners in the grade ten poem group as the quite lower level learners compared to the grade ten-song group learners. Therefore, the competency level of the learners might be another reason for the reduction of the scores. Hence, as an overall summary for these findings, it can be concluded that though the learners in the upper secondary level are expected to have more knowledge than the lower secondary level grade six students, the low proficiency level might affect the vocabulary learning process. Thus, by this study Hypothesis 2 was partially confirmed. 

Limited studies have examined the impact of using songs and/ or poems to teach vocabulary due to grade-wise. However, this finding is in accordance with the study by [6]. According to [6] academic level is a factor that affects the learning process of any learner and said that teachers have to deal with the different competency levels of the learners in foreign language classroom: "some students are brilliant, others are just good, but there can also be students with a very poor level of the language and consequently with a lot of difficulties to follow the class"' (p 28). Therefore, incorporating and selecting appropriate teaching materials of vocabulary that match with the learner level is essential [7]

4.1. Implications of the Present Study 

The results of the present study indicate that both songs and poems can be used as a teaching material of vocabulary learning for secondary level ESL learners. Yet, songs are more effective in the teaching vocabulary. These findings from the present study have implications for the use of songs and poems in the ESL classroom. Firstly, the overall findings of the study are indicative of the necessity of using songs and poems as alternative methods of vocabulary teaching in the language classroom as both songs and poems can be used to improve students' vocabulary learning and can motivate learners to learn in the interesting classroom context. Another implication of this study is that teachers need to recite the poems in a way that the learners can understand rather than just reading the lines. [8] stated that "the line by line presentation with its clear breakdown into short clauses and its visible segmentation into discernible semantic units might have increased the perceptual salience of phonemic patterns within the text and might thus have further aided the memorization text" (p 189). Moreover, teachers should be able to manage the time when using songs and poems as the materials in teaching vocabulary.

4.2. Recommendations for Future Research Studies 

Considering the implications and limitations of the present study, in future studies, it would be effective to incorporate more songs and poems and to extend the duration of collecting dataand conducting teaching sessions. Furthermore, further research can be conducted to examine how characteristics of songs and poems facilitate vocabulary learning in the ESL context. The present study was analyzed only quantitative data and there is a necessity for qualitative data analysis of the ESL learners' perception regarding the use of songs and poems in teaching vocabulary for secondary level. Moreover, the sample size, in future studies, should be increased to gain generalizable findings of the use of songs and poems in secondary level to teach vocabulary in ESL context of Sri Lanka. In future studies, it would be useful to investigate vocabulary learning through songs and poems with participants of different vocabulary sizes to get a better indication of the contribution of songs and poems in vocabulary learning. As well as more vocabulary items, need to be tested in future studies.

According to the research findings it can be concluded that the use of both songs and poems are effective in enhancement of vocabulary learning at the secondary level and yet, songs are the most effective method for the secondary level. Moreover, though there is a significant difference in the upper secondary level and lower secondary level in terms of their competence, it might be affecting the vocabulary learning process. Therefore, this study suggests the necessity of more effective teacher training and awareness of selecting learner appropriate materials to teach vocabulary in the ESL context of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, findings ways to eliminate the limitations of this study could make directions for future studies related to this field. In conclusion, although the study has several limitations it is expected that the results of the present study will make the teachers aware of the value and effectiveness of using songs and poems as a strategy to overcome the challenges that both teachers and learners encounter in vocabulary learning in ESL context of Sri Lanka.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

No funding sources

The study was approved by the , University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

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