The role of music and songs for improving listening skills of A1 level learners on the material of Kid`s English 1

The present course work deals with the role of music and songs for improving listening skills of A1 level learners on the material of Kid`s English 1. Having investigated both theoretical and practically I came to the following conclusion.

The theme of the work is very actual, since it is aimed at studying effective ways of teaching English to small kids by music and songs. Teaching English at the most elementary level has become an issue of governmental importance at present. On December 10.2012 The First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan I.A.Karimov signed a Decree “About the measures on further development of foreign language teaching and learning system”.

According to the Decree, starting from 2013-2014 school years foreign languages, mainly English, gradually is being taught in our country from the first year of schooling in the form of lesson games and speaking games, continuing to learning the alphabet, reading and spelling in the second grade.

The text-book Kid`s English Class1 has been created by the initiative of the Resolution №1875 of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan and in line with the requirements of the CEFR.

Special attention has been paid by us at this manual as it is the first book in a series of English books primary classes. The book has been designed to develop speaking and listening skills without reading and writing.

Creating productive learning environment by exposing kids to English through classroom conversation, age appropriate DVDs, and videos is the first important step in teaching the second language.

Using music and songs is important while teaching small kids. It is an effective way to teach number the alphabet, body parts and other words requiring memorization. Using motions and gestures during the lesson to reinforce learning is a productive activity as well.

Watching the children while listening to songs and performing tasks to them, we came to the conclusion that the songs in the learning process have a positive effect on the students. Firstly, such work is done with pleasure, that is, it increases the motivation of the teaching. It is not perceived by students as an ordinary task, so it does not meet the resistance of students. And the increase in motivation occurs both among the strong and among the weak students. Secondly, the memorable motifs of songs cause the desire to sing even after the end of the lesson, thereby contributing to repeated repetition, and thus memorization of grammatical structures and vocabulary. Thirdly, the songs in the lessons contribute to the educational process the element of festivity, raising the mood of children and teachers and relieving fatigue. In general, song listening stimulates the motivation of students to learn a foreign language because without meeting with foreigners and watching films with translations, the child begins to doubt whether he needs foreign language knowledge. But songs in translation are rare, which can serve as one of the reasons for learning the language.

In general, based on the results of observation, analysis of the products of students' activities (dictations, work on vocabulary testing) and peer review, it can be concluded that the proposed forms of listening contribute to more effective mastering of the teaching material, increase the motivation of the teaching, develop a phonemic hearing and memory. It should also be noted that non-standard forms of listening are made by students much more willingly than ordinary texts selected by topic. They are perceived as a game, as a break in laborious, tedious studying activities, are carried out with great interest, and consequently, have a more effective impact.