Helen Stavrou

In my experience as an ESL/EFL language instructor, finding ways to motivate students is paramount to success. Students need to be encouraged towards the use of every day stimuli which bring them pleasure as tools to facilitate language learning both in and out of the classroom. In my experience with advanced learners of English in tertiary environments, one such stimulus is song. Songs offer a plethora of motivational authentic material which can be used to engage students and assist them in becoming more actively in control and autonomous in their language learning endeavors. Used in a pedagogically grounded manner, song may be exploited in a number of ways to help students with vocabulary acquisition, use of context clues, specific grammatical features as well as with comprehension skills. More specifically, what I aim to research further is the use of song as a motivational tool to promote writing/creative writing/speaking and hence language learning in advanced EFL/ESL learners in tertiary education environments. Many learners voluntarily turn to music and song as a pastime, a form of entertainment as well as a means of expression in their daily lives. Tapping into this pool of authentic material can be useful in creating a springboard for writing/creative writing and speaking.