Using Jazz Chants to Increase Vocabulary Power among ESL Young Learners

Abstract

The foundation of learning starts for children from pre-school and progresses to young learners in school. They come from various backgrounds with abilities to use home languages and mother tongue. However, their exposure to English Language is very limited due to the importance of this language is neglected as it is seen as impossible to master. Therefore, this paper investigates the effects of jazz chants approach to teach English Language to 30 pupils who are 10-year-old that have low proficiency level in a primary school located in a state in Malaysia. To improve teacher support and student involvement, it is crucial to have suitable strategies in educational contexts that would be able to develop a positive attitude among the pupils and improve their academic performance in English Language. The objective of this paper is to propose language learning strategies for low performance ESL pupils. It will highlight a direction which might improve the second language learning pedagogy in classrooms. Data was collected through pre-test and post-test, and satisfaction questionnaire which w as given to the pupils (purposive sampling). The findings showed a marked increase in scores involving 15 students who achieved 100% scores. As a conclusion, they had motivating fun learning experience while they progressed in their learning activities.