Using songs to promote the affective domain in learning listening of EFL students

songs in listening class activities ABSTRACT This qualitative study principally aimed to discover how songs can be used to promote students' affective domain in listening class activities. One English teacher and twenty-five 8th-grade students of a public junior high school in Greater Aceh, Indonesia, were involved in this study. The data were collected through classroom observation. This present study followed Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia‟s (1973) five observation criteria of the affective domain framework. Subsequently, the teacher and four selected students were interviewed for additional data. The results demonstrated that songs have a positive impact on students' affective domain. Students become enthusiastic about learning listening skills. They listened well and remembered the title of the new song (receiving phenomenon); actively participated in the classroom activities (responding phenomenon); demonstrated their problem-solving ability by working together (valuing); and effective time management (organization). Despite their ability to cooperate in group activities, they had no self-reliance when working individually (internalizing values). more comfortable and enjoyable. The results of the study suggest that teachers should consider using songs to not only teaches the knowledge but also the culture associated with the song itself when it comes to teaching listening. Aside from the cognitive aspects, teachers should also maintain and track students' progress in the affective domain.


Introduction
Listening relates to other abilities since it also requires students" awareness (Sedjiu, 2013). The process is similar to how people learn and acquire language as children to communicate with others (Scott, Roberts, & Glennen, 2011). Anderson and Lynch (1998) contend that children are able to respond to conversations because they have experienced listening as infants. Children cannot understand spoken languages. Even so, they acquire language at the end and are able to communicate. In some ways, this might be similar to what English is used as the language in the classroom. Listening activities in the classroom makes students aware of language that they learn (Green, 2004).
English language learners consider listening as a difficult skill to master (Seng, 2009). Listening to English involves a complex and active process where the students should be able to differentiate the sounds uttered by speakers (Vandergrift, 1999). This is due to the fact that listening in a second language is different from listening in a first language. Students are required to be familiar with sounds, stress pattern and semantic features (Siegel & Siegel, 2013). To comprehend sounds, listeners need to pay more attention and concentrate. Lack of listening ability will make students unable to comprehend the lesson better since listening is a crucial skill in language learning (Al Jawi, 2010).
In listening activities, there are quite a lot of materials that can be used in the classroom. Silviyanti (2014) noted that students are able to learn so many interesting things with the help of the Internet, one of which is English song. According to Setia et al (2012), the use of songs is effective in learning because students will acquire vocabulary and at the same time improve their pronunciation. Taking advantage of songs in English language teaching can improve a student's ability to spell and know phrases effectively (Setia et al, 2012).
Indonesian curriculum of 2013 states that students should be able to understand the meaning of songs (ref 4.18 for grade XI and ref no 4.20 for grade X). The teacher could use songs for English lessons in two grades (grade X and XI) of senior high school). In Malaysia, the syllabus design also emphasizes the importance of using song in the classroom (Tse, 2015), because when someone is listening to a song, "he tries to appreciate the lyrics, rhythm, vocal melody, and meaning" (Nuhung & Hastini, 2013, p.2). Schoepp (2001) mentioned the following reasons why songs are valuable in the ESL/EFL classroom. Those are: affective reasons which emphasizes on creating supportive learning atmosphere such as making non-threatening learning place and environment. Next reason is cognitive reason which emphasizes on how the topic (song) can enhance students" knowledge. Last, linguistics reason emphasizes on building students" competence in using language such as fluency.
Songs are sometimes used by teachers for cognitive reasons, such as to assess students' understanding about spoken words or the meaning of songs (Millington, 2011;Schoepp, 2001). In the process of learning, the cognitive aspects should not stand alone. Affective factors should also play a significant role. According to Allen and Friedman (2010), students' affective is developed by their feelings, attitudes, and values, which later will develop their cognitive processes.
Consequently, this affective domain creates a positive learning environment for students, teachers and the environment as a whole. Affective domain is related to personal and social development (Martin & Reigeluth, 1999) as well as the growth of "emotion, feeling, interest, attitude and value" (Anderson, 1981, p.44, as cited in Darmadji, 2014. This social development should lead to affect, and these affects might not be separated from curriculum (Beanne, 1990, as cited in Martin & Reigeluth, 1999. Burden and Byrd (2010, p. 71) mention that affective domain is related to students" feelings and attitudes. There are three components in the affective domain (Pierre & Oughton, 2007), they are: (1) emotion, a fundamental factor for learning; high level of intrinsic value and positive emotions like enjoyment of learning, hope for success, and pride of a given task result in more effective learning (Schutz & Pekrun, 2007, p. 73); (2) attitude, an attitude is composed of affective, cognitive, and behavioral components that correspond, respectively, to one"s evaluations, knowledge, and predisposition to act toward the object of the attitude (Wagner, 1969, p. 7); and (3) motivation, which is an important area of research on student learning. Selfdetermination theory (SDT), one aspect of motivation theory, is a useful starting point that describes students" willingness to engage in an activity or lesson based on fulfilling three fundamental psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000, p. 59).
There are many papers have discussed about the use of song for cognitive domain, yet, not many studies explore using songs for affective domain. Since knowledge should not be separated from attitude or behaviour, it is also important to study the issue. Thus, this paper will fill in the gap and we formulated two research questions: 1) In what ways does the use of songs promote the students" affective domain in learning listening? 2) What are the teachers" and students" responses towards the teaching and learning listening activities by using song?

Literature review
Songs are popular among people. Songs are also a great source of knowledge (Saricoban & Metin, 2000), for example, when young children learn about new subjects. In English language learning, the Indonesian curriculum for senior high level also includes lessons on songs and poetry. Students are expected to understand the meaning of a song and to explain it in their own words. Gardner (1999) mentioned musical intelligence as one of human intelligences. Several studies suggested that songs can reduce students' anxiety and create a more relaxed classroom atmosphere (Almutairi & Shukri, 2016;Fata & Aprilya, 2021;Tseng, 2012). Furthermore, music can also evoke emotions, such as exhilaration, nostalgia, and melancholy (Lip, 2005). Lip explains that when emotions are involved in a learning process, retention is increased, and unmotivated students are likely to wake up and enjoy the learning process. This is why learning should involve both cognitive and affective domains.

Using songs in language learning
The process of listening to songs requires repeated exposure (Schoepp, 2016). In other words, one song may be played more than once so that students are exposed to the sentences and lyrics of that song. Kurnierek (2016), as cited in Eken (1996, p.23), argued that there are eight reasons why teachers should utilize songs in English language classrooms. These reasons include (1) presenting new topic, (2) introducing new vocabulary, (3) developing students' cognitive learning, (4) practicing lexis, (5) listening activities, (6) encouraging students to discuss their feelings and attitudes, (7) creating a relaxed atmosphere, and (8) encouraging students to be imaginative and creative.
The use of songs as media for language acquisition is common (Salcedo, 2002), and students may improve their lexis and vocabulary. Song creates a relaxed atmosphere, which will promote the students' willingness to learn English (Tse, 2015). Considering that songs combine music and language, Seng (2009) pointed out that they possess innumerable virtues that merit our attention, "…their richness in cultures and themes, their idiomatic and poetic expressions, their therapeutic functions, and so forth make songs an impeccable tool for language teaching" (p.88).
Using song in ELT can be beneficial in a variety of ways, such as (1) fill-in-thegap exercises, where students learn to recognize foreign words (Seng, 2009), (2) using lyrics to solve listening problems (Hadian, 2015), and (3) repeated playbacks of songs to help students understand the words spoken (Schoepp, 2016). These activities can be developed to train students to develop their competences in others skill as well.

Domain in language learning 2.2.1. Bloom"s taxonomy
For all subjects in Indonesian curriculum, lesson plans are designed according to Bloom's Taxonomy. In designing tasks and instructions, Bloom's operational keywords are adopted. Bloom, Englehart, Furst, Hill, and Krathwohl"s (1956) theory consists of three domains: cognitive, emphasizing knowledge; affective, emphasizing attitudes; and psychomotor, emphasizing skills. Miller (2015) contended that Bloom et al.'s domains are still relevant even though they were developed many years ago. Since the 2000s, character aspect has also been integrated into the curriculum. The affective domain is also becoming more important.
As part of Indonesian's 2013 Curriculum, character education is integrated in a learning process. Therefore, the output of learning should be assessed not only in cognitive but also in affective terms. Wibowo (2012), as cited from the Ministry of Education (2013), asserted some values that students must have, they are religious, honest, tolerance, discipline, hard work, creative, independence, curios, grateful, friendly, bibliophile, and social care. Teachers' incompetence in integrating character values into classroom lessons is one of the barriers that may arise (Fidyati, Fhonna, & Suryani, 2018).

Affective domain
The affective domain can facilitate the development of social work, students' value, ethics, aesthetic, and feeling (Allen & Friedman, 2010). According to Darmadji (2014), attitude is characterized by a tendency to like or dislike something. Furthermore, he explained that the positive attitudes come from positive actions or performances. In affective learning, feelings, attitudes, and values can shape someone's thinking and behavior (Allen & Friedman, 2010). It also involves motivation, attitudes, and values (Smith & Ragan, 1999). In affective domain, the emphasis is on the internal changes or processes of the student's behavior during the learning process (Martin & Reigeluth, 1999).
In 1973, Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia proposed the affective domain model. They explained that affective domains are composed of five levels, starting with characterizing, organizing, valuing, responding, and ending with receiving.
1. Receiving: In this level, the students" awareness, willingness to receive, and attention are indicated. For example, students pay attention to teachers or other students" presentation. 2. Responding: Students" action such as consent, responses, and satisfaction are included in this stage. 3. Valuing: The objectives included in this level are students" acceptance, preference and commitment.

4.
Organization: In this level, the conceptualization and organization of values are involved. 5. Characterization: A set of values and characterization or philosophy are included in this stage. Beasley and Chuang (2008) investigated the relationship between songs and listening ability. The study was conducted in Taiwan on 196 students and the findings showed that the students were able to enjoy their learning environment. This has resulted on students" positive point of view of learning listening with the correlation value 0.704 (r=0.704). Different study was conducted by Hadi (2019) on the 7th grade students of junior high school in Indonesia. The results indicate that song motivates students to become more active and involve in classroom activities. In addition, he noted that the cognitive aspect also improves with each cycle, coming with a higher score on the test. Another study was conducted by Hadian (2015) towards the second grade students of junior high school in Indonesia. The data were collected form teachers" field note, students" checklist, and video transcription related to their behaviour towards the use of song. In the first meeting, some students acted negatively because they did not understand the lyrics and responded reluctantly to the teachers. In the following meetings, however, the students felt positive and learn listening enthusiastically. They gradually engaged in meaningful activities, such as using song lyrics to address their listening issues, and their motivation increased.

Previous studies
Despite some studies measuring students' attitudes towards songs, limited research has only focused on the affective domain of listening. Thus, we utilized the framework proposed by Krathwohl et al. (1973) and analyzed the characteristics of five steps of the affective domain.

Method
According to Khotari (2004, p. 5), qualitative research consists of assessing attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of the subject of the study. In this qualitative study, samples were taken from a junior high school in Greater Aceh, Indonesia. All of the participants were in the seventh grade. The school has a language lab which facilitates the learning process. Twenty-five students were selected from one class. The class was chosen based on the teachers' suggestions since there were time and access limitation to do research for all classes.
During the data collection process, the researcher observed the teaching and learning process from the back of the class. The class took place in two meetings and used an English song to teach English. The lesson lasted in 2 x 45 minutes for one session (or 90 minutes). The teacher played the songs from a laptop that connected to the speaker and the students were sitting facing the front class. Following the observation process, the teacher and four selected students were interviewed based on the open-ended questions. There were a total of eight questions regarding the influence of song on students' affective domain. The interviews were conducted in 15 minutes for each interviewee. The interview questions were related to how the students felt about the use of songs in English learning. The participants" responses were used to support the observation data. Subsequently, the data were analyzed based on Creswell"s (2009) framework of qualitative data. The data analysis outline can be seen in the following figure.
Creswell"s qualitative data analysis (2009) The data were organized, read, and coded based on the plausible information from the observation and transcription. Next, the coded data were divided into specific themes and descriptions, and further interpreted the themes and descriptions.

Findings
According to the results of the observation, using songs to teach listening had a positive impact on students' affective domain. The students listened eagerly to the songs and tried to remember the titles of the songs during the learning process. They were eager to participate in class discussions. Furthermore, song has encouraged students' ability to value, organize, and internalize values.
In order to fill in the blanks, they paid attention to the words or the lyrics. During the song's performance, they were quiet and did not disturb their friends. In addition, the responses from the interview with both students and teacher revealed that the students were motivated to learn listening. The students were asked whether they would like to learn listening using songs in the future and they positively said yes. They seemed very enthusiast and happy about the possibility. Besides, the students also admitted that they had improved their vocabulary after all the activities.

Observation results
The teacher administered a two meetings English class using songs activities. This classroom meeting is in accordance with the allocated time dictated in the syllabus. The teaching activities are as follows:

Pre activities
As the lesson started, the teacher greeted the students and followed by attendance list checking. Afterward, the teacher asked the students about what they have learned in the previous lesson, and the students answered the teacher's questions based on their knowledge. Following that, the teacher explained the topic of the day as well as the learning objective. Right before the main activity, the teacher provided sufficient explanations for the students.

Core activities
The students were asked to work in pairs. They sat next to each other. As the activity started, the teacher set the speaker and laptop to play a song. The song was selected based on students" level. The genre of song was pop songs. There were two different songs played for the two meetings. The level of vocabulary used in the songs was suitable with the students" grade.
Having explained the task, the teacher distributed the worksheet containing lyrics of the song. The students were asked to fill in the blanks with accurate words. The song was played four times. The students seemed confused at first. Afterwards, the teacher paused and explained the instructions again by providing examples. During the process, the teacher paused several times to give students a chance to fill in the blanks. When the song was played a second time, some words were already familiar to the students. Despite not being able to obtain all the words, the students kept trying and kept paying attention. Sometimes, when the teacher paused the song, the students began discussing the possible answers with their partners. The activities continued until the song had been played four times. The students had to be able to find the words without teacher's help anymore.
After they successfully filled all the blanks in, the teacher gave the students a chance to discuss their answers with their peers. Afterward, both the teacher and the students checked the answers one by one. Later on, the teacher invited the students to write their answers on the whiteboard. Wrong answers or spelling mistakes were corrected together. Additionally, the teachers taught the students how to pronounce the words in the songs correctly and translated them orally. Lastly, they sang the song together.
During the observation, it was found that the students listened and respected their partners" opinions. The students demonstrate their problem solving ability during the learning process. Every answered on the worksheet was discussed at the end of the listening section with their peers. They managed their time well. Between short pauses, the students directly discussed the answer and tried to find the right one. The details of the results are shown in Table 1 below.    They were happy and confidence in doing the tasks in pairs. If their answers were incorrect, they were happy to be corrected.
In terms of working individually, they still need help.
During the observation process, the students paid attention to the teacher"s explanations. They were eager to listen to the song being played and kept quiet during the lesson. From this aspect, the students tried to listen with respects. They also asked the teacher to replay the song. They were happy and enthusiastic in the classroom. This positive feeling has led to their willingness to listen and enjoy the class. Overall, almost all criteria were completed by the students except for three points; giving presentation, questioning new concept (responding to phenomena) and self-reliance. These limitations mainly happen because the students only answered the questions from their seat. They did not come in front of the classroom to present their answer.
The reason why categories 4, 5, and 10 did not happen as expected was likely due to time limitation. The duration of the lesson was only 90 minutes and the teacher had to play the song several times to make the students be familiar with the song. This time constriction might become further concern that the teacher must pay attention to. However, the students seem to be more excited and happy in learning English.

Interview results
The interviews of each participant (one teacher and four students) were conducted separately. The results are discussed in two sub-sections.

Teacher"s and students" responses
The questions were related to their challenges or difficulties during the teaching and learning. The teacher"s responds were referred as "T" and the students" were referred to "S".

The students find difficulty to catch the words due to some technical things
(1): "Mhm. The difficulty is when I listened to the song, the song sounds cracked. We were not able to listen to it clearly. For example, we hear "said", meanwhile the true word is "say". What being told and with what we hear is different." (S 1 ) (2): "If the sound is set louder, the music and lyrics sound are unclear. But, if the sound is small, we can hear the lyrics clearly. Then, there are some words that I cannot hear the sounds which made me unable getting the words." (S 2 ) (3): "Mhm. It is difficult to get the words from the song. So, I was left behind." (S 3 ) (4): " When listening to the song, there are songs that have fast and slow tempo.
If the song is fast, it is difficult for me to get the words." (S 4 ) (5): "The difficulty….It is difficult for students to know the meaning of words from the song. Many words are new for the students. That is why I have challenge in helping them improve their ability in vocabulary aspects." (T) From the interview, some technical things occurred, mostly related to speaker and volume. To overcome these barriers, the teacher should be fully prepared in regard of equipment before the class started, such as setting the volume, bass and loudness appropriately before the lesson.

Song helped the learning process become more fun and make the students happy
The result indicated that songs have made learning process become more interesting and fun. Meanwhile, some of the respondents stated that song helped them improve their listening skills.
(6): "I think using song is good, Miss, because we seldom use English language.
With the use of song in learning listening, we easily understand what is being learned. Besides, using song made us feel comfortable." (S 1 ) (7): "I think learning listening by using song made me easier in comprehending the lesson." (S 2 ) (8): "It is good. I think using song made us easier in understanding words." (S 3 ) (9): "It is really fun. I can learn in easier way and the environment in the class is more comfortable, made me enjoy the learning." (S 4 ) (10): "If we learned in common ways, I felt bored. But, now, using song, I felt happy." (S 2 ) (11): "I can learn in comfortable, funny and happy ways." (S 4 ) Teachers confirmed that (12): "Song makes students relax. They did not have to worry about the mistakes they made during listening. Besides, the students are already familiar with song since they gradually listen to. Hence, it makes them confidence in learning as well as feel comfortable around the environment that created by the use of song in the class." (T)

Songs increase students" motivation
The students admitted that the use of song has a positive influence on their attitude and motivation of learning. On the following are their reasons: (12): "I feel my attitude change in learning listening. I mean I more focus during learning." (S 1 ) (13): "The influence is hm-mm I became good in listening." (S 2 ) (14): "I understand the lesson better and feel motivated in learning. (S 3 ) (15): "I feel high motivation for learning. Because, usually when I learned, I felt bored and scared. But, with use of song, I am more relaxed in learning." (S 4 ) The teacher supported the students" answers by saying that: (16): "I am aware that my students looked more focus and paid attention while learning listening using song. And I believe this is a good indication that song influences my students" attitude and motivation." (T) (17): "My students seemed better in learning. They also find it easy in comprehending the lesson." (T)

Students prefer to learn listening by using songs
The result showed that all students agree and prefer to learn listening by using song.
(18): "I prefer using song in listening. Usually, while teacher explains the lesson in the classroom, students are chatting and make the class noise. But, yesterday, when learning using song, the students were quiet and paid attention to the lesson." (S 1 ) (19): "I prefer learning using song. It is made me faster in learning and understanding the lesson." (S 2 ) (20): "I like learning by using song, because it makes us become easier and faster in learning." (S 3 ) (21): "I like listening using song. Usually, I feel bored but using song I am more enjoy and comfortable." (S 4 ) The teacher confirmed that: (22): "The application of song depends on the curriculum. If it is stated in the standard competency of curriculum, then I teach the students using song. Hence, I could not say how many times exactly but I did use it if needed." (T) (23): "Usually, I need a lot of preparations to teach listening. But, using song, I only need song as the media and focus on the way I teach the students the vocabulary, pronunciation, and listening aspects." (T) (24):"After recognizing my students" changes of behavior during learning using song. Of course, I would like to teach them using song again. But, I also have to manage the use of song in order to avoid students become bored of application of song in teaching-learning listening in the classroom." (T)

Discussion
The data for the first research question "In what ways does song promote the students" affective domain in learning listening by using songs?" were formulated and organized following the affective domain criteria suggested by Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia (1973). These criteria consist of five major categories: receiving phenomena, responding phenomena, valuing, organization and internalizing values. Each category was divided into several actions, such as listening with respect, remembering the names of newly introduced people, participating in class discussions, and making a presentation.

Receiving phenomena
The students listened and respected their partners' opinions. Most of the students remained silent and eagerly listened to the song being played. Likewise, they listened and remembered the title of the newly introduced song. Ryan and Deci (2000) agree that students" willingness to engage in activities is based on three fundamental psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Responding phenomena
The students were enthusiastic to participate during classroom activities. They readily volunteer to write down their answers on the whiteboard without being asked to do so or being worried that their answers might be incorrect. With regard to item 5 (see Table 1), however, it was found that the students did not challenge new ideals concepts, models, etc. They simply accepted the teacher's explanation of the topic learned, and they readily understood it.In self-determination theory (SDT), Ryan and Deci (2000) agree that students" willingness to engage in an activity or lesson is determined by fundamental needs such as autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Valuing
Students were able to solve problems by working together. They need their partners" help to find the best solution to the problem they encountered. Fata and Aprilya (2021) explain that song is a good material in learning, especially when it comes to listening skill. During the learning process, the students show no reluctance of understanding individual and cultural differences. They even discussed the answers with their peers before writing them down on their own worksheets.

Organization
When the song was played again, the students discussed the answer directly and tried to recall the correct answers. This indicates that the students realized that there was no time for discussion when the song was playing. Beasley and Chuang"s (2008) study also revealed that this positive environment has led to students to enjoy their learning process.

Internalizing values
Students" participation in listening song activity increased (item 10 and 11). However, it was evidence that the students were still not having self-reliance when they worked individually. Sometimes, they sang the song along by looking at the lyrics which supposed to be filled. The teacher reminded the students that they have to listen to the song carefully and kept quiet, just then the students become silent. They became quiet and focused in listening to the song as well as filling the answer sheet given. A total concentration during listening is necessary considering this aspect of English skill is difficult to master (Seng, 2009). This difficulty is mainly due to the fact that listening involves a complex and active process where the students should be able to differentiate the sounds uttered by speakers (Vandergrift, 1999). Thus, more and more practices are needed to train students.
Related to the second question, the study found that the students' English abilities improved after learning the language trough songs. The use of song in English learning can increase students" interest, particularly if the song is the popular one (Chen & Chen, 2009, p13). Furthermore, song can encourage students to talk about their feelings, emotions, and attitudes (Kusnierek, 2016, p.23). The result of the interview with teacher and students also indicate that songs have had a positive impact on students" listening skill. Furthermore, students also felt that the class atmosphere is more comfortable and enjoyable during learning listening using song (see interview results). Using song in teaching listening contributes to a better learning environment in the classroom (Chuang & Beasley, 2008, p. 1).
Despite some positive results, the students still have difficulties in catching some words especially when the song is rather fast (see interview no 1-4). This is likely the reason why the students are still unable to work independently (see Table 1 no 10). Thus, group work and teacher"s help is needed.

Conclusion
This study tried to analyse the affective domain in terms of students" behaviour when they used song in listening class activity. From the finding, students" affective domain is seen from the students" active participation in the classroom. In addition, students" motivation also increases. The study reveals some positive attitudes towards using song in English language learning such as how students have more fun, happy and motivated during the learning process. However, some difficulties also appear. In cognitive domain, students find it difficult to catch the correct words mentioned. However, trough group work, pair, and class discussion, they can readily solve the problem, especially those that related to words that they cannot pick up from the song. It is pivotal that teachers use songs that consist of rich vocabulary that have meaningful insight for students. Furthermore, teachers can vary the tasks that not only limited to catching the words and filling in the blank. Some activities such as blind listening (without looking at lyric) can be done as a prior activity to activate their ability to listen to English words. Teachers can also train students" pronunciation and tone. The activities can also be done for other skills such as speaking and writing.
Last, this study is limited only to assess behaviour and attitude as reflected in Taxonomy Bloom (more popular name for learning taxonomy). More studies related to affective domain and the correlation to cognitive and/or psychomotor domain is also necessary. Thus, we recommend this area will be researched in the future.