English for Musicians

Abstract

Communicating in English is a challenge for non-native English speakers; especially those who need to learn language for specific purposes are more demanding if they have to talk on unrehearsed topics or situations (Kavaliauskiene. 2004). English has become a global language and it has affected English classrooms in Korea. Since 1993, when the former president Kim Young Sam (1993 to 1998) implemented his policies for English education, English has become a mandatory subject for children (Spring, 1998). However, secondary school education still emphasizes test preparation rather than communicating in English (Cho, 2004). For that reason, rather than providing creativity-driven education, rote learning of grammatical rules is still the priority in English classrooms (Joongang daily, 2009). Since rote learning is memorizing something without full understanding, learners do not know how to integrate the new knowledge they have acquired. One of the solutions to the problem of rote learning is meaningful learning. Meaningful learning refers to a concept that learners fully understand the knowledge that they have acquired which is opposed to rote learning where learners acquire information through memorizing without understand the content. Meaningful learning occurs when learners apply acquired knowledge to their real life, and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) aims to develop abilities of learners to deal with unrehearsed situations (Gómez and Raisanen, 2008: 61). ESP emphasizes practical outcomes, and it puts great emphasis on helping learners to use the target language in a variety of contexts (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 1). The group of students I seek to address is 15 university students from Intermediate-Low to Intermediate-Mid proficiency level according to the ACTFL proficiency scales. The students are in their early to late twenties and are majoring in Korean traditional music. Since we live in a global era, students studying music have a lot of opportunities to perform abroad and exposing them to culture is important. However, their lack of language ability can causes a certain amount of anxiety. Since they have studied English in an exam-driven environment, they have not been exposed to much communicative comprehensive input. I have chosen this target group of students because, unfortunately, there are not many English materials for musicians, especially not for students who study Korean traditional music. I speak from example since this was my area of study, and so I know that English materials are lacking in this discipline in Korea. The target students need to understand the different stages they will perform upon while abroad they have different styles than stages in Korea, and they need to learn expressions for specific situation such as presenting the history of Korean traditional music in English. Also, they should be able to talk about their own musical instruments, they should be able to describe orchestral settings, write programs for performances, as well as give presentations at concerts in English. In my textbook, English for Musicians: Korean Traditional Musicians, I will use Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) with particular themes and situations. The principle of TBLT is that classrooms should focus on real communication and the classroom language should be linked to the language that learners can use outside of the classroom. As Nunan noted, one of the most important principles of TBLT is to use a needs-based approach to content selection. (Nunan, 2004: 1) Since learners learn efficiently when they use the language they have acquired, it is important to teach them real-world content; the motivation will lead to more effective language learning. When learners need the language for specific roles, learning key expressions will develop communicative competence in acquiring the proficiency. (Dudley-Evans and St John, 1998: 86-87) This textbook will consist of 8 units, which will present different areas that students might come across in specific situations when they go abroad to perform. The length of each unit will be equal to 10 hours. Unit 1 will deal with English for touring including expressions needed when traveling abroad. Since the purpose of this book is teaching learners English when they perform abroad, it is necessary for them to learn English they can use at the airport, hotel, and shopping mall. Following unit 1, other important topics will be introduced, such as, preparing presentations and presentation skills, introducing instruments, and communicating with a theater manager. Every unit will begin with photos that are related the topic they will learn in the lesson. The advantages of using photos are that the teacher can introduce and elicit the topic for the unit, helping the learners to brainstorm, as well as provide communicative activities (Scrivener, 2005: 336). The main section of the unit will present useful expressions with authentic listening and reading materials, and exercises will be provided that learners can practice related to the topic they have studied. The end of each unit will focus on production. Authentic situations will be provided, and students will perform role plays, as well as give individual speeches, based on the lesson they learned in the unit. Graves noted that when teachers design a course, materials development means creating, choosing or adapting, and organizing materials and activities so it will help students to achieve their goals of the course. (Graves, 2000: 150) Therefore, I will use as many as authentic materials that the learners are familiar with, thus helping the learners to reach their goals for the course. By studying with my textbook, students should be able to give oral presentations to introduce the program, and to talk about their own instrument with a wide variety of audiences. Also, they will be able to communicate with various people they will meet while they stay broad. In conclusion, this course is designed to develop students’ presentation skills in English in various contexts where Korean traditional music takes place. I believe my textbook will help students to become motivated to learn English, and will improve their communicative competence in any circumstance related to their own musical instrument. Since this textbook will consist of real world content, the intention is that the material will motivate students to acquire the language efficiently; therefore, they can achieve their ultimate goals which are to communicate in English, present a Korean traditional performance, as well as talking about their own instruments while they are performing abroad.