From Music to English

Abstract

This textbook is a for music-themed English for General Purposes (EGP) reading course with a process-genre approach to writing. It is designed for a group of college freshman students who are interested in music and in learning English and have intermediate to high English proficiency according to ACTFL proficiency guidelines. Although the majority of students have not had the experience of living and studying abroad, they are able to function at the sentence-level and use basic vocabulary and structures to express meanings and ideas. In Korea, even though students spend a lot of time studying, they are accustomed to memorizing answers for standardized tests. Also, students are accustomed to following the teacher’s instructions, and developing skills for standardized tests such as the Suneung (College Scholastic Ability Test), rather than expressing their own opinions through writing or through their own thought processes. As noted in “The Pressures of the South Korean Education System,” “The exams themselves also lack creativity, as they rely more on memorization than on actively engaging with questions. ” Thus, it is common for students to lose motivation to learn English and students are often weak in expressing themselves in English. This textbook, therefore, will help students with their critical thinking skills through experiencing various genres of reading and writing and will help them express themselves in English, based on their interests, namely, music. This approach resonates with Mumford (2000), who asserts that, in order to develop young students’ English in more meaningful ways, teachers need to consider their interests and life experience, attitude, skills and knowledge. As Mumford states, this has the potential to stimulate their knowledge in a positive way. Further, the freshman year is an opportune time to experience various genres, such as writing a biography, a review and an informative article. Presenting topics that are of interest enables students to gradually develop not only reading and writing skills but, also, listening and speaking skills through various activities in the class. In sum, this textbook consists of ten units, reading and writing, which are interrelated. Students will read music-themed authentic reading materials, which will provide various genres of reading which will serve as models for the following writing chapter. In the writing chapter, thus, students will experience writing as a process-genre approach. Based on the structure of this book, students will speak and express their own ideas and thoughts.