Canciones y motivación en el aula de ELE

Abstract

The research study aims to describe whether songs, as authentic material, are a source of motivation for students under the learning process in the Spanish as Second Language (SSL) classroom. We also set out to investigate the effects that songs generate in learners during study sessions. We can argue that songs are a source of motivation in the SSL classroom. However, learning does not come by itself. The role of the teacher and the design of the teaching unit are important in order to achieve not only communicational competences, but also pedagogical goals in the linguistic area. It is a reality that music in the classroom generates an affective reaction, giving the chance to deliver the communicational input to the students. That is, an environment of relaxation, creativity and low anxiety level can be built, but a teaching strategy is necessary so that once the affective filter is present, the input can create a degree of knowledge either by its cognitive system or by the innate nature of learning of new expressions and therefore encourage the exercise of recall, memory and involuntary mental rehearsal. An important conclusion of our study is to observe that interest and pleasure have a positive relationship with the use of authentic material, that is, songs. It is also important to note that persistence is negatively related to pleasure and interest in the use of authentic material. However, when students experience a high level of stress, the persistence increases. In other words, we can affirm that extrinsic motivation has a negative relationship with intrinsic motivation in the SSL classroom.