Tapping into the educational potential of pop songs in foreign language teaching through actionresearch

Abstract This paper reports a two-year action research project about the potential literary and linguistic value of pop songs in English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching. Considering pop songs as creative texts of cultural, social, and literary significance, the project aimed to develop and examine a methodological framework that can help synthesize potential literary and linguistic benefits. To this end, two song teaching units were designed, taught, and investigated with seven groups of learners ( N = 113) in Austria. The study yielded ambiguous results. While in general the song units received high acceptance rates from the participants, with particularly high scores for phases of creative work, learners’ assessments of language-focused learning phases were less conclusive. The study also revealed that song units designed on the basis of the suggested methodological framework can be time-consuming and tend to require more time than originally planned. Addressing these issues, implications and action strategies for using this approach in the practice of EFL teaching are discussed.