Singing Away Grammar Anxiety: Affective and Creative Engagement through LyricsTraining in Thai Primary EFL Classrooms
Konan University, Hirao School of Management CUBE, Nishinomiya, Japan
A question from the classroom.
A Grade 5 classroom inquiry explores how guided song listening can support grammar practice and learner experience. LyricsTraining activities lead into noticing grammar and writing one supported sentence. When full songwriting proved too demanding, the project changed to one sentence per learner, with AI-assisted polishing and SUNO class songs for review.
ใช้เพลงและ LyricsTraining ช่วยให้เด็ก ป.5 สังเกตไวยากรณ์และเขียนประโยคของตนเอง ก่อนนำประโยคมาสร้างเพลงประจำชั้นเรียนสำหรับทบทวน
How does a LyricsTraining workflow relate to Grade 5 grammar learning, learner feelings, and participation?
From an idea
to a learning sequence.
One-group classroom study with matched pre/post grammar and affective measures. The slides distinguish 39 valid paired grammar cases from 32 valid paired Affective Filter Questionnaire (AFQ) cases, and summarize eight observed weeks.
- 01
Listen to a song
- 02
Fill lyric gaps
- 03
Notice the grammar
- 04
Write one sentence
- 05
Recycle in class songs
The learning design, made visible.
What the work revealed.
- The presentation reports 13 of 39 learners moving to a higher grammar achievement band, with none moving downward.
- Grammar bands changed from Low 28, Medium 9, High 2 before instruction to Low 19, Medium 13, High 7 at Post-test 1.
- Preliminary AFQ results (32 paired cases) show anxiety changing from 2.89 to 2.64, motivation from 2.82 to 3.07, and confidence from 2.67 to 2.81.
Within-group classroom findings: grammar results use 39 matched cases; the preliminary AFQ uses 32 matched cases. The measures describe different available samples.
A practical
takeaway.
A small, supported writing task can make a creative project manageable: each learner contributes one grammar sentence and the class reuses the resulting song for review.
Grammar tests, the AFQ, teacher observation, and student sentence-to-song outputs.
Maeoka, T., & Pholdahan, N. (2026, June 13). Singing Away Grammar Anxiety: Affective and Creative Engagement through LyricsTraining in Thai Primary EFL Classrooms [Conference presentation]. JALTCALL 2026: Prevail or Fail?, Konan University, Hirao School of Management CUBE, Nishinomiya, Japan.