Nowadays, we need the improvement in intensity and quality of character building implementation in formal educational institution. This claim is based on the growing social phenomenon, namely the increasing juvenile delinquency in society, such as brawl and various other cases of moral decadence. These phenomena are obviously not expected to happen in our society. Therefore, the formal education institutions which are functioned to create the younger generation is expected to increase its role in the formation of personality of students through increased intensity and quality of character education. Since the reformation of our national curriculum, we have been developing new methods in building the students’ character, which we know better in schools as character education. It has been applied to the national curriculum method which turns around developing “good character” in students by practicing and teaching moral values and life skill. Moral values and life skill can be taught in a fun way using the media such as music, specifically songs which has a good moral values and life skill. This paper reports the effectiveness of using character development songs in teaching moral values and life skill in SDN Adiarsa III Karawang. The samples taken will be only the 6th grade students. Data are collected through interview and classroom activity. The study reveals that the effectiveness of using character development songs in teaching moral values is unexpectedly successful, though there are some difficulties in organizing the 6th grade class which are great in number. This study is expected to give contribution to those who are planning to conduct a research on character building in English Language Teaching (ELT).
Research Question
1) How can songs as a media in CTL of ELT be implemented in teaching moral values?
2) The students’ response to the use of character building songs in CTL of ELT to teach moral values to the 6th Grade students in SDN Adiarsa III Karawang.
Background
Nowadays, the need of improvement in intensity and quality character education implementation in formal educational institutions is increasing. This idea is based on the growing social phenomenon, namely the increasing juvenile delinquency in society, such as a mass brawl and various other cases of moral decadences. These phenomena are obviously not expected to happen in our society. Therefore, the formal education institutions which are functioned to create the younger generation is expected to increase its role in the formation of personality of students through increased intensity and quality of character education.
Before we discuss further about the need of character education nowadays, it is better to know the definition of character itself. The Sage’s English Dictionary and Thesaurus defines character as “the inherent complex of attributes that determines a person’s moral and ethical actions and reactions”. American Dictionary of the English Language defines character to be “the stable and distinctive qualities built into an individual’s life which determine his or her response regardless of circumstances”. Abraham Lincoln once said that, “Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree.” Our character is not just what we try to display for others to see, it is who we are even when no one is watching. Good character is doing the right thing because it is right to do what is right.
Nancy A. Wood (2008) defines character as an evaluation of a particular individual's moral qualities. It can also imply a variety of attributes including the existence of lack of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty and loyalty, or of good behaviors or habits. When someone is a moral character, it is primarily referring to the assemblage of qualities that distinguish one individual from another. Character building is the way to strengthen one’s character by molds oneself into a productive person within one’s sphere of influence. Developing such personal qualities seems as a purpose of education.
Character building in school, we call this term as character education, is applied to the national curriculum method that turns around developing “good character” in students by practicing and teaching moral values and decision making. On the other word, character education is an investment system of the character values to the citizens of schools that include components of knowledge, awareness or volition, and actions to implement those values (Bila Nastiti, 2010). As Theodore Roosevelt expresses that to educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace society. His statement implies that if we want to make students good at not only cognitive aspect but also have a competent in moral aspect, we should educate them in a pleasurable condition.
Songs are one of a pleasurable media to teach moral values in English subject. English teachers can use songs as part of their classroom teaching repertoire. Larry M. Lynch (2010), states that songs contain authentic language, is easily obtainable, provide vocabulary, grammar and cultural aspects and are fun for the students, especially to Elementary students.
The 6th grade elementary students somehow will enter Junior High School later. This is a stage of adolescence for them. According to Ghifari (2004), adolescence is a group of people who are leaving childhood full of childhood dependency and towards the establishment of responsibility. Therefore, teaching moral values through education is important to be implemented in early education, as well as an early preparation for them to face their adolescence later.
This research titled “The Students’ Response to the Use of English Character Building Songs in CTL of ELT to Teach Moral Values to the 6th Grade Students in SDN Adiarsa III Karawang”, is carried out to see how the students response to the implementation of using character building songs in teaching moral values to them. In order to accomplish this purpose, the writer conducts a teaching simulation of Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) using songs as a media in English Language Teaching (ELT) and wrote their responses through interview to conclude how the students response. The writer also purposes to see how songs as one of a pleasurable media, can be implemented to teach moral values to the young learners, specifically to the 6th grade elementary students.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
The Character Education Initiative asserts that there are universal values that must be explicitly taught to students. As the initiative states, “Character development is the deliberate effort to nurture the universal attributes upon which schools and communities find consensus.”…
- 393 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
People are not born with all of their characteristics. A person gains their character as he/she is growing up and experiencing new situations. When a child in kindergarten takes a crayon from a fellow peer, the teacher scolds him/her and tells the child that is not right. The teacher’s tone of voice and the negative experience of getting in trouble is an indicator to the child that what he/she did was wrong and shouldn’t be done again. Education plays an important role in building a child’s character. When children receive education, they are taught morals that will benefit them in the future, and they receive a sense of discernment.…
- 537 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
-Music benefits the educational settings a lot, expressed feelings and change minds (Shore & Strasser,…
- 704 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Selwyn Duke describes on his periodical about the power of the music influence people. He states that if individual can be taught to read with rhymes and songs, then he or she can also learn the same way what is wrong and right. He mentions how music can be used to provide a positive education, such teaching kids on healthy eating habits. But, the most intriguing is how music and culture has impacted the people. How it intrigues kids from sounds that they have never hear and from things that they have never seen, such as a young girl might get a maternal instinct when she hears the sound of a baby crying. As the culture changes, so does the music because each generation finds the last generation music unappealing. The author also describes how each style…
- 515 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Previous to this quote, Atticus explained that he did not want his children to believe courage was…
- 631 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In the article Rap and Moral Character by Wesley Cragg and Christine Koggel, the subject of concern is the consequences of listening to rap music and the effects on moral behaviour. The author suggests that rap and moral character are linked and that due to the natural context of rap, it promotes violence, crass materialism, crime, and is misogynistic and therefore corrupts a person’s moral character. Based on their claims, the authors take the position that rap should be censured – morally. In this paper, I will examine the authors’ claims, their reasoning, and their use of concepts. By doing so, I will be able to demonstrate that their thesis (rap corrupts moral character and deserves moral censure) is unjust and unsupported. First, I will analyze their claims to show that they are relevant and can be cautiously accepted but insufficient to prove the thesis. Secondly, I will examine their reasoning to point out flaws and fallacious reasoning. Then I will proceed to evaluate their use of concepts.…
- 1847 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Children in the US should have music classes, which is a key factor to a quality education. According to Washington Post, “Children’s ability to appreciate the rhythmic aspect of speech is correlated with the ease with which they learn to read, even when controlling for phonemic awareness.” Music can help with many other subjects, such as reading, and it can even help with rhythm in speech. Similarly, PBS says “What children would miss most in a musically reduced or barren environment are the musical…
- 544 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
I have a soft spot for these videos that use a song for teaching purposes. We know that every student learns in different ways so by presenting a video using a song to help remember important parts of…
- 1160 Words
- 4 Pages
Powerful Essays -
There have been may attempts to implement a character education program at Hollister High School. After collaborating with the members of the Character Education focus team and veteran members of the high school staff, there was a general consensus that the programs of the past questioned the student’s intelligence in terms of the character lessons being taught. The lessons did not make the students think. The lessons were designed for students a lot younger than high school aged young adults. The team had to develop program that would get student students to think about how their decisions define who they are as people and how these better decisions will help each student become the best version of themselves. The program implemented needed to be more than a character word of the month.…
- 1691 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Character encompasses being good and doing right. Teachers can easily model this without being pushy or pushing their ideas onto students. Certainly teachers need to avoid hot topics such as pro-choice and religious instruction. But teachers should not be discouraged from shaping their students into thoughtful, productive moral citizens as they work with them in the classroom.…
- 658 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
It's been years in the psychology and assessment of moral development that theories of genetic epistemology and social behaviorism (which are based on Piaget, Kohlberg, and Bandura's approaches) have been in the center of attention for the psychologists and education experts and have been used by the educational counseling centers and other psychology centers in Iran. Therefore, there have not been a suitable theory and proper native assessing tools made in our country in the field of moral development. The main issue is that the theoretical foundations and the structure and content of these viewpoints are provided without considering the innate and eternal moral foundations, moral motive and feeling, moral belief and culture, and moral behavior and reactions. Such viewpoints are not in consistency with our school students' moral development. This article has shown that Piaget, Kohlberg, and Bandura's viewpoints have strictly positioned the moral judgment, learning social laws, and relations of the Western countries as the foundation for their theories without considering spiritual, rational, and motivational bases of moralities, which have roots in divine creation and the human nature.…
- 5932 Words
- 24 Pages
Good Essays -
In class activity, every student reads aloud a picture book with music and rhythm because it is a support for emergent literacy. It helps students to concentrate, build imagination,…
- 302 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
So the moral message that I want to tell you about is how the young generation of any country should be working to preserve their country’s traditional music. Every nation has its own traditional music, just like Indonesia, and everywhere in the world traditional music is disappearing.…
- 411 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
I therefore conclude that the school and home contribute a great impact in developing the child’s social, cognitive, emotional-moral aspects in life. And so as to the total personality of the child. At home where the child begins to learn, she learned values. While in school where a child is being much molded to be a better person. The child’s ability and talent is developed, and the teacher helps the child to show what his/her interest in life. How the…
- 474 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In order to develop pupils’ listening skill, teachers should make pupils listen to songs, rhymes and stories. To show their understanding of what they have heard, pupils can be asked to answer questions that require them to recall ideas, give details and even talk about the ideas…
- 2673 Words
- 11 Pages
Better Essays