Sentence Stress in Songs: The Potential of Using Authentic Songs for Teaching English Sentence Stress to EFL Learners in Swedish Lower-Secondary School

Abstract: Using music as a tool for teaching a foreign language has been shown to positively affect the language learning process (Balčytytė-Kurtinienė, 2018; Cañete García et al., 2022; Heidari- Shahreza & Moinzadeh, 2012), and this essay suggests that authentic English songs can be used in the teaching of EFL in lower-secondary school in Sweden to efficiently meet many aspects of the syllabus. Therefore, in acknowledging that songs and sentence stress in connected speech share rhythmical features, where some syllables are more prominent than others, the present study presents a model for investigating which principles of sentence stress are present in songs, adding to the understanding of the potential of using songs to teach language. The presented model consists of two steps: first, the rhythm of the song lyrics is translated into stress; second, the found stress pattern is analyzed for what principles of sentence stress are present. Furthermore, this process is applied to five authentic songs: the present principles of sentence stress manifested in these songs are first displayed and then discussed from a teaching point of view, to exemplify how this model can be used by teachers to investigate the learning potentials of songs. The songs under investigation are “Mercedes Benz”, “Fast car”, “This land is your land”, “Blowin’ in the wind”, and “What shall we do with the drunken sailor”. The findings show the noticeable presence of various principles of sentence stress in the chosen songs, adding to the understanding of how songs can be used in the teaching of EFL pronunciation. Additionally, some unconventional cases of both word and sentence stress were found, and the essay argues that teachers need to be aware of the present principles of sentence stress in the songs, as well as the unconventional cases, when aspiring to use songs in the teaching of these supra-segmental aspects.