Music has been used as a teaching approach in ELT for a long time and the rapid accessibility to music has enabled both teachers and students to use it more. The positive effects of music on language learning are many; however, the use of music in the English language classroom is still debated. Although there are many previous studies about the use of music for language learning, to improve vocabulary for example, there are few studies regarding teachers’ beliefs and practices in relation to the use of music in the English classroom. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the role music has in the English language classroom and this will be done by examining teachers’ beliefs and practices of using music to improve English vocabulary learning. The research questions for the present study are as follows: 1. What are the differences between upper secondary and lower secondary school teachers in regards to their beliefs and practices of using music in the EFL classroom? 2. How do teachers incorporate music as a teaching unit in the EFL classroom? 3. What are the beliefs of teachers regarding the effects of music on English vocabulary learning? The study was carried out through semi-structured interviews with four teachers: two upper secondary and two lower secondary school teachers. The chosen analysis for the study was thematic analysis as it is best suited for transcriptions. The results of the study showed that there are no big differences in teachers’ beliefs and practices. They all believe that music has positive effects on students’ vocabulary learning. The upper secondary school teachers believe that there are many materials of music whereas the lower secondary school teachers believe that music presents new things such as new words for example. Moreover, most of the teachers believe that music increases motivation, interest, and attention. In addition, although the teachers believe that music can be used for all skills, they mainly use it for listening and writing exercises. However, the upper secondary school teachers focus more on the writing skill while the lower secondary school teachers focus more on the listening skill. The teachers use music in many ways such as word gap exercises, interpreting/writing lyrics, guessing lyrics, and as aids in discussions about history. In general, the teachers believe that music has positive effects on vocabulary learning as it engages the students in repetition of words, and enables them to analyse and translate lyrics, to encounter new words and to explain them.

Keywords:

Music, teachers’ beliefs, teachers’ practices, EFL, vocabulary learning.