Exploring clause awareness through song lyrics: EFL learners’ challenges and perceptions in contextualized grammar instruction

Abstract

Traditional grammar instruction in EFL classrooms often
emphasizes rule memorization and mechanical drills, which limit
students’ ability to apply grammatical knowledge in authentic
contexts. To address this gap, the present study explores the
use of English song lyrics as authentic material to develop
clause awareness, focusing on students’ ability to identify noun,
adjective, and adverbial clauses. Forty-third-semester
undergraduate students at an Indonesian university analyzed
selected song lyrics to identify clause types, followed by a focus
group discussion with five volunteers. Analysis of students’ work
showed that over 83% adverbial clauses were successfully
identified, followed by noun (70.8%) and adjective clauses
(60%). The success is often aided by recognizable subordinators
such as ‘because’ and ‘when’. Meanwhile, errors were
commonly linked to blurred syntactic boundaries, poetic
compression, and the absence of standard punctuation in lyrics.
These results demonstrate that song lyrics can enhance clause
recognition, particularly for adverbials, but require scaffolding
for more complex clause functions. Beyond task performance,
focus group discussions revealed that students found the
activity engaging and motivating, confirming earlier claims
about the affective benefits of music in language learning.
Unlike previous studies that emphasize songs for vocabulary or
listening, this study highlights their potential for explicit
grammar instruction, contributing evidence of both cognitive
gains and affective value. The findings support the integration
of multimodal, student-centered materials into grammar
pedagogy to promote deeper syntactic awareness and learner
engagement in EFL contexts.