Using Songs to Facilitate English Vocabulary Learning Among Indonesian High School Student`s

Sri Ratna Nur Citra Dewi (English Language Education Research Program, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo)
Abid (English Language Education Research Program, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo)
Irmawaty Umar (English Language Education Research Program, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo)

IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature
Vol. 14 No. 1 (2026): IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Lite

This research investigated the effectiveness of using English songs to improve vocabulary mastery among eighth-grade students at MTs Al-Huda Gorontalo. A quantitative approach with a pre-experimental one-group pre-test–post-test design was employed. The participants consisted of 26 students from one eighth-grade class. The treatment was conducted in four sessions using two English religious songs, Thank You Allah and Insya Allah by Maher Zain. The vocabulary instruction focused on three categories: nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a paired sample t-test. The results showed a substantial improvement in students’ vocabulary mastery after the treatment. The mean score increased from 67.50 in the pre-test to 89.62 in the post-test. The paired sample t-test revealed a statistically significant difference between the two tests (t = –9.802, p < 0.05). These findings indicate that song-based instruction significantly enhanced students’ ability to recognize and understand targeted vocabulary items.