Songs and poems in the language classroom: Teachers' beliefs and practices

This paper examines Finnish language teachers' beliefs and practices related to singing, listening to songs, and reciting poems as teaching techniques, and whether their teaching practices are congruent with their beliefs. Teachers viewed all three techniques as highly beneficial for language learning. Singing and reciting poems were considered most suitable for teaching pronunciation; listening to songs was considered most suitable for introducing topics. For teachers who reported using particular techniques, their practice was supported by their beliefs. However, overall, reported teaching practices did not completely align with teachers' stated beliefs. These findings have implications for teacher training and future research.