Shel Silverstein humorous songs as listening-treatment material

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (1 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

The study's treatment material was a set of humorous songs: "the poems written and sung by Shel Silverstein were chosen". Silverstein (1930-1999) was an American poet, singer-songwriter and children's author whose quirky style is described as laid-back and conversational, occasionally employing fancy and jokes. One song, "SICK", is reproduced in Appendix 3 as an example of the material learners heard.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Songs must be humorous and suited to relaxed listening without follow-up questions

Constraints

• The authors state the materials should be adapted to non-native learners, in higher quality sound and slower text reading pace

Target Learners

• intermediate EFL learners aged 15-25

Learning Goals

• listening comprehension through aural exposure to humorous songs

Claims

• EFL learners who listened to humorous songs gained significantly on a listening comprehension test while a control group taught without the songs did not, though the groups were not compared directly [+W]
• Humorous-song treatment shows no significant difference between EFL learners' immediate and delayed listening recall [~W]

Related Designs

• Affective-environment approaches: Humanistic teaching and Suggestopedia frame humor and song as anxiety-reducing aids to language learning

Examples

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Key Sources

• Marzieh Rafiee, Zohre Kassaian, Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi. (2010). The Application of Humorous Song in EFL Classrooms and Its Effects on Listening Comprehension. English Language Teaching, 3(4). http://www.ccsenet.org/elt

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	shel-silverstein-humorous-songs-material
title	Shel Silverstein humorous songs as listening-treatment material
description	The study's treatment material was a set of humorous songs: "the poems written and sung by Shel Silverstein were chosen".
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-11-02
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — marzieh-rafiee-2010

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