E. Rodriguez Jr.

High School

Mayon Ave. Quezon City

A.Y. 2020-2021

“An Experimental Study on Atonal Background Music

and Listening Comprehension Among Grade 12 Students

of E. Rodriguez Jr. High School A.Y. 2020-2021”

In partial fulfillment of the requirements in Practical Research 2 (PR2)

Quantitative Research

Researchers:

Arcaya, Queenie S.

Maala, Dean Jahred Jansen B.

Belen, Katherine Mae V.

Bello, Christine V.

Benedicto, Maybedel B.

Milad, Aiyem May Y.

Presented to:

Mr. Raymond R. Balubar

This chapter presents the related literature and studies both from local and foreign

sources. This chapter includes the ideas, finished thesis, generalization or conclusions.

Those that were included in this chapter helps in familiarizing information that are relevant

and similar to the present study.

Related Literature

Foreign Literature

Memory triggered mainly by the act of listening, also referred to as auditory memory,

and plays a major role in the learning process. One of the first encounters we have as

students is learning the alphabet through a song. Other examples include learning the laws

of physics through karaoke (Dickson and Grant, 2003).

The same anatomical and functional cerebral resource is used by musical activities

and linguistic processes which explains the potential effect of music in the in verbal

materials (Maess, Koelsch, Gunter, & Friederici, 2001; Patel, 2003). However, it is not

imperative that music has a direct positive effect in the memory retention of individuals. A

big factor to consider is the musical composition of the tune being used as aid. Simple,

symmetric, and repeated lyrics gave the best results with retaining information (Wallace,

1994) along with the association of highly familiar melody compared to using an unfamiliar

one (Korenman & Peynirciolgu, 2004).

On the other hand, use of music as background sound while trying to remember

information presented different results. An experiment conducted where a list of words was
presented along with an instrumental song playing in the background and another one

where quiet background conditions were presented revealed beneficial results in the

context-dependent memory (CDM). However, one of the major factors affecting CDM is that

recall is better if the testing happens within the same environment as the original learning

conditions rather than in a completely different context (Smith, Glenberg, & Bjork, 1978).

Local

According to a literature review, listening, as defined by Lundsteen (1979), is similar

to reading comprehension, it is a receptive skill comprising both physical processes, an

interpretive and analytical one which often expanded to include critical listening skills,

higher-order skills such as analysis and synthesis. With the given definition, assessing a

student’s skill in listening plays a vital role both in the classroom and in the learning

process. Both mental and sometimes physical, listening requires focus and concentrated

effort.

The term “listening comprehension” has been defined by different authors. According

to Brown and Yule (1983), listening comprehension means that a person understands what

he/she has heard. If he/she learns the text through hearing it, he/she will understand it.

Dirven and Oakeshott-Taylor (1984) defined listening comprehension as the product of

teaching methodology and is matched by terms such as speech understanding, spoken

language understanding, speech recognition, and speech perception. Rost (2002) and

Hamouda (2013) defined listening comprehension as an interactive process in which

listeners are involved in constructing meaning.

According to Azmi Bingol, Celik, Yidliz, and Tugrul Mart (2014), there are a lot of difficulties

that learners may encounter in the listening comprehension. They stated that the level of

students can have a significant role when they listen to long parts and keep all information

in their mind. It is very difficult for lower level students to listen more than three minutes long

and complete the listening tasks. Short listening passages make easy listening

comprehension for learners and reduce their tiredness. According to Underwood (1989),

speed can make listening passage difficult. If the speakers speak too fast students may

have serious problems understanding words. In this situation, listeners are not able to

control the speed of speakers and this can create critical problems with listening

comprehension. The authors also added that when listening texts contain known words it

would be very easy for students to understand them. If students know the meaning of words

this can arouse their interest and motivation and can have a positive impact on the students’

listening comprehension ability. A lot of words have more than one meaning and if they are

not used appropriately in their appropriate contexts students will get confused. Also,

students nowadays tend to not listen during class. They become more distracted doing

other stuff and lose their focus so that they cannot comprehend and follow the lessons.

To overcome different listening comprehension difficulties, the present study suggests

that incorporating some background music will even make listening comprehension of

students easier and it will affect their memory retention and improves academic

performance.

Related Studies
Foreign Studies

Evidence has shown that cognitive processes involving reading and listening

comprehension are the same. Three-quarters of students involved in the study conducted

by Anderson and Fuller (2010), showed a noticeable decline in their reading comprehension

when they were exposed to lyrical music compared to the results when they were presented

in a quiet setting. According to these outcomes, lyrical music could not be the ideal

accompaniment to support the reading comprehension of students.

On the other hand, researchers have found that the best type of music to listen to in

order to support learning is classical music. In 1993, Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky introduced

the Mozart Effect in relation to the outcomes of an experiment they conducted where they

exposed the participants to Mozart’s Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos. Results showed

that the participant’s spatial IQ score increased, in comparison to other participants who

otherwise were exposed to a relaxation tape or to those who sat in silence (Linton,1999).

However, Celikkaya and Kus (2010: 326) argued that a student’s preference and

what they think is proper for their own strategy to learn, whether with music playing in the

background or in a silent environment, should be put into consideration; as well as the type

of music they preferred. Yilmaz (2006) and Koksoy (2009) further confirmed that the type of

music affects the correlation between listening to music while reading and understanding

texts. Additionally, tempo of the background music played can also affect results and

Yildirim et al. (2007) found that “slow” tempo has the highest preference when participants

chose to listen to classical or instrumental music when reading a book. Some studies also
suggest that some rhythms of classical music could have the ability to activate brain waves

in the alpha region that is associated with learning (Selcuk et al., 2003:59).

This method has actually been implemented by Lozanov called “Suggestopedia”

wherein the teacher reads texts while baroque music is playing and when the teacher stops

reading the texts, the students proceeded to listen to the music (Akbiyik, 2007:10). This

method, mainly used for language learning, was tested by the United Nations Educational,

Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and was deemed an effective method.

Listening comprehension in language learning is defined as the understanding of the

sounds heard by a listener and his/her ability to repeat the text even though some sound

may not have real meaning to his/her (Hamouda, 2013). Listening comprehension, in this

context, involves four main components. The first is the ability to differentiate all sounds

intonation patterns, and voice qualities in the second language and to compare and

distinguish between that and the native language. The second involves the understanding

of the message as a whole. The third is holding that message until it is internally processed.

The fourth and last part of the process includes the understanding of the message with all

the contexts and considered in line with the listeners’ anticipations.

Local

The way student studies vary from one person to another. Ways of studying depends

on how they want to. Yet, both get distracted while in class and do listen to music while

studying.

Music has always been a part of our lives and it has affected humans in many ways. It

affected the body unconsciously and consciously. People, when listening to music, may

have a series of actions that can be a combination of tapping, nodding, swaying, clapping,
stamping and many more (Daunow, 1977). It is thought to be a form of entertainment,

however, it can be used to affect behavior (Milliman, 1982). Also, listening to music while

doing something like studying helped people to relax, released blood pressure, remedy for

headaches and migraines, improved intelligence and concentration and lastly good

coordination (Eastday.com, 2010).

         According to an empirical paper entitled “The Effect of Background Music to College

Students' Academic Performance,” music is something that is produced by man that can be

formed into a work of art or complement the activities (Titon, 2009). Music has a lot of

genres. Few studies conclude that it affects the cognitive process of students.

Studies concluded that, according to their research findings, listening to music while

studying have shown to have a significant effect on the student’s academic performance. It

can also be concluded that when the academic performance of a student improves, the

listening comprehension skills enhance as well as the memory retention of the student.

Justification

According to the studies and articles or journals mentioned earlier, music can be of

great help when it comes to learning whether it may be about relieving anxiety, memory

retention, reading and listening comprehension, and much more. Listening comprehension

on the other hand is a key skill towards learning and is fundamental in the classroom

setting. And despite its importance it has been ignored in the learning process. Adding that

music that have been used in these studies were mostly tonal music wherein repetitive

melodies or notes that lies on a certain scale is used. That is why the researchers would

want to know if atonal music, or music wherein notes are equally treated and does not lie on

a certain scale, would yield the same effects. The lack of data in this category has piqued
our interest as researchers. Also findings by Pearsall (1989) have suggested that atonal

music may be more effective than tonal music in listening comprehension tasks. However,

their study does not indicate any advantage to the use of background music with verbal

tasks that require attention. If this study is executed properly, we would be able to gain

information and gap the knowledge in this matter.

References

Smith, S. (1985). Background Music and Context-Dependent Memory. The American Journal of

Psychology, 98(4), 591-603.

DOI: 10.2307/1422512

Umuzdaş, S. (2015). An analysis of the academic achievement of the students who listen to

music while studying. Academic Journals, 10(6), 728-732.

Ahmadi, S. M. (2016). The importance of listening comprehension in language learning.

Jones, A. (2010). Music and the cognitive process–student perceptions. Polyglossia, 19,

143-150.

Bird, J. (2017). Listen Up! The Impact of Music on Students' Reading Comprehension.

Tiu. K. (2013) The Effect of Background Music to College Students' Academic Performance.

Blanco, D. & Nartea, M. (2020) Music and Academic Performance: Impact of Listening to

Music of Filipino Millenials. Vol. 24 Issue 08.

Gilakjani, A. & Sabouri, N. (2016) Learners’ Listening Comprehension Difficulties in English

Language Learning: A Literature Review. English Language Teaching; Vol. 9.