English Pop Songs as an Informal Language Learning Space: A Phenomenological Study of Senior High School Students' Experiences in Developing Speaking Skills
Keywords:
Keywords English pop songs; informal language learning; speaking skills; phenomenology; lived experienceAbstract
Research on English songs in language education has largely been designed to measure outcomes, and comparatively little attention has been given to how learners actually live through their everyday contact with such songs. This study examined the lived experience of senior high school students who interact with English pop songs outside the classroom, together with the way they relate that experience to their speaking ability. A qualitative design following Husserlian phenomenology was carried out at SMA Negeri 2 Bantul, Yogyakarta, between June and July 2026. Four students were selected purposively. Data were gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews, non-participant observation using a sheet of thirteen behavioural indicators, and documentation of the participants' song playlists. Analysis followed Moustakas, moving from horizonalization through textural and structural description to a composite description of the essence. Eighty-three significant statements were clustered into fourteen cross-participant themes. Entry into the experience was never self-initiated, since it was mediated in every case by a peer, a recommendation algorithm, or childhood television. Perception of songs as a learning medium proved dynamic rather than settled, and one participant judged the formal classroom more natural than songs, a position directly opposed to that of another participant. The reported contribution to speaking lay in pronunciation and fluency, and, more strikingly, in a reversal of social comparison through which a more fluent peer ceased to be a threat and became a model. The essence lies in a shift of intentionality, from a song offered by an external intermediary to a song lived through as a space for practising an English-speaking self.
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