Musical evaluation of songs used in English lessons at primary and middle schools

This research is aimed to evaluate musical features of the school songs which take place in primary and secondary (2nd -8th graders) school English course books pedagogically. In this study, the case study which is one of the qualitative research methods is used, thus the musical features of the songs are analyzed qualitatively. Totally nine English course books used in primary and secondary schools in Turkey in the 2017-2018 academic year are analysed in this research. Thirty-two school songs which take place in these course books are analysed musically; the last note, tonal structures, measure figures, pitch intervals, metronomic speeds, sound-word (prosody) harmony and word components of the songs in terms of educational suitability is dealt and then these features are shown in the tables and graphics. As a result of this research, these are found that the songs are not integrated regularly in terms of grade levels, the most common last note is C, major tone is used in 22 songs while minor tone is used in 7 songs while 3 songs are created by considering Modal chord, 4/4 time signature is the most common one; Andante, Moderato, and Allegro metronome speeds are used in the songs, voice limits of the students are not paid attention during the selection of the songs, the songs include prosody errors, the topics and content of the songs are appropriate for students pedagogically. Furthermore, these are suggested that voice limits of students should be paid attention during the selection of the songs.