When “grass was greener”*: Longplay Album Covers and Learning English. A Retrospection

Abstract

This paper brings together several important threads accounting for learning English as a foreign language, that is, language learning experience, material culture as an element of this experience as well as a component of the learning environment, motivation and music. Material culture has recently attracted the attention of researchers interested in foreign/second language learning and multilingualism because it provides a rich context for many multilingual practices. Longplay album covers are an excellent example of artefacts that combine the verbal with the material. Music and songs, pop songs in particular, are an important motivating factor in learning languages.The aim of this paper is to share with the reader the author and her generation’s encounters with pop music of the 1960s, focusing on language learning experience based on the material aspects of these encounters, that is, longplay record covers. The paper, then, is the author’s personal reflection based on her own experience as well as on the multiple discussions she has had with friends and colleagues whose teenage years spanned the 1960s. Also connections between music and language learning are discussed along with suggestions of activities capitalizing on learners’ interest in music in the teaching process.