Junior High School Students' Perceptions of Using English Songs for Sustainable Character Education in English Classes

Abstract

Integrating character education into English language teaching has become increasingly important in promoting both language proficiency and students' personal development. Among various instructional approaches, English songs provide meaningful and engaging learning experiences that simultaneously foster language acquisition and character formation. This study investigated junior high school students' perceptions of using English songs for sustainable character education in English classes. Employing a quantitative descriptive research design, the study involved 101 junior high school students from Jakarta and West Java who completed a structured questionnaire developed based on the four dimensions of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): Content, Communication, Cognition, and Culture. The instrument consisted of 30 items measuring students' understanding of character values, language learning experiences, moral reflection, and the application of character values in daily life. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations. The findings demonstrated that students perceive English songs as engaging instructional materials that facilitate understanding of character values while enhancing vocabulary acquisition, pronunciation, and motivation to learn English. Furthermore, students report that the songs encourage moral reflection and support the transfer of positive values into everyday behavior. These findings suggest that English songs can serve as effective CLIL-based instructional resources for integrating English language learning with sustainable character education in junior high school contexts.