English-Song Listening and Perceived Anxiety Relief Among English Majors at a Vietnamese University

Abstract

Informal listening to English-language songs is a pervasive but under-documented part of how Vietnamese undergraduates engage with English. This exploratory study surveyed 35 first- and second- year English majors at Thu Dau Mot University, Vietnam, using a 30-item, five-point Likert questionnaire covering perceptions and attitudes toward English-song listening, perceived learning benefits, and listening frequency together with perceived anxiety relief. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and an exploratory Pearson correlation. Respondents endorsed all three domains at a moderately positive level, with composite means of 3.56, 3.70 and 3.59, respectively. Agreement was strongest for songs as an aid to relaxation and concentration and as a source of informal, conversational English, and weakest for peer discussion of lyrics and for perceived gains in listening comprehension. Self-reported listening frequency was moderately associated with perceived calm before examinations (r = .472, 95% CI [.165, .696], p = .004). Because the year groups were severely unbalanced (n = 4 versus n = 31), no inferential year-of-study comparison is treated as evidence. The near-uniform endorsement across notionally distinct domains, together with a very high internal-consistency estimate (alpha = .968), is consistent with item redundancy and limited construct differentiation, although alpha alone cannot establish unidimensionality. The study therefore documents favourable learner perceptions and perceived anxiety relief rather than a measured reduction in foreign language anxiety, and it highlights the need for validated anxiety instruments, balanced item wording and adequately powered samples.