Teaching English with Songs and Music

The how and why of teaching with songs and music.

Edutainment includes 17 song lyric work sheets with music tape, it is highly suitable for these ideas. Here are some great teaching tips for songs. eprinted by permission. Some peple ha!e asked me for some of the aci!ities " do with Music in class. Here are some of them# $%&'(S There are many ways blanks can be used. " gi!e students lyrics with some blanks )specially the parts that ha!e to do wtih the sub*ect we+re co!ering in class,. They listen to song once, at the second time they fill in the blanks - as much as possible. .inally, they listen to it another time to check if they got the blanks filled in correctly. This acti!ity takes up to /0 mins. $lanks can be !ery helpful when teaching sub*ects like Simple 1ast. 1ick up a song that has may !erbs in the past tense, blank them out and gi!e in parenthesis the !erbs in their base form. Ha!e the students complete the song rewriting the past tense of each !erb. This will help them memori2e the past form of regular and irregular !erbs. )can be used with any !erb tense, Teaching ES% in a non-English speaking country is a challenge. E!en ad!anced students sometimes tend to go their mother-tongue in the classroom. So " found a way to keep them in touch with English e!en outside the classroom# " asked them to bring in a song they liked, a song of the moment. " put some blanks in the lyrics and they didn+t get e!erything after the first time they listened to it. So " had them take the copies home and try to listen to that song anywhere possible )in the car, 34s, anywhere, and bring it in to me the in the following week with the blanks filled in. " also told them to try not to look for the lyrics anywhere else but try to listen to the song itself. "t worked out pretty well ST "1S 5. 1&1E 4epending on the lenght of the song, you can cut the lyrics in strips of paper and ha!e a contest. " always di!ide my classes in two groups. So the group that gets the lyrics with less mistakes after the second time )e!en after the first time, depending on the le!el of the class,, gets a treat, or whate!er you feel like rewarding them with. E%&6&T"5' " usually bring in some celtic, classic or *ust instrumental music on test days and put it on !ery low. " noticed that when this procedure was done, students rela7 more and feel more comfortable during the test. 89"4E4 .&'T&S: " usually do this procedure on a first-day class, to ;break the ice;. 'othing personnal, but for this procedure " use E':& )who sings a little bit of folk and celtic music,. " prepare a te7t, !ery imaginati!e, something that can take many

different points of !iew, and read it out loud while the song+s being played. Students ha!e their eyes closed and " ask them to imagine e7actly what "+m reading and let their imagination flows along with the song. This is !ery rela7ing< "f anyone needs some more suggestions, let me know. 3arlos Sil!a )EduHerndon=aol.com, Herndon,>& This information was pro!ided from a workshop presented by ?oan $lankmann, from 'orthern >irgina 3ommunity 3ollege, &nnandale 3ampus 1. H5@ 4".."39%T "S THE S5'8A Some factors to note are speed )fast or slow,, the clarity of the !ocali2ation, the amount of repetition, the !ocabulary and metaphors. .or a clo2e task# "f the song has simple, repetiti!e lyrics, you can blank out more wordsB "f the song is more difficult, you will want to blank out fewer wordsB &n idea to try# blank out only the beginning or only the end of a phrase. /. @H&T "S THE 1 5."3"E'3: %E>E% 5. THE 3%&SSA .or a clo2e task# "f the song is for beginning le!el class, you wil want to blank out fewer words,but if it+s for a more ad!ances class you can blank out more words. C. @H&T ("'4 5. E'8%"SH %ESS5' 45 THE %: "3S S988ESTA Simple, repetiti!e songs often contain a resurrent gramatical pattern. More difficult songs contain interesting !ocabulary and idioms. %ook for homophones, homographs and homonyms, as well as typical fast speech pronunciation. %ook for con!ersation and writing topics. "s there a message, theme, or story thst students can discuss, e7plain, debate, and write aboutA DD @hat a coincidence. " *ust did a similar thing with my student here in ?apan recently. " was searching for a meaningful, fun lesson plan when " remembered she told me she wanted to learn English in order to understand &merican songs, mo!ies, etc. " decided to bring a tape of the country singer (enny ogers because he usually enunciates clearly while using a good mi7 of &merican pronunciation and common speach forms. My method was only to play parts of the song and e7plain the !ocabulary bit by bit until she understood the whole. Then " will gi!e her a copy of the songs she+s learned so she can continue to practice listening for familiarity. " like your e7tra touch. "t helps me e7pand on what " did. Thanks so much. egards. 4oug 1remoe "an, Thanks for the acti!ity. 9sing music in the classroom is a great way to li!en up listening acti!ities. "+d like to add a couple of steps that "+!e used with success to your process though to make the listening acti!ites more effecti!e. 1. Start with a focusing acti!ity. & focusing acti!ity is anything that will get students thinking about the sub*ect of the song)listening., &s nati!e learners, we

do this naturally. @e make guesses by looking at any pictures that come with it, we look at the title, we read the first)topic, sentence and make guesses about what is to come. These skills need to be learned in a new language, they don+t come naturally. "n addition, if the students ha!e made guesses beforehand, it is much easier to get them in!ol!ed in looking for the answers to their guesses. Here are some e7amples of pre-listening focusing lessons. &. Speculation# 1ut the title of the song on the board. Ha!e students in pairs make guesses about what the song is about and write them down on a piece of paper. Then ha!e students pass their papers a group to the left and ha!e them read them. Students must guess if the other students guess is the same or different than theirs. $. 1ictures# 8et a picture of the performers. Ha!e students make up a story about them.)5r, get a picture that relates to the sub*ect matter of the song. Students must guess about the song. 3. Take !ocabulary from the song. Step 1#1ut eight or ten words at random on your blackEwhite board. Students get up and ask each other what the words mean. Step /# Ha!e students in groups of C or F write a Guick story that uses the words. Step C# 1lay the tape. Students must shout ST51 any time they hear one of the new !ocab words. .irst student to shout correctly gets a point for their team. 4. 3ut the song into strips. 8i!e each student one strip to memori2e. Students put the strips in their pockets. Students get up and tell each other their part of the song, without looking at their part or showing their part to anyone else. Then you can do many things# you could ha!e students listen to the tape and put down the names of their classmates in the order they hear the parts from before)pretty hard, to ha!ing the students take out their strips, listen to the song and then put them on a table in order as they hear their part of the song. E. @rite up a set of Guestions around the topic. Ha!e students ask each other the Guestions. 5r, more ad!anced, choose two songs of a similar theme)or first and second half of the song,, split the class into two teams. Ha!e each group listen to their part and make up Guestions. Trade tapes and students *ust listen to the other group+s song. .inally pair each student with a member of the opposite team and ha!e them take turns asking their Guestions. There are tons of things you can do to get the students in!ol!ed. The most important point is to pro!ide preliminary material to the listening itself so that students ha!e a clear, concrete reason for listening. This will work much better than the abstract ;+cause it+s good fer ya;. Happy teaching< 1rentice $erge &fter reading the book Superlearning /000, " became a fan of using music in the classroom. &t first " only used it with my adult learners, but soon reali2ed that it works eGually well with younger learners as well. Superlearning music is the same music that is used in Suggestopedia )which is $aroGue %argo selections for you classical music aficionados out there,. There ha!e been many studies done about the affects of H0-I0 beat per minute music on the brain , one of the original studies was done right here in ?apan by 1rofessor Hideo Seki of Tokai 9ni!ersity.

" ha!e been using the music of 1achelbel, Handel, 3orelli, Manfredini, Scarlatti, %ocatelli, >i!aldi, $ach, &lbinoni, and others, as background music. 9sually its played !ery low and the students hardly notice it. Howe!er, " belie!e it is great for the calming effect it produces as well as for the impro!ement in concentration )for them and me,. Truly, 4uane 1. .lowers ?apan "' 35'3%9S"5'# :ou can do lots of things with the song lyrics. .ill in blanks, ask and answer Guestions about the lyrics or about the different situations or characters in the song, write a letter to one of them, send an answer to the person referred to in the song, rewrite it as a story, write a story which began before the story in the song and led to it, write story which will continue after the song, change words ) ad*ecti!es, ad!erbs, names, places, feelings, etc.,, in!ent new lyrics for the melody, ;draw; the different stan2as and of course en*oy listening to it or singing it. --Marcela %ococo &ll the songs on ;Edutainment; are classics and ha!e been at J1 on the charts. The students lo!e these songs. "E Hewitt