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There are millions to choose from, just waiting to be put to use in your ESL classroom!
Much like movies, sitcoms and radio, songs are an excellent listening resource for English learners. They’re short,
snappy, lively and fun.
Inserting a song into your lesson plan is a guaranteed way to lift the mood of any class, and most importantly—to get
your students listening.
Songs can be used in a short activity, or as the basis for an entire lesson plan.
The vast variety of songs out there in the world means that there are a vast variety of ways to use them as ESL
listening materials. Whatever your grammar or language point is, no matter the learner level or topic of the lesson,
there is a perfect song out there for you.
So let’s get started by looking at a few general ways you can use songs in the classroom, and afterwards we’ll see
numerous specific activities you can implement with songs.
Past Tense: Get students to listen for past tense verbs as they listen to the song. Students should write them down as
they go, and then afterwards make sentences using those past tense verbs with a partner.
Questions: Have the students stand up every time they hear a question in the song. Then put the students into
teams and have a multiple choice quiz to see if they can remember the questions that were asked. Read out the
options and get them to write their answer as a team on a mini white board or piece of paper. Bonus points if they can
tell you if there was an answer to the question in the song, and if so what it was!
Introduce a Topic: You can use a song at the beginning of class as a springboard to a discussion topic. Ask students
an overall question about the content of the song before they listen for the first time.
Most of the activities require a minimal response, like writing one word or circling true or false, meaning that students
are focused on listening and not on writing out an answer.
Gist
Also known as a skim task, the idea of a gist activity is for students to get the song’s overall meaning. This task often
takes the form of a question. Here are some gist activities:
Sum Up: Give students no information about the song, simply play it and ask them to sum up the main idea in
one sentence.
Ask a Question: Tell students what the song is about before playing it, and pose a question for them to think
about while listening, such as “Is the man happy with his life?” or “What is for sale in the window?”
Multiple Choice Question: Ask a question with a multiple choice answer, like “Whose birthday is it? a) Mark
b) Laura c) Ramon.” When they hear the answer, students can write their choice down, or throw a ball into a
corresponding bucket.
Scan
The purpose of a scan activity is for students to find out specific pieces of information about the song. Here are three
scan activities:
Questions: Give students a worksheet with five specific questions to answer as they listen. For example,
“What color is the boy’s scarf?” or “What is the name of the road they walk down?”
Complete the Sentences: On the board, write the first half of three sentences from the song. When students
hear each sentence, they must choose from options to complete the second half of the sentence.
Fill in the Blanks: Provide students with a gap-fill worksheet to complete as they listen. If necessary, provide
a word bank at the top of the page.
Detailed Comprehension
These tasks check whether students have gained a more in-depth understanding of what the song is about.
Correct the Sentences: Provide students with a set of statements, all of which are slightly incorrect. As they
listen to the song, students must fix the statements to make them correct.
True or False: Give out a set of true or false statements about the song, making sure that the true ones are not
exactly the same as the lyrics. For example, if the song says “The boy was delighted with his rocking horse,”
you could write the statement, “The boy was happy with his toy.” This is where the comprehension comes in,
as students cannot simply listen to buzz words, but must understand the meaning of the lyrics. As students
listen they must choose if the statements are true or not.
Matching: Students can complete a matching task as they listen to the song, like matching pictures of people
with the opinions they expressed.
On FluentU, you’ll find lots of music videos that are sorted by level and are carefully annotated. Words come with
example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how
the words are used in other videos.
It’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!
Time: 8 minutes
Students talk to a partner about what they liked doing, then gather feedback as a class.
Students write down three things they can remember doing as a child and stick the paper on the back of their
chair.
Time: 6 minutes
Set the gist task by writing the following on the board: “Do the boy and girl like each other? Why?”
Tell the students they do not need to write anything, only listen and think about the questions as they listen to
the song.
Time: 8 minutes
Give students a worksheet with a set of words (alternatively you can use pictures). As students listen to the
song they need to put the words in chronological order, by numbering them.
Students check their answers with a partner before going over answers as a group.
Time: 10 minutes
Give students a worksheet with a set of true or false statements. Allow them time to read through the
statements first before listening.
The boy and girl sit next to each other in the classroom. T / F
The boy thinks they will go to school together again the next day. T / F
Afterwards, collect feedback as a group, asking students why they’ve chosen true or false.
Time: 8 minutes
Refer students back to the three memories on the back of their chairs.
Explain that they are going to find people in the class who have the same or similar memories, and people
whose memories are very different. Students get up and mingle, telling people about their memories.
Gist, scan and detailed tasks are a logical step-by-step way to enable students to understand the lyrics and meaning
of a song.
And songs are an invaluable resource for ESL listening lessons, so what are you waiting for?
If you liked this post, something tells me that you’ll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.