Download pdf - 21644669 Activities Suggestions Teaching English With Songs and Music

8/13/2019 21644669 Activities Suggestions Teaching English With Songs and Music

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Teaching English with Songs and MusicThe how and why of teaching with songs and music.

Edutainmentincludes 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 incorrectly. This acti!ity takes up to /0 mins.

$lanks can be !ery helpful when teaching sub*ects like Simple ast. ick 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"S 5 &E

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, dependingon 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 rela

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;. 'othingpersonnal, but for this procedure " use E':& )who sings a little bit of folk and

celtic music. " prepare a tet, !ery imaginati!e, something that can take many
http://www.eslgames.com/edutainment/http://www.eslgames.com/edutainment/


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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 eactly what "+m

reading and let their imagination flows along with the song. This is !ery relaingE% 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, eplain, 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 becausehe usually enunciates clearly while using a good mi of &merican pronunciation

and common speach forms. My method was only to play parts of the song and

eplain 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 etra touch. "t helps me epand on what " did.

Thanks so much. egards. 4oug remoe

"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


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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 eamples of pre-listening focusing lessons.

&. Speculation# ut 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.

$. ictures# 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#ut eight or ten words at random on

your blackwhite 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# lay the tape. Students must shout ST5 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 betterthan the abstract ;+cause it+s good fer ya;.

Happy teaching< rentice $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 0-I0 beat per minute music on

the brain , one of the original studies was done right here in ?apan by rofessorHideo Seki of Tokai 9ni!ersity.


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" ha!e been using the music of achelbel, 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 . 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