Music used in teaching

[skydolphin]

What role does music play in your teaching? Do you feel that your energized when you use music you like? What kind of music do you like to use? It is easier these days to download than in the past when you had to carry tapes from home. You probably arrived and realized you forgot to include alot of tunes you knew would be good.

[gfell]

I have used "Hotel California" and a few other very popular songs once in my classes. It can only be used in advanced adult classes however.

Works well and the song needs to be broken down into segments. The song "Hotel California" has quite complicated meanings, however it was explained to students as like explaining a piece of art. You have to try and imagine what the songwriter is trying to convey.

Eg: And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device

Each of the expressions in Hotel California really needed prior explaining. The first run of the song, no explanation was given and students had no idea of the meaning. However, after the exercise, they could hear the song and understand it fully.

A very worthwhile exercise.

[skydolphin]

Hotel California is great it has idioms metaphors. Another good song is Whiter shade of Pale. Alot of poetic tapestry that conveys feeling as feel as fact.

[Martijn]

I found that using music in my high school / senior middle school classes works very well. The students like it and see it like a mini break from the 'normal' teaching routines. However, use music that THEY like and not that YOU like. The English music taste of Chinese students is very limited and enforcing them your palette of music can very well work against you.

After having conducted a little survey (letting every student write down all the English songs he/she knows and/or likes), I used 'Goodbye to you, my trusted friend' from Westlife. Not my style at all, but the students liked it and the lyrics were comprehensible enough.
In the same lesson I started with 'Doe, a deer' from the 'Sound of Music'. A very short and easy song, but since the schoolbell at the end of every class was that tune, I though they might as well learn the words to it. It was a great ice breaker.

Find out what they know or like already and work with that.

[Motivated]

I printed off the lyrics to George Thorogood's 'Haircut' and also Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' - this tune is especially interesting to younger students (4th-7th grades) because they can relate to the idea of monsters hiding underneath their beds and fairy tales etc. And the best bit was that by the time the second chorus rolled around all the kids were singing along!

Another cool idea is to get your students to work as a team and write their very own rap/hip-hop song. Teach them how to write 2-line rhymes then get them all to contribute a few lines each to their own theme tune. The kids love it (i teach high school), especially as they have a 'product' at the end of it. You'd be amazed at how many kids out there can 'beat box' and this adds the hip-hop sound without the need for any instruments etc.

I had a lot of fun with this exercise, and plan on using it again and again, even though i think hip-hop is crap!!!

[leozeh]

I have a list of songs with their specific grammar, idioms, phrasal verbs and topics to discuss about.
If you guys are interested just let me know!

[Willie]

I never thought about using music to teach as the way you guys are doing right now. Never experienced it either.

I always thought of using music and its lyrics as a way to improve pronunciation etc. Why?...It's because I had a problem with accents and biting words properly in chinese. Listening to music and singing along and trying to pronounce the words properly helped me greatly.

Is it a bit silly of me to think this way?...

[leozeh]

Originally Posted by Willie

I never thought about using music to teach as the way you guys are doing right now. Never experienced it either.

I always thought of using music and its lyrics as a way to improve pronunciation etc. Why?...It's because I had a problem with accents and biting words properly in chinese. Listening to music and singing along and trying to pronounce the words properly helped me greatly.

Is it a bit silly of me to think this way?...

It's totally ok Willie.
I do use songs to teach pronunciation, as well.
It is always good to use music as background, warm-up, time-saver, or to introduce a grammar topic, for instance.
Here's a beatles song that I often use to introduce pronouns.
Take a look and let me know what you think!

[leozeh]

I was going to send this privately to Willie, but on second thought I'll just post it here for you all.

Here are some ideas on using Music in the ESL class.


Songs, according to many scholars, are among the best ways of teaching a foreign language. The authors of Spectrum (Prentice-Hall Regents Publications) state that "Songs are an important aspect of culture, representing the history, folklore, and current idiom of a country.(...) Singing can build students’ confidence by allowing them to enjoy a degree of fluency in English before they have achieved it in speaking." Also,songs can be incorporated to all language skills ( listening, reading, writing and speaking).

Here are some techniques and procedures when using music in the EFL classroom:

1. Cloze

This is possibly the way that most teachers use songs. Choose a song that has some connection with the structure or part of speech that you are teaching. Delete a few words from the lyric and hand the incomplete lyric to the students. For lower levels, you can include the deleted words in the bottom of the page ( of course, out of order) Hand out the incomplete lyric to the students and play the song a few times, depending on the level of the song. Students listen and complete the missing words. Then hand out the complete lyric (or write the missing words on the board). Give the students some time for correction and answer any vocabulary questions. Then play the song again , asking the students to join in and sing (they might not be aware of that, but by doing so they are actually practicing pronunciation and stress)!!

As a follow-up, you can prepare a sheet pointing out a grammatical point that you might want the students to learn at that point, and have a structural or communicative activity after that. Some great songs that can be used for specific grammatical purposes:

Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight (simple present tense)

The Beatles’ Hello,Goodbye (beginning levels), I’m So Tired ( so/such plus result clauses) and Penny Lane( use of 'the')

Tom Jobim’s How Insensitive (use of must as a logical conclusion)

Supertramp’s Logical Song ( adverbs vs. adjectives)


2. Topic Introduction - Lead-in

Many topics exist in an advanced/intermediate classes, and songs are great for some topics, such as love, jealousy, friendship, money, and many others. You can give the song in cloze form or simply the whole thing just for introduction. Again, you can have a communicative activity as a follow-up to the topic, such as a role-playing activity.

Some suggestions are:

Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters and Queen’s Friends Will Be Friends (Topic: Friendship)

John Lennon’s Jealous Guy (topic: Jealousy)

Pink Floyd’s Money (economy/business)

Eric Clapton’s Nobody Loves You (When You’re down and Out)

Bonnie Raitt’s Thing Called Love (love)

3. Singalong Videos

Singalong videos are great because they have the lyrics on screen and students have fun watching the visuals while they sing. They are also easily available. My personal favorites are The Beatles Singalong Video and Singalong With Disney

4. Relaxing

Relaxing is great for opening a class, as long as if it’s not early in the morning, which might put the students to sleep. Play a slow song (classical, if you wish) and have students close their eyes. Guide them through and imaginary "trip" such as to an island, or through the mountains. This kind of activity is great for stressed adults that have come home from work and feel uncomfortable for being in class. You’ll be surprised by the results.

5. BGM (Background Music)

I personally enjoy having music in the background while I teach. Just select a calm tape (or cd) and let it play, in low volume, during the whole class. It works by relaxing the students and making them feel a little more comfortable in class, making the atmosphere a bit more informal.


Hope it helped

[kdavid]

Music is also great for children. Most songs have tons of repetition and catchy/cheesy little tunes that get stuck in kids heads--they'll end up singing the song all week long, or until another song gets stuck in their head.

Granted, I don't think you could get a 5-year-old to remember "Hotel California" or "Enter Sandman", but simpler things work quite well.