Songs in language classes

[nevien selim]

Can anyone tell me about using songs in EFL classes please?

Thanks

[jasminade]

i find this useful and fun, and a great way to break up and develop the teaching.

a good technique is to record a few famous songs.

get the lyrics from the web, and copy them as a word document. print two copies of each song. one of the copies is for the teacher.
on the other copy, delete about 10-15 words with tippex. photocopy and distribute these to students. they are to listen to each song at least once in order to get attuned.
put some competition into the activity, like a little prize to those who attain the biggest score.

it is a lot of fun both for the hard working teacher and students!

[TeacherJoe]

Another idea for songs is to add misteaks to the lyrics. This forses the students to pay attention in the words. Their, I've made five mistakes in this message, including the subject header. Did you catch them all?

[rednelo]

There are some ready made lesson plans with songs on http://www.english-4u.com.

[mazzy]

... and some more ready made lesson plans here:

http://www.tefltunes.com/

The site also offers more teaching ideas and tips for teaching English with popular songs.

Happy teaching :)

[TeacherPrix]

Hi!

I tried this activity in class and worked marvelously:
http://hoprea.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/linking-sounds/

BTW, this is a great blog to get ideas from!

Hope it helps!

Prix.=)

[ForumAngel]

Hi there,

To add to the good ideas on this post, here's a good article on using English songs in class with children.

About half way down the article you'll find some practical tips on how to present songs and use them in class.

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/Articles/Using_ESL_Songs.htm

All the best
Shelley

[enirak]

Hello !
I have done my first practicum in elementary school and the teacher was singing with grade 1 and 2 regularly. In fact, grade 1 students were learning only with songs. So every class students were taking their scrapbook, which included the songs and the activities related to them, and they were starting the class by going over the songs seen in previous classes (all of them or a couple if lots of things were planned for the class). This was the class routine and it is good because students are singing the songs very often so they remember it. There were also some gestures for every songs and I can tell you that kids really like to sing and dance.

After the routine is done, you can introduce a new song by first explaining the lyrics, showing illustrations related to the song, listen to it one time, and then introduce gestures. You can sing it again and then do an activity related to it, for example coloring the illustrations of the song. What's important is to play the song while they are coloring because it calms them down, they continue to sing and thus remember it, and they stay focused on the activity instead of talking with their peers.

I found a very good website for English songs. It gives ideas of gestures for a lots of songs and some of them can be seen on videos. You can also buy some CDs with many songs. The link is : http://www.supersimplesongs.com/

Have fun singing with your students!

[nicolasbru]

Songs are a good idea for teaching a language. It gives the opportunity to the learners to take the targetted language in a relax environment. Some students may find it stressful to speak alone in a classroom. Songs are somewhat relaxing since everyone sings along. However it is important that your song is adapted to the level of the classroom. Make sure that it is not too hard or too easy. Moreover pay attention to the type of songs used. In an elementary classroomj, I 'm quite sure that most of the songs will be appreciated by the students. Regarding my own experience, I have many reserves regarding the use of songs in an high school classroom. Most of the students simply think that it is too childish. Well this is my own opinion, make sure that you build your own.

[philip]

its very fun and the students will likes to come the schools every day...a fun and entertaining class will feel the students more positively..and they can enjoy the school life a lot..

[matter]

You may find Using Music In The ESL Classroom useful.

[neverstopped]

As mentioned above, I think it's a different matter for different age groups. But I think songs can be used for every age. Elementary classes might learn grammar, the alphabet or certain words better through singing and dancing. high schoolers probably don't want to do that, but you can still use songs. You could let them choose their favorite song and let them translate it (have to watch out that there's no smut ;): Maybe give a catalogue of songs to choose from). You could listen to a song that deals with a topic you are discussing in class, talk about it, maybe interpret a little if they are that far along. They could even write their own lyrics with the vocabulary they have.

[taylorsuni]

Songs are a better way of teaching a language. That will improve listening power and you will learn about accent. Teaching with fun makes class more interesting.