INTRODUCTION

I'm pleased to be able to offer the following resources to EL teachers. Hopefully they will assist you in finding new ways of including music and song in your pedagogy.

The stimulus for this work was the requirement to produce a presentation for colleagues. Groups of teachers were asked to share practical ideas on various areas of ELT based on their shared experiences and particular interests, which is why I was fortunate to be included among those looking at music, movement, dance and rhyme.

If you are wondering why you should consider my ideas, I'd like to reassure you that I am well-qualified to share them with you. Firstly, I hold a Bachelor of Music degree in music performance. Secondly, I followed this with a Bachelor of Education program in music education. Thirdly, I've completed a number of ELT-specific qualifications. 

Please look at the video, read through the comprehensive notes following it, and explore the links provided. If you would like to suggest other ideas, I would welcome your comments and thoughts, particularly as this is a huge area of practice.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge http://www.prezi.com which allowed me to produce the visuals, and http://www.screentoaster.com which allowed me to add my voice-over guide.

Introduction

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INTRODUCE TOPIC – title, sections: background, learning & doing, ELL activities, further help

EXPLAIN:

(a) No need to make notes

(b) Items for more capable students & junior high students highlighted in GREEN

Benefits

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BENEFITS
  • add emotion (feeling) and rhythm
    • aid memory of target language
    • draw children more deeply into a lesson
    • enjoyable!!!
    • students are actively involved and immersed more fully
    • “ Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand." Chinese Proverb
    • students take them outside of class e.g. sing in playground (great in EFL situation)
    • reduces barrier between classroom world and students' world

Issues

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    ISSUES
    • selection of suitable material (student book examples not always best)
    • adapting popular songs for language content/difficulty
    • focus should remain on language learning not learning music
    • singing works best standing up not sitting down (physiologically)
    • space or furniture restrictions; noise restrictions
    • teacher's comfort level with singing
    • student willingness – try starting with an activity related to the song, or moving from drilling the words to adding rhythm to adding melody, or (for older students) explain the linguistic aim of the song, permit miming instead of singing

Uses

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USES
  • can be used for listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, phonics, or cultural aspects of language learning
    • may be main way of introducing new language for the first time (e.g. by adding target words or patterns to known song)
    • warm up or cool down
    • review
    • practice/repetition
    • background to other activities
    • timer for starting & ending activities
    • sets atmosphere for class (e.g. scary music for Halloween)
    • discipline tool
    • playing known song while students arrive – sets scene
    • attention getter & motivator
    • helps pronunciation
    • may be part of student assessment (task-based, performance-based)
    • may include movement or actions
    • rhythm and beat reinforces/mirrors flow of spoken language
    • may be used as a reward
    • allows for student creativity – make up own words or movements
    • engages the emotions and feelings

Teaching & Learning New Songs

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      LEARNING A NEW SONG
    • choose a song at the appropriate level/stage for students
    • play it as students arrive or as background during another activity (helps build curiosity)
    • show a picture illustrating the song or title and ask students to guess what it's about
    • just listen with books closed
    • guess the words and give points for correct guesses
    • continue until gradually build up whole song
    • teacher can help by singing with guessed words and others just hummed
    • if necessary play again to elicit more guesses
    • when satisfied, show words & open books
    • hum the song (helps to learn melody and rhythm)
    • go over the words together (students read at same time as teacher)
    • repeat words in rhythm while clapping
    • sing the song
    • add movements or dance
    • repeat in different ways

Ways of Performing Songs

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    WAYS OF PERFORMING SONGS
    • sing with actions
    • sing with movement/dance (in pairs, groups, whole class)
    • sing with props or puppets
    • boys vs. girls, teacher vs. students, team A vs. team B either parts of song, or one group sings and other does movements
    • student conductors
    • sing with books closed (memory)
    • sing with karaoke music (or website)
    • sing loudly, softly, sadly, sleepily, crossly
    • sing slower, sing faster
    • sing as a round or canon (once VERY well known) e.g. “Frère Jacques” or “Row your Boat”
    • sing by substituting some words with claps (like “Bingo” song) or “Hmm” until only claps or “hmm”s are left; could also build it back up to full words
    • change the words to include more vocabulary items or to preview new ones

Movement and Dance

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    MOVEMENT
  • finger or arm movement
    • moving other parts of body
    • clapping pattern – alone or with partner
    • walking
    • marching, hopping, jumping, etc.
    • around a circuit
    • Mexican wave (can also sing this way)
    • ALWAYS in rhythm with the music

    DANCE
    • simple steps
    • may be on the spot rather than around room
    • can be in lines that cross over or under each other
    • using arms as well as legs
    • ALWAYS while singing the song

Potential Activities with Music

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    POTENTIAL ACTIVITIES (presenter performs while showing list)
    • sing alphabet backwards to “ABC Song”
    • sing 5 alphabet names/sounds to “Bingo” song using clapping pattern “a-e-i-o-u Hello. What's your name?”
    • draw phonics cards from a bag & use them for “Bingo” song
    • change the sentence patterns in “Bingo” song e.g. “Hi. How are you?”
    • sing “Happy Birthday” song for students' actual birthdays
    • sing a known song to only the target sounds or words
    • musical chairs – pass a ball, when music stops student with ball must respond with target language
    • sorting words in song into order from word strips (for grammar focus, choose parts of speech e.g. list of verbs)
    • matching song words and pictures
    • draw a picture that illustrates the song
    • complete quizzes, crosswords or word searches based on song lyrics
    • playing with rhyme – change words (helps with phonics)
    • finding words with given sound, given stress pattern
    • students write words from memory
    • students write new words for song – in pairs, groups, alone
    • teacher dictates new sounds/words for students to write in pictures or bingo grids
    • students complete gap fill of missing sounds or words (while listening)
    • play a board game based on words from song
    • once well known, teacher claps song opening or section & students guess title or words
    • older students research song details e.g. composer, country, date, original format, context (e.g. special events, holidays used)
    • older students do research to find a song about particular subject e.g. family, food, weather
    • older students write a story or poem based on the song or perform a skit
    • follow-up on student research and writing in next class (share)
    • discuss lyrics e.g. cultural context, what happens, do you like it, do you know similar ones
    • include movement, dance, gesture, facial expressions
    • respond in certain way when hear particular words (e.g. make noise, raise hand, stand) or grammar items (e.g. nouns)
    • cross cultural learning e.g. comparing national anthems of L1 & L2 countries, comparing traditional musical styles, dances, instruments, etc.
    • record song onto Internet program & show students how to access it for practice at home e.g. using YouTube address alone or embedding the audio/video into a blog or wiki

Potential Activities with More Able Students

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    HIGH SCHOOL EXTENSION (writing, discussion, analysis, grammar)
    • students write a dialogue between the characters
    • students write a letter to or from one of the characters
    • students read or listen to the text to extract information to write a summary
    • students interview one of the characters
    • students extend the characters by imagining what they look like, do in their free time, would do in given situations, etc.
    • students brainstorm ideas about the topic
    • students re-write the text from another character's point of view
    • students predict what happens next
    • students re-write it as a newspaper article, a speech, formal/informal tone
    • students listen and identify the song's discourse type e.g. narrative, dialogue
    • discuss how culture is reflected in the song, whether it could happen there or elsewhere, the male/female roles represented, etc.
    • word spotting (circle words heard), error finding (lyrics with wrong/extra/missing words)
    • re-write using verbs in a different tense (e.g. present to past)
    • before listening, issue lyrics as one paragraph; have students add punctuation and find rhyming words
    • full transformation: active to passive; direct to reported speech; masculine to feminine; first to third person; affirmative to negative; present to past. Then try singing new version.
    • search text for lexically-related words (synonyms, antonyms, etc.)

Some Well-Known Songs for Kids

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    WELL-KNOWN SONGS FOR KIDS
    • ABC Song
    • Frère Jacques (round)
    • Row your Boat (round)
    • Bingo
    • Happy Birthday
    • Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
    • Hokey Pokey
    • Adam's Family theme (Days of the week)
    • Twinkle, twinkle
    • I'm a Little Teapot
    • Five Little Ducks
    • Ten Little Indians
    • The Farmer in the Dell (round)
    • London Bridge
    • Going to the Zoo Tomorrow
    • If You're Happy
    • Seasonal songs e.g. Christmas

Suggestions for Background Music

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SUGGESTED BACKGROUND MUSIC
  • Music by Baroque composers, especially Vivaldi, Albinoni, J. S. Bach (in particular the lute suites), J. C. Bach, Telemann, Pergolesi (above all, the flute concertos)
  • Music by Mozart, especially the concertos
  • Lute and classical guitar music, especially by Dowland
  • Piano music by Satie, the Nocturnes by Field and rags by Scott Joplin
  • Harp music, e.g. Celtic and mediaeval music, music by Andreas Vollenweider
  • Indian music: try any morning raga, e.g. one performed by Ravi Shankar or Hariprasad Chaurasia and Anindo Chaterjee
  • Music played on the Asian zither, e.g. the Vietnamese dan tranh (sixteen strings) and the Japanese koto (twelve strings)
    • Japanese shakuhachi music

Song & Other On-Line Resources

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ON-LINE


MY WEBSITE
  • The seminar presentation, these notes, many other ELT and learning resources

Useful Articles

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ARTICLE LINKS

Kevin Schoepp, Reasons for Using Songs in the ESL/EFL Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VII, No. 2, February 2001, available at http://iteslj.org/Articles/Schoepp-Songs.html

Abdulvahit Cakir, Musical Activities for Young Learners of EFL. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 11, November 1999, available at http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Cakir-MusicalActivities.html

Natalia F. Orlova, Helping Prospective EFL Teachers Learn How to Use Songs in Teaching Conversation Classes. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IX, No. 3, March 2003, available at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Orlova-Songs.html

Arif Saricoban & Esen Metin, Songs, Verse and Games for Teaching Grammar.The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 10, October 2000, available at http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Saricoban-Songs.html
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