Using songs to teach English
July 2, 2008 by admin
Filed under Teaching and Learning Styles
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For four years, I took the number 1 train from Christopher street subway station in Greenwich Village to 66th street Lincoln Center station. My high school, Fiorello H. Laguardia High School of the performing arts , was the place where I dreamed of becoming a professional operatic singer. I studied classical voice. My mother was a concert pianist and my father is an artist. It made perfect sense at the time.
Well, some of you already know already that I embarked on a journey to Israel back in 1989 (my father is Israeli) where I taught English on a kibbutz to Israeli elementary, middle and high school students for fourteen years. When my colleagues asked me: “well, what about your music?” I said, “I can always use music to teach English.”
My Israeli students were not ga-ga over opera music, so I had to find other contemporary ways to enrich the English lessons. One would think that with a “boom,” music would be the perfect cross over to teaching English. While it is certainly motivating, students need to be pre-taught the vocabulary and learning concepts.
In high school, I used songs like “Englishman in New York” (Sting) because of its identifiable component (New York City) and for its simplicity in language and syntactic structure. Using songs isn’t a process of osmosis and a lot of pre-teaching needs to be done. I tend to think of songs as “mini-texts.” Teachers need to work with the vocabulary and themes just like a reading comprehension. There also needs to be a sense of structure.
So, here are a few tips for using songs in your classroom:
- Make sure you have a good read through of the song on your own. Some songs may be conceptually, too sophisticated or idiomatic.
- Make sure the song doesn’t contain any cultural references. Students may be sensitive.
- Explain and pre-teach any difficult vocabulary and/or concepts.
- During a while activity, always let students listen to a song twice – one for general familiarity and second, for content based tasks.
- Teaching a song should follow a pre-while-post lesson plan. Read this article for specific how to’s on using a song in your classroom.
- Organize your technical equipment before the lesson. Listen to the recording too – It may not be clear, the voice may be fuzzy, the instrument accompaniment may drown out the singer, etc.
I recall that I had a chance to sing “Caro Mio Bien” for my older students. (not school children aged)
That was a nice surprise for them!
Teacher talk:
Have you used songs to teach and inspire your students? Join the discussion and share your comments.
Hi Dorit,
This is a great post. What a wonderful way to teach – something different for the kids. Plus, some kids are auditory learners (my daughter is one), so this is a nice change of pace for them.
Theresa
Stress-FreeParent.blogspot.com
Hi Dorit,
I never looked at teaching and music in that way – what a great idea! I am sure this post will be valuable information for many teachers.
Take care,
Judy
http://www.localfoodconnections.com
Hey, Dorit,
What a wonderful suggestion. I love the tips for using music in the classroom.
Your site is an excellent resource for new AND experienced teachers!
Great job!
Suzanne Lieurance
The Working Writer’s Coach
http://www.workingwriterscoach.com
“When Your Pen Won’t Budge, Read The Morning Nudge”
Hi, Dorit,
I like your idea of using music in the classroom. Teachers are going to find your site very helpful.
Have a great day,
Lisa Kirby
http://www.familyfunandfood.blogspot.com
Excellent concrete steps for using music in the classroom to teach a foreign language. I remember learning a few songs in French class as a junior high student. One of them, “Gente Allouette,” was not translated by the teacher and it was quite a fright when I found out what the song was about! **shudder** but it did help learn proper pronunciation.
Keep up the great work!
Sue Berg
http://www.suseink.com/suse_ink/
http://suseadoodle-ant-thymes.blogspot.com/
Found you via LJ!
I quite often use ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ as inspiration for writing horror/tension. When writing fantasy we’ve listened to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I’ve also used two different versions of ‘The Highwayman’ which have been set to music — it’s really effective and engages the students very well.