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Songs in ESL class

Posted by jellybeanenglisch · January 7, 2009 · 10 replies

I know music and songs are a great and fun way to teach grammar or vocabulary. But exactly HOW do you do it? Letting the students listen to a song without knowing or understanding much of the lyrics is frustrating. I want to use a song in my advanced conversation class (adults). I don´t want to just hand out the lyrics and let them read while listening, so what do I do?

10 Replies

Tanialoves

Hi,
This is what I do:

1) At first I play a song without explaining any vocabulary or grammar constructions. I just let students listen to it and then I ask them some general questions (What is the song about? What happened? What is going to happen) or I ask them to tell me any words/phrases/sentences which they remember/were able to understand.

Or... I mention the topic of a song and ask the students to tell me the words/phrases that may be used in this context. We make up a list of such words and while listening the students have to tick off the units used in a song.

2) Then I introduce the words that may be unknown for them. To practice these words I prapare a "fill-in" exercise.

3) After that I ask some questions that may provoke discussion (Do you agree...? What would you do if...?)

I hope it will help 🙂

mesmark

There's a pretty good podcast about using songs in class.
ESL Teacher Talk » Blog Archive » Using Music in the Classroom

There are a lot of ideas and ideas for different age groups.

emile

I like to use a song that has a story to it. For example, 'Stan' by Eminem is the story of a deranged fan that commits suicide (not for kids obviously). 'Last Kiss' by Pearl Jam is the story of a guy whose girlfriend died in his arms after a road accident. He only discovered his love for her as he kissed her goodbye.

liluka

I usually write the lyrics on the blackboard , sing it once twice the without the cd-player and then put the cd to listen to it and then we can sing it together again without cdplayer.This goes fine.

mesmark

emile wrote:I like to use a song that has a story to it.

Almost all country songs have a story that progresses. They work really well.

jellybeanenglisch OP

Thank you all for the great tips!!!!!
I used the ABC song in a one-on-one adult (!) class to practice spelling and the student absolutely loved it.

jellybeanenglisch OP

Thank you Pete for those links!!!

ICAL_Pete

Cheers! I particularly like the Karaoke activity. It gets students of all ages going!