Teaching songs

Benefits of Songs:
• They are memorable:

The song the students learn at their early age has its own interesting language. When students grow up , they never forget such language. It lives in their memory for ever.

• They can be great fun.
The biggest factor that makes them fun for the kids is how much the teacher likes them, so you have a perfect motivation for using your own favorites.

• They mark different stages of the lesson,

You can start the class every week with the same song, end the class with another, and use songs or chants to mark other transitions like books out and books away.
• Students just show their understanding by doing the actions while others sing along or even improvise their own words.

• They can be used at whatever stage

You can use songs during presentation, practice or revision before a test. You can even use an action song for a week or two before the formal presentation, and so make the presentation when it comes much easier.
• They sound great to mothers and school managers listening outside your classroom door
• They can be performed during end of year shows or parties
• They allow for lots of repetition of the language kids not to get bored.

1-Grammar

2-Mad Libs

3-Holiday:

There may not be a particular point to using the song in your class besides to conduct a listening activity using a popular holiday song, but sometimes that is sufficient and your students are sure to enjoy it. If your students are willing, it may be appropriate to practice singing the song too.

   Principles for making a song ‘work’.
1.    Students have fun and are therefore motivated.

2.    Students learn quicker than with other methods
3.    Students remember longer than with other methods
4.    Students use rhythm and intonation when speaking, moving.
5.    Using the song reinforces other things such as discipline, group work, rewarding good behavior, fostering learner independence

Electronic song teaching:

  Songs can be presented to learners in class without any excessive efforts or expensive musical instruments. This can be carried out through an electronic program like "Movie-Maker" or "power point". This program can present the song words with tune, motion and sound effects and timed automatic transition electronically in a lovely way.

Make sure that:
1.Meaning of the song can be made clear in a quick and easy way.
2.Whether the students understand the the song or not, is easy to gauge.
3.The meanings and the song are easy to remember
4.The song is suitable for the students in terms of age, speed and content.
5.The language in the song is similar to language they will be able to use in other parts of the class and/ or outside the class.

Factors to take into account:
1.    Are the gestures you want to use the same in English speaking countries as in the country of countries the kids come from? If not, will you want to use the one they know to reinforce the meaning and avoid misunderstanding or teach them the British or American gestures as a kind of cultural training?

2.    Is the first gesture you think of (e.g. rolling arms around each other for “roll over” in “There was one in the bed” song) something that might be better used with another meaning in a later song or in classroom instructions (e.g. the rolling arms gesture could be the best gesture for “repeat”)?

3.    Can the students still use the same gestures if you speed the song up for a bit of variety?

4.    Do the gestures build up to a climax, e.g. leaving the most amusing or energetic gesture for the last verse of the song?

5.    Are the gestures fun?

6.    Will some of the kids, e.g. the older ones, be embarrassed by doing any of the gestures, e.g. looking camp if they have to mime being a woman.

 Steps for making a song the focus of your class

1. Listen to the song

That’s it – start things off by just listening. It’s important to remember that this is supposed to be a fun activity; don’t make it too serious or boring.

2. Ask some questions about the title

Here are an example of the types of questions you can ask:

For Queen’s classic ‘We are the champions’:

• ‘What is a champion?’
• ‘What kinds of champions are there in the world?’
• ‘What activities have champions?’

Such questions tend to work really well as conversation starters, so group three or four learners together and then get feedback from each group on their thoughts. If you think it would help, make this your first step, i.e., before the initial listening.

Alternatively, prior to having listened to the song you can teach a couple of words and give a simple task for the first listening. My favourite strategy is to give three or four words from the song and ask  them to listen out for the words that rhyme with them. You could also brainstorm possible rhymes before listening.

3. Listen to the song again, this time with lyrics

This time, you should give learners the chance to read the lyrics to the song. At this point you might do one or more of the following activities:

• Learners can just read the lyrics while they listen. They can possibly highlight unknown words for later discussion.
• You can make a lyric worksheet as a gap fill; learners fill in the gaps as they listen.

4. Focus on a particular verb tense or aspect of grammar

• How many examples can you find of the past simple in the lyrics?
• Why did the writer of this song choose this verb tense?

This acts as a springboard for discussing the function of a specific tense, as well as examining its form. Furthermore, it often tends to raise awareness of grammatical flexibility and ‘poetic licence’ in the construction of song lyrics.

5. Focus on vocabulary, idioms and expressions

Start with questions like these (again, for Queen’s classic song ‘We are the champions’):

• What does ‘I’ve paid my dues’ mean?
• What does ‘my share of’ mean?
• What does ‘I’ve taken my bows’ mean?

Go through the meanings, illustrating with other examples if necessary. Songs often serve as really good contexts for phrases and idioms, but it’s good to make sure that the meaning is clear.

6. Round things off with some creativity

 You might want to try finishing things off with an activity that stimulates creative thought.

View Other Resources:

A course content for the co-curriculum activities:

1-Classroom Activity 1

2-Classroom Activity  2

3-Classroom Activity  3

4-Classroom Activity 4

5-Classroom Activity  5

6-Classroom Activity  6