Greetings to everyone
We, as teachers, are responsible for motivating our students to learn, and music is a tool that can be used to trigger neural activity in the brain. Actually, music is so powerful in the language classroom that it enhances a wide range of social and academic skills, activating memory, facilitating language development, and above all, fostering positive attitudes towards learning. In today’s newsletter, you can find some useful tips that will help you bring music into your classroom.
Using songs with adults
More than 100 years ago, French scientist Pierre Paul Broca (1824–1880) identified a part of the left frontal hemisphere of the brain as the area in which the syntax of the language is processed. A century later, using magnetoencephalography (MEG) imaging, researchers found that music syntax was processed in that same area, named Broca’s area. Fascinatingly, researchers found that Broca’s area responded in a similar way to dissonant music and ungrammatical sentences. This finding suggested a close relationship between the “pattern making” activity found in both music and language. This was the first of many discoveries made possible in the field of brain research using equipment available at the time (Kristin Lems New Ideas for Teaching English Using Songs and Music).
Although few of us have the resources to provide our students with music lessons, we certainly can bring musical appreciation and musical experiences into our English classrooms, with all the benefits they provide:
- improve students’ motivation;
- reinforce grammatical structures;
- enhance pronunciation and vocabulary;
- help memorize patterns and make learning easier;
- build fluency.
While it is true that children learn most by doing and singing, and teens love learning the lyrics of their favourite singers or bands, songs work equally well with adult learners. There are many ways you can bring music and songs into your English classroom.
SONG BUILDING
Write the lyrics in couplets or line by line on strips of paper (photocopied for a large group). Students have 5 minutes to learn their line. After that, students in groups try to put the song together. One student is a secretary and writes out their lyrics. Next, listen and check. Then sing! You can do this with very simple songs too.
CHANGING THE TEXTS
This activity can be used to practise the verb tenses. Choose a song with a very strong story e.g. The Boxer by Paul Simon ( for CEFR B2) and ask students to change all the verbs from present to past. When they have finished, discuss the different versions. Ask ‘Is the meaning significantly changed?’, ‘Why is one better than another?’, etc.
Tip. This activity is also appropriate if you want to deal with lexical items because you can get the students to change adjectives and verbs to give the opposite meaning.
ADVERTISING JINGLES
This activity will allow you to play with the language of advertising and show the power of music accompanying the message. Record a number of short pieces of music (roughly as many as one third of the students in your classroom). These might be introductions to well-known songs, lasting ten seconds or so, or they can be actual jingles or short pieces of classical music. Make sure there is a sharp contrast of styles and tempo.
Students number the sheet of paper from 1 to… (the number of pieces of music that you have). Explain that each of them is an advertising executive with a great number of products and an unlimited budget. Students listen to pieces of music and decide which is right for which product. You could brainstorm a certain number of products or leave it to students’ imaginations. When they hear a piece they are to choose what would be an appropriate product for the accompanying music.
When they have finished, ask students to compare with the partners and to see if they chose more or less the same products. Replay the music and discuss their choices.
Next, divide the students in pairs or small groups and tell them they are to write a short radio or TV commercial. There should be a speaking role for each student in the group and they should really try to sell the product. The commercial should last the same time as the piece of music.
Allow for the performance time for each commercial. You can choose the best commercial together. You can also videotape the performance which is fun and students love watching themselves! (Taken from Music & Song by Tim Murphey)
You can find more fun things to do with songs in your ESL adult classroom here:
From Grade Education Center
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