Teach English in Qingyihu Nongchang - Suqian Shi

Everyone love music, people of all ages and cultural backgrounds love music. Music is a way to build strong language skills and foster learning. Songs are great way for everyone to learn English. These are reasons for using songs in the classroom. 1. Songs are fun and natural When using music in the classroom, students feel fun and relax. They aren’t stressed or shy and they will eager to join in the activities. Students think to learn language is not too hard and when using music to make it that much easier. 2. Songs can teach vocabulary, grammar point. Songs are full of great vocabulary that students pick up naturally in song. Structures and tense are often repeated in the songs. So that the right song can be a powerful way to teach a grammar point and for students to learn grammar in a fun, creative, useful way. 3. Songs can teach pronunciation Besides teaching new vocabulary, language learning set to music will help students understand rhythm, stress and intonation. We can also use music to teach pronunciation, pacing and rhyme. Language itself is musical, speech has flow and form and songs strongly link and teach the underlying patterns of the language itself. 4. Songs can teach cultures Culture is something transmitted and not directly taught. All English teachers need to teach culture, it is a cornerstone of what language is. Songs are a way to enter into the culture of a community and they transmit the values, ideals, history and nature of the culture. Students benefit and understand the target culture through the deductive, implicit learning that occurs through song. 5. Music helps building rapport Learning a foreign language can be stressful for anyone, especially young learner. When teacher and students, especially children sing and dance together, they think their teacher is friendly and cute. Fun, simple English songs playing as students enter the classroom help create a welcoming environment. Besides, songs are a way to bring students together and create a strong classroom learning community. Music are very socially loaded and bring people together in a powerful way. 6. Music helps improve memory Our memory is connected to our emotions. We tend to memorize what we like automatically and forget what we don’t like. Songs are enjoyable and interesting so that students can remember immediately. Songs, when used correctly, are very motivating for students. Students learn language in a fun way and gain confidence through repetition and voicing. They like that their favorite songs can be used to help them learn English. 7. Songs are free and variety. Songs are widely available free online and can be found on many video sharing sites and resource sharing communities. A good thing about songs is that we can expose the students to many different kinds of English: British English, American English... There are a huge of different kinds of music in the world: rock n roll, pop music, jazz...and that make students don’t feel boring. These are only some of the many reasons songs are useful in the language learning classroom. Here are just a few of the main ways music and song can be used as a learning material. 1. Beginner - Use songs that are repetitive and very easy to understand. - Get students standing and moving and doing the actions to songs. The finger and hand motions that are used to illustrate a song fascinate children. - Don’t make it too serious or boring, this is supposed to be a fun activity. - For young learners, use songs to learn the basic: number, the alphabet, animals, color, the days of the week, clothes, shapes,... 2. Intermediate • Gap – fill: use the lyrics, make a worksheet with words missing and have students listen and fill in. • Ordering the song - Give students the sentences list, students number as they hear them. - Students order pictures representing the song • Draw it: play a song and as students listen to it, have them draw what they feel, see, think, understand. Afterwards present and share and ask for the reasons they drew what they did. • Teach grammar- vocabulary - Give students a lyrics sheet and have them underline or circle the grammar forms or vocabulary that we’d like to focus on. - Transfer lyrics from direct to reported speech. • Retell story: choose an instrumental song and ask students to relax, listen and write the story which the music “tell”. • Guess the song - Play charades where the students must “hum” the song and the other teams try to guess the name song. - Play a song the students are unfamiliar with. Put 3 possible titles up on the board. The students listen and decide which one is correct. • Translation - Chooses a song from their own language - Group translate - Check with other groups - Combine the best 3. Advanced • Song review - Students have lost of opinions about their favorite songs - Teacher give questions and students answer the question while or after they listen. Next can write up a review of the song. • Write new version - Listen to the song - Students add verse of their own - Students finish the line in each verse then listen - In group students then write their own verse to check. • Make a music video: start by showing the original video in class and then asking students to write, then film their own versions.