Learning English

Using songs

Dan and Sian talk about using songs to teach

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Using songs

Music is a great resource to teach all kinds of language: grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Here are a few things to do with songs.

Generating interest
Like all listening lessons, generating interest is important. The simplest way is to give the students the title of the song, or some of its key lyrics. Another is to play the song to the students immediately. Get them to note down their impressions and feelings about the song. Or ask them to write down whatever lyrics they hear and at the end, attempt to guess its main themes.

Lyrics gap fill
The easiest thing to do with a song is to remove some of its key lyrics – those related to the focus of the lesson, e.g. the target vocabulary. Print the lyrics for the students with the language missing and have them listen and fill in the blanks. To vary things, you can give the students the words on a separate sheet, or give them clues to the answers.

Lyrics slice
Print the lyrics on strips of paper, one line per strip is good. Put the students in groups and hand them the complete song mixed up. Play the song while students sort the lyrics into the correct order. For variation, tell the students they may not touch the lyrics while the music plays. Play the song for 20 seconds, then pause and allow them to sort the lyrics for 20. Then repeat.

Sing and dance!
If you’ve taken all that time to study using a song as the context, then don’t be afraid to get your students to try singing it! It really doesn’t matter if no one can sing, it’s not their job! But doing so is a great way to build a good classroom atmosphere and to have a laugh at the end of the lesson. If they don’t feel like singing, why not get everybody up together, clear some space and do a dance. One which has simple organised moves, like the electric slide, is a perfect example. Then everyone is in harmony and no one should feel self-conscious. 

To do

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Get involved

Well, those were just a few ideas that we here at BBC Learning English had, but we know that you teachers out there have lots of fantastic ideas too, and we’d like you to share them with us and everybody else.

If you have a great tip or technique for using music, or anything else, please email us at learningenglish@bbc.co.uk. Your email could be posted here on this page, or may even be mentioned in our show.

We are also looking for video tips to include in the programme. In order to do this, please include whether or not you’d like to be included for video with your tip, and we'll get in touch with you. You could be rewarded with a T-shirt for your efforts.

End of Session 4

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