Do you use songs in your lessons? How? Watch how Seema uses them and then share your ideas below!

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Comments

Submitted by Liz Lianet on Tue, 06/28/2022 - 23:30

Thanks for sharing! I love songs!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/29/2022 - 17:10

In reply to by Liz Lianet

Glad that you found it useful Liz!

Anne

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by ChrisThorn_Admin1 on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 11:44

Hi Chidinma - yes songs can be an engaging and effective learning resource in the teen classroom.

Kevin Thomson suggests some ways of using songs in class in this article.  I really like the idea of getting learners actively involved in choosing the songs and helping create some of the activities (it takes a lot of the pressure off of teachers too!).  Could that work for you?

Chris

 

Submitted by Chidinma on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 10:31

Thanks a lot for this enlightenment. Please I would like to know how effective it is to use songs to teach older students between 13-17years of age.

Submitted by Seph345 on Sun, 04/17/2022 - 14:31

I use songs in the classroom with a specific subject, so the students understand the song and learns the subjects.

Submitted by lizmm on Thu, 08/18/2016 - 17:06

Lyricstraining.com is a great resource for teenagers and adults

Submitted by katefrost on Sat, 05/30/2015 - 08:55

This looks great, so engaging. After all learning through song is a major way of teaching MFL, why not EAL? I'd like to do this with my children, but I teach 10 year olds in England- most speak English very well if it is not their mother tongue- however, I have 3 new children in the class who are at the very beginning stages of learning English. I am worried that they will be self-conscious doing this sort of thing in front of their peers. I think I'd have to find a song for everyone to learn together. Any ideas?

Submitted by 03oam88 on Mon, 09/01/2014 - 22:00

This video made me dig in the Internet to find some kids rhymes. And I found a nice thing called "playground rhymes" on the site "woodlands junior school". Find and enjoy! It's a treasure-house of rhymes!

Submitted by Gulnarsuleymanova on Thu, 12/05/2013 - 20:20

The songs are very interesting for my students . I use songs in my primari classes. When I teach a song they are happy .

Submitted by Rafiw on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 09:22

No doubt songs are grate. Does this site offer some specific songs and presents them to the teacher so that the teacher can learn and use them in the classroom; If not would' it be a good idea to introduce this kind of material. To be more specific I am looking for songs like you are using in the classroom, you are doing it so well I want to study how to do it like you.

Submitted by Sally Trowbridge (not verified) on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 10:41

In reply to by Rafiw

Submitted by sivasakthy on Mon, 02/18/2013 - 12:53

I like to teach songs. so it's very helpful for me to teach.

Submitted by lallouch on Sat, 01/26/2013 - 14:57

I think that using songs with young learners is a fabulous tool to let them learn in a motivating atmosphere .Yet , I wonder wether it is also successful with 13-year old or 14-year old learners.congratulations on your work with these girls and thank you for your precious tips .lallouch

Submitted by paronn on Thu, 10/18/2012 - 22:43

I recently found a very good web site for teaching with songs. There are more than 100 songs with simple vocabulary and actions. My students love the songs and they are free to download. The link is below.

www.dreamenglish.com

Submitted by Nguyen Dinh Tung on Sat, 09/15/2012 - 09:48

The browsers I use are Fifrefox and Chrome, but I can't watch the video clip.

In Chrome, it says: Movie is not loaded.

In Firefox, it says: Video format or MME type is not supported.

Submitted by Any Tina on Tue, 09/04/2012 - 12:19

Awesome!! The classroom is commoner to read or write but different thinking songs in the classroom. Excellent is thinking carry on this. Thanks.

 

Submitted by dars25 on Thu, 07/26/2012 - 00:50

it is a very nice idea...since one of my group class likes music maybe i could also use songs as part of my routines in teaching...thankyou..

Submitted by dali laloui on Wed, 04/25/2012 - 07:29

to make your teaching enjoyable , as a teacher, you have to be rather smart..... add some charming to chackle off the daily rootine and make your learners entertain and enjoy their learning as well. songs are very useful in this case .

Submitted by verovaltoia on Sat, 04/21/2012 - 00:24

I really like it! I just have a question, How long usually take them to learn the song? Do you usually teach the song first? Or first the grammar related to it?

Thank you in advance, and have a nive week


Vero

Submitted by Sally Trowbridge (not verified) on Mon, 04/23/2012 - 08:07

In reply to by verovaltoia

Hi Vero
Learning a song is a gradual process that can be done over a number of lessons. Very young learners pick up grammar and vocabulary as they sing. Here’s just one way to teach a song:
1)    Play /sing the song.  Do the actions and encourage the students to join in with the actions as they listen. You can invent simple actions for any song.
2)    Play/sing short sections of the song and get students to repeat each part.
3)    Play/sing the song and pause (or stop singing) for children to sing the last part, eg,
T: Old Macdonald had a ……….
SS: Farm
You can demonstrate that you want students to sing by cupping your ear with your hand.
4)    Everyone sings and does actions together.

It'd be great to hear more ideas on teaching songs. : )

Sally

Hi Loris

This blog offers lesson plans based around short film clips: http://film-english.com/2012/04/

This activity uses YouTube videos: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/vision-%E2%80%93-youtube-technique

This article talks about using short video clips in the classroom: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/online-video-elt

Sally

Submitted by Antonieta on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 14:50

The video was great!! is this teacher from England? she speaks perfect!! thanks for share that video..

 

Submitted by Sally Trowbridge (not verified) on Wed, 04/11/2012 - 08:07

In reply to by palace_wang

Hi Palace

Sorry to hear you're having problems with the video. What happens when you try to watch it? Is it possible to try to using a different browser or computer?

Sally

Submitted by Graciela Rodriguez on Tue, 04/03/2012 - 15:48

Seema, congratulations, the way you show how to do it is awesome, it has also worked for me as I teach nursery to kids 1 and 2 years old, there is no other way to get their attention and having them sing all the songs and communicate is really a gift. regards

Submitted by KaraAharon on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 14:07

I want to share 2 songs I've used recently which also involve social issues and a brief description of activities I used as follow-ups. Both songs can be easily found on the internet.

"Don't Laugh at Me" - I chose this for a class where some children were particularly cruel to others who were less popular. We discussed why children laught at each other, how children feel when they're laughed at, how the children laughing feel and what else they can do to feel good about themselves without making others feel bad. Now we're staging the song with each child playing one of the "misfits" and plan to perform it for the school.

"Who Says" (sung by Selena Gomez) - We talked about why some people try to make others insecure and how they feel about themselves, how the person singing feels and how the person she's singing to feels. They had different ideas about to whom she's speaking in different parts of the song. Then I took out different costumes and told the students to prepare themselves for "auditions", using whatever they need to look and feel their best, thinking about whether they need anything at all. Some, like in the song, were comfortable as they are, some chose to use small accessories and some became someone else completely.

In both cases they learned and gained confidence in their English,  but also learned something about themselves.

Could you tell us exactly what you see on the page when you try to watch the video so that we can help you? It seems to be working fine here right now.

Thanks,

Sally

Submitted by SeemaR (not verified) on Wed, 03/21/2012 - 06:46

To contextualise the language ('Where is ....?' and 'Here I am!') in the song 'Where is Thumbkin' (and to learn the names of all my students in the beginning of the year!), I extended it as you saw in the video. I ask for each child and sing it through with them giving them a fun way to practice their greetings. I don't end with 'Go away!' (as is on the original song) but with common greetings such as 'Have a nice day!' and 'Nice to see you!' They love it and use these greetings when they meet me outside the classroom.

Really useful with absolute beginners, I think!

Seema.

Submitted by SvetlanaIlicheva on Sun, 03/18/2012 - 08:11

Songs are great! It's a good teaching method, I think.

Submitted by babakartal on Thu, 03/15/2012 - 12:48

They are very happy using songs and they can learn easily new vocabulary. Videos are used too..

thanks for sharing...

Submitted by gozzal78 on Wed, 03/14/2012 - 12:12

I like songs very much

Submitted by Linda S on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 22:07

I often use songs with young ones myself. I've also "invented" mixtures of "loopty loo" and "hokey pokey" with a vaudville style ending. Something young 6 year olds find fun is a cheer: 2,4,6,8 let's do the body shake, hands up, hands down, clap your hands and turn around. Let's do the shake, yeah, let's do the shake.

With older students (8-10 years) I enjoy working with rock songs. I've found old "Police" and "Sting" songs of great help. For example, Message in the Bottle, An Englishman in New York (which usually follows some lessons about American colonisation and the differences in American and British English). I am now thinking about "Walk like an Egyptian" (Bangles) for a class of 9 year olds who are being introduced to the Egyptian period in History. I've also tried "Queen" with pieces of "We will Rock you" and "We are the Champions".

I find they have lots of fun and begin to realize what they are actually singing when and English language song is playing on the radio. It arouses their curiosity and they don't even realize that they're "studying", because they enjoy it so much.

Of course, this goes side to side with traditional textbooks.

 

 

Submitted by SeemaR (not verified) on Wed, 03/21/2012 - 05:50

In reply to by Linda S

Absolutely! :) I've also used Johnny and June Cash's 'If I were a carpenter' to introduce the second conditional to my P6's (11 year olds).

Submitted by KaraAharon on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 20:50

When working with teens and adults, I try to choose familiar songs which they can relate to. Here are some fun exercises:

Go around the room and have each person read one word of the song in sequence. A great way to keep everyone's attention.

Have someone or several people do a dramatic reading of the song.

Stage a video clip of the song.

Write an additional verse to the song.

Many non-native speakers sing along with the radio but mispronounce many words. This is an opportunity to improve their listening and pronunciation skills.

And back to young learners, when one of them tries to remember a word, very often I remind them of a song with a word in it and that helps them remember it.

 

Submitted by Julia_charming on Sun, 03/11/2012 - 10:39

I really enjoyed watching this video. Thanks for sharing!

There is a book, called 'Music and Song' by Tim Murphey, which is very useful for listening and singing activities. Teachers can adapt some ideas from that book and use them during their lessons.

Submitted by Sally Trowbridge (not verified) on Mon, 03/12/2012 - 09:21

In reply to by Julia_charming

Lots of great ideas and suggestions here in response to Seema's inspiring video. Here are some links to songs and teaching ideas for young learner and adult classes:

There are lots of lovely songs for children on LearnEnglish Kids: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs

More kids' songs on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=089A3255E63E8D54

Tips on using traditional songs with children: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-kids/using-traditional-songs

Different ways to use songs with adults: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/using-songs-classroom

Sally

Thanks, Sally!

I'd just like to add the importance of tapping into students' own worlds and learning more about their exposure to popular culture in the foreign language. If it weren't for my students, I doubt I'd have ever listened (or sung along) to songs like 'Lovestory' by Taylor Swift, 'Baby' by Justin Beiber, and 'The show' by Lenka (which you saw on this video). This gives a lot more shared background between teachers and learners and can be quite an eye-opener!

Seema.

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Submitted by rehemrere on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 23:17

I like listening to songs to improve my EN

Submitted by reem hassan on Sat, 03/10/2012 - 16:01

Hi..thanks Seema for this wonderful video..I am totally convinced with teaching this way..but actually I have no resource to get songs from..so how can I get songs especially I am teaching 8 - 10 years old students.

Thanks again

 

Hi Reem!

Most often I just use YouTube because there are SO MANY videos on there! Check out gigglebellies.com. They have great animation and good music production. Most songs that I use I have composed, found my accident, or are the ones I grew up singing. I'm careful with nursery rhymes though since some of their language is archaic and can be confusing for EFL learners. Hope this helps! :)

Submitted by ebriceno on Fri, 03/09/2012 - 15:30

Thanks for sharing this experience, it is very educational.

I teach  adult students and sometimes I use songs to help them pronounce and understand the meaning of words.         

I usually have the lyrics writen down and I ask them to read until they pronounce it well enough and understand the meaning as if it were a spoken piece of writing. Once they have mastered the pronunciation (without musical rhythim) then I play the song and ask the students to listen to it withouth reading the lyrics so they can learn from it while it is spoken. Finally they do an exercise in which they listen to the song and read the writing at the same time, in order  to reinforce their learning and the way it is correctly pronounced.

This might not be the best method but it has worked for some of my students. I would like to have a link where I can find some "pedagogical" songs with their lyrics and also I would like to know if there is a better approach to this type of teaching.

Thanks,

Efrain

Submitted by lilitmartirosyan1 on Fri, 03/09/2012 - 12:09

Thanks a lot dear Rob for  excellent topic, I mean, using songs in the classroom is the main motivation for students, kids. I use them very often, and it works greatly! This is called effective teaching and learning. Kids like such kinds of activities, they start remembering things better, they learn everything with great pleasure, and are always interested in learning useful materials, which promote their way of thinking, enhance their scope of knowledge, enlarge the vocabulary, and just cause them to have fun!

Submitted by lisskan on Fri, 03/09/2012 - 11:48

Hi everybody, who is using songs at lessons!!!  For my students, in our small town in Russia (Sharypovo, Krasnoyarsk krai), it's the one way to hear the native speakers. We hear and sing songs with pleasure, even I haven't an ear for music :-)))

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