How to use songs to teach English
Songs are an excellent resource for foreign language teachers. They can be used for a variety of activities. From my own experience I present a few tips of how to make use of songs during English lessons
Teaching English with Songs
When I was a student I loved when foreign language teachers used songs to introduce new vocabulary, phrases and grammar. As I noticed, not only for me but also for my friends, it was entertaining, relaxing and to a great extent motivating way of grasping new elements of the language. This is why I use this method in my work as a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language as often as I can. I love to prepare exercises with the use of my favourite songs and, to my huge delight, it really works.
Songs provide a great material for foreign language teachers. Even if they might seem only a pleasant lesson break, they can be much more effective than any other exercises aimed at practicing different language skills. First of all, they provide a piece of authentic language and are excellent for improving listening skills. Second of all, you can use the same song for different levels, just changing the task according to your students’ abilities. Finally, you can use songs in different ways, not only to teach lexis and grammar, but also to introduce general theme of the lesson or to offer a subject for the discussion.
Here are some examples of what you can do with songs, when you teach teenagers or adults (younger children are a completely different story) , to make music an enjoyable part of your teaching plan:
1) Cutting out words
Depending on a level, you should decide which words you would like to make your students listen for. When you teach lower levels – you can choose either the words they already know or you can pre-teach them the vocabulary from the gaps before listening. For higher levels – you can make them listen for more advanced words, and also the ones that might be quite hard to hear. You can also ask them to predict the words and phrases from the gaps – this is something to capture their imagination and creativity.
2) Mixing up the lines
You can scatter the lines of the lyrics and then ask your students to put them in order while listening. Just be sure not to confuse them with too many lines – to avoid that you can divide the lyrics into segments and mix the lines within them.
3) Singing along
As repetition reinforces learning, ask your students to sing or just follow the lyrics after they’re done with all the gap filling, and other tasks you have prepared for them while listening. Some groups will sing loud, some will be quiet, don’t worry – they should enjoy it anyway!
As a final point, I would like to recommend to you a few songs I have used during my lessons:
“Black” by Pearl Jam (some interesting vocabulary and phrases for filling in the gaps; you can also discuss the lyrics with your students, talk about the emotions, meaning of colours, art, etc.)
“Last Kiss” by Pearl Jam (past tenses)
“Wishlist” by Pearl Jam (“wish” structure)
“Long December” by Counting Crows (perfect for the use in winter)
“One Last Breath” by Creed (practicing tenses, phrasal verbs, vocabulary)
“Runaway” by Del Shannon (vocabulary for lower levels)
“Every Breath You Take” by The Police (verbs)
“I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrants (vocabulary, phrasal verbs, tenses, talking about friendship)
“In The Shadows” by The Rasmus (vocabulary, Present Perfect Continuous Tense)
“You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt (perfect for lower levels)
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2 (Present Perfect Tense)