  In the context of brane solutions of supergravity, we discuss a general
method to introduce collective modes of any spin by exploiting a particular way
of breaking symmetries. The method is applied to the D3, M2 and M5 branes and
we derive explicit expressions for how the zero-modes enter the target space
fields, verify normalisability in the transverse directions and derive the
corresponding field equations on the brane. In particular, the method provides
a clear understanding of scalar, spinor, and rank r tensorial Goldstone modes,
chiral as well as non-chiral, and how they arise from the gravity,
Rarita-Schwinger, and rank r+1 Kalb-Ramond tensor gauge fields, respectively.
Some additional observations concerning the chiral tensor modes on the M5 brane
are discussed.
