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Songs in the classroomSongs are a great source of language practising. Each person can perceive them differently and have different views about what the author wanted to say. They are a fantastic way to help students bond with the teacher. Music and songs help children express their emotions. Learning through songs is motivational and create an atmosphere of safety. Songs and music are fun and relaxing. They grab students attention more than dialogs or monologues. They make lessons more attractive and minimize boredom. Also they are appreciated by students as they bring them closer to the popular culture, other people?s traditions and lifestyles. Language teachers can use songs to add variety or change of pace and to recycle old vocabulary. Music is very often the only source of english outside the classroom therefore listening to the songs is an important factor in learning foreign languages. If students listen to their favourite songs they start to look up words in a dictionary to figure out what the song is about. Music and rhymes give occasion to imitate different voices and accents. Songs help learners to become familiar with word stress and intonation. Also the rhythm with which words are spoken or sung helps memorization. Songs improve concentration. There are many types especially designed for language teachers. Students can practice pronunciation and are willing to do so more likely when singing-a-long with others. It can have a good effect on their sense of pride and confidence. Students are able to memorize single words as well as whole lines of the lyrics. Songs should be chosen according to students? level and they shouldn?t be too difficult. Both teacher and students should like them. Subject of the lesson should be reflected in the song. In general they improve many skills like reading, listening, interpreting, etc Beginners can concentrate on vocabulary and phonetics. Lyrics possess plenty of idioms and phrasal verbs and they can help observe the language changes. More advanced students can practices tenses, adjectives or prepositions. Songs can be used by english teachers in many ways as shown below: Listening materials -Students can listen out for information. -The teacher can stop the song before a word he wants students to guess. -Students can be provided with a gapped version of the lyrics and asked to complete them before listening and then check afterwards. - Students might circle, underline or highlight specific words or word categories. - If students are watching videos, they can compare them to lyrics or they can create their own video clip to present to their classmates. Writing materials - Lyrics provided by the teacher could be beginning of story building. - Students can write down list of words connected to the subject of the song. - Useful to learn grammar (tenses, conditionals etc). - Finding spelling mistakes. - Use them for gap fill exercises asking students to write single words or we give them only the first letter of the word and number of spaces or miss out word endings (lower level students). -Change some words and invent new lyrics for the melody. If you have karaoke version of the song you can then let students sing their own version. Reading materials students can read the text a couple of times and each time are asked to do different things: -We can interpret the song and exchange views between groups. - Students can look for setting, foreign words, ideology, key statements, language used. -Students might be asked to rewrite the sentences in 3rd person. Speaking materials - Students can analyze or unravel the title of the song. - Lyrics are a good source for discussion around the problem brought up in the song. Students can share their feelings and experiences. Let?s say we have a country song we can have a conversation what subjects in general are covered in country music. -Transforming song into dialogs. -Answering teachers questions regarding the song. -Interpreting songs in few sentences. -students can think of the title of the song and decide if it reflects the lyrics, or they can come up with their own title to suit the song.
