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Songs in the ClassroomEnglish is my second language. I started learning english formally at ten years of age in school and finished with my A-Levels at nineteen. Throughout these years I believe I learned a lot from listening to music and singing along. I always had a great desire to understand the lyrics of the songs and thus to understand the meaning. I remember sitting at home with a dictionary trying to translate a Bruce Springsteen song and being unable to find the expression ?switchblade lovers? anywhere ? this was obviously before the internet. Because of my own experience when learning english I believe including popular music into the lessons can be of great advantage when teaching english as a foreign language. Stars or bands that are known worldwide are generally singing in english so it is a good assumption that most students have come across a number of these, such as U2, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Tina Turner etc. I believe that the inclusion of popular music can be a great motivator for the students and makes learning fun, it takes the stress out of learning. Because of its repetitive nature popular music can also help students absorb the material better. Most people enjoy music so when a teacher is able to tap into this enjoyment he/she can create a non-threatening classroom atmosphere and present new topics or language points with students eager to participate. Through songs in the classroom and related exercises a teacher can enhance all four language skills: 1. reading: the lyrics to a song; 2. listening: to the song, have a gap filling exercise based on the lyrics, hand out slightly wrong lyrics and ask the students to correct them, have students write down what they think they are hearing and compare; 3. writing: new lyrics for a song, write a story based on the song, write a letter to the singer, write a review of the song; 4. speaking: singing along, reading the lyrics out loud, discussion of the lyrics, make up a role play based on the song. Through popular music students also get the opportunity to listen to informal english, something different from the text books. Colloquialisms, peculiarities or slang words are much more interesting than another grammar exercise, though a song can be used as a basis for a grammar exercise as well, e.g. changing the verbs from present simple to past simple etc. However, a teacher doesn?t have to rely just on authentic english material. He/she can also ask the students to present a song to him/her in their native language and ask them for translation and meaning. Thus, the students are able to teach the teacher something about their own country, which most students find very enjoyable. A completely different set of songs though needs to be included when teaching children. Here the teacher can use songs for teaching basic language skills and vocabulary, such as the alphabet, colours, names of animals etc. These can be combined with movement as especially young children tend not to sit still for too long. Children love music and through the repetitiveness of songs are much more likely to remember various words or phrases over a long period of time.
