“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.”

                                                               

                                                                                                                           
   Pablo Casals

   

   

   

   Songs and Their Role in the ELT with Young Learners

   

   

   Songs are generally used in listening practice. Anyhow the song’s potential is immense because
   as Max Heindel says: “Music is the soul of language.” The songs enable training all four
   language skills. First of all when we want to train listening and pronunciation, the songs are
   a real “wonderland”. Stress, rhythm, weak forms, linking, contractions, all of them can be
   found in the songs. They are suitable for teaching vocabulary, too. Of course, we cannot
   ignore grammar they offer. Grammatical forms are often used repetitively in the lyrics.

   Beside the language cultural background also works. Songs discover a bit of national culture
   and motivate students on their path to further cultural knowledge. A song is mostly a good
   friend of fun and they both together contribute to a friendly, pleasant atmosphere in the
   classroom.

   

   It’s up to the teacher what kind of song he/she chooses and what kind of activities he/she
   will use.

   Before we decide to bring a song into the classroom we should realize whether it is a suitable
   one. Are there any doubts? Then try to answer the following questions:

   

   1 Would my students not dislike the song? (There is hardly any song which could be loved by
   everyone. The student might not choose to listen to a certain song outside the classroom
   sometimes, but it doesn’t mean that he/she would not enjoy it as part of a learning activity.)

   

   2 Is the level of difficulty appropriate for my group of students? Are the lyrics of the song
   clearly audible? Will my students understand the words pronounced? Is the pronunciation
   natural enough?

   

   3 Does the song cover the semantic field I want to illustrate? Are there too many unknown
   words? Does it fit to the structure of my lesson?

   

   4 Does the song provide a good illustration of a structure I want to present or train?

   

   5 Is the cultural information the song provides suitable for the age of my pupils?

   

   Having answered all these questions the teacher may incorporate the song into his/her lesson
   plan and start choosing suitable activities:

   

   Pre-listening activities

   Brainstorming: The title of a song might be given and students try to predict what the song is
   about. A short list of words or two or three lines out of the lyrics can be offered and
   students try to guess what the whole thing is about. They may prolong the list of words and
   see later how successful their choice was. Pictures dealing with the topic may help, too, and
   become the basis of future listening activities.

   

   Listening activities

   Ordering: With the first listening the access to the whole lyrics is not usually necessary.
   Students may be given just a set of words written on cards. While listening they put them in
   order as they appear in the text. Instead of the words pictures can be used in the same way.
   The whole lines can be mixed, too.

   Total physical response: Words can be distributed among students so that each student has one.
   When listening he/she has to react somehow whenever he/she hears his/her word. He/she may
   stand up and sit down with the second appearance of the same word. Some silent reaction should
   be chosen preferably, stand up and sit down for example. When standing in a circle, students
   may turn round with their words; go to the centre of a circle etc.

   Bingo: students choose nine words from the list offered and write them into their grids. The
   number of words may differ with each song. More or less words are suitable depending on time,
   space, topic … the teacher has at his/her disposal. When listening they cross the word as soon
   as it appears in the song. The student who has all words crossed is a winner and shouts,
   “Bingo!”

   Word ordering: students are given the lyrics with some of the lines distorted. They put the
   words in order.

   Word deletion: Some extra words may be inserted into the lines of the lyrics. These extra
   words are deleted during listening.

   Word correction: Instead of extra words we may use wrong forms of words, maybe wrong tense of
   verbs. students have to discover them.

   Gap-filling: This technique is probably most frequently used in our schools. The text of the
   song is gapped and students have to fill in the gaps. We may ask them to fill the words in
   before listening and to check their choice during listening later.

   

   Activities after listening

   Comprehension questions. They could have been given before listening and answered now.

   Grammar practice: Students may search for certain words or forms, underline them or write into
   a table. E.g. all verbs in past simple, regular/irregular.

   

   Creative teachers may enrich the activities mentioned above and prolong the list.

   

   

   Do not forget to search for other ideas in the library.