Teaching English with Songs

One of the most popular media in teaching ESL is music, there are many ways of using songs but we have to be careful. These are some tips that can be extremely useful.

1) Type of activities:

There are plenty of activities that can be done with music and songs, from a fun karaoke warm-up, to a gap-filling activity addressed towards a specific word category, to a whole conversation class based on the topic of the selected song. The alternatives are countless, but they have to be carefully picked and correctly adapted to our students' context.

2) Adaptation:

One of the main mistakes that teachers tend to make when they are teaching English with songs is that most of the songs used in class are simply not appealing to the students. Let’s face it, a 10 year old, the same as a 15 year old, has probably never heard Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton or even The Beatles!

A week before the ‘singing’ class, ask the students to write the names of the (English speaking) bands that they listen to, probably you will find names you have never heard of.

3) Source

There are many websites where you can find music related activities, one of the simplest is Musical English lessons.org

4) Equipment

The equipment for a music related class may vary depending on your budget and resourse availability, there are several alternatives that you can use:

For music Playback

• CD / Cassette / MP3 player
• Speakers

For Lyrics Projection

• Computer + Projector
  
• Slides + Overhead projector

For Singing

• Microphone
• Handouts