songs for young learners

Songs for young learnersUsing songs in the EFL classroom

Your trainer• Teacher, trainer, writer• IATEFL’s YL SIG committee• Young learner materials

▫ Real English & Early Start; Onestopenglish; Next Stop; Macmillan English Campus; Grammar for Young Learners (OUP 2009); Take Shape (Macmillan Mexico 2010); Supasongs (FracasEnglish)

• Materials for teenagers, young adults and adults▫ Link-up (Klett); Tourism and Hospitality English (Garnet), New

Outlook (Noordhoff)

Why are songs so suitable?

Do all learners like songs?• Gardner: “It’s not how intelligent you are, but how you are

intelligent.” • In activities we develop with songs we can

listen and sing (aural/musical style) dance and act (physical learning style) read, draw and do puzzles (spatial intelligence) tell stories, and write (verbal learning styles).

Why music? Why songs?•Social & emotional growth•Physical development•Cognitive training•Language learning•Cultural literacy

When?• Open a lesson – warming-up• Close a lesson – reward or consolidation• Illustrate words – reinforce sound• Underbuild a grammar point or practice functional chunks

- internalisation• Add variety – auditory stimulus, TPR• Change of pace – slow down or speed up

What can you do with songs?Focus itHighlight itStop itLip-sync it

Focus it• What do you think the

song is going to be about?

Highlight it• hear • ocean• sky• whisper • heart• lucky • love • waiting • goodbye• kiss

• home • friend• sailing • island • music • flower • pretty• hold • someday• promise

Form1 Circle verbs in red.Highlight nouns in green.

Meaning2 What do you think the story will be about? Tell the story.

Vocabulary3 Match the pictures to the words.

Stop it!• Say stop when you hear

these words.• ocean• sea• heart• hard• friend• again• air• hair• sea• meet

Lip-sync it

What can you do with songs?Strip itQuestion itGap itWrite it

Strip it

And so I'm sailing through the sea

To an island where we'll

meet

You'll hear the music fill the

air

I'll put a flower in your hair

Though the breezes through trees

You hold me right

here, right now.

As the world keeps

spinning 'round

Move so pretty, you're all I see

Question itTrue or false?•The boy and the girl are in a relationship.•The girl is in love with another boy.

Answer the questions•Where is the island they sing about?•Are the boy and the girl always together?

Gap itEvery nth wordDo you hear me? _____ talking to youAcross _____ water across the deep _____ ocean.Under the open sky, oh _____, baby I'm trying Specific word typesBoy I _____you in my dreamsI _____your whisper across the seaI _____you with me in my heartYou _____ it easier when life gets hard 

Write itDear friend

I heard your story and I just wanted to say I’m happy for you. Don’t give up! Being in love is wonderful!

Best wishes

Claire

Write itThe next morning he woke up. She wasn’t there. He couldn’t find here. Where was she? What was going on?

He got up and looked everywhere ...

What can you do with songs?Change itDraw it

Change itBoy I hear you in my dreamsI feel your whisper across the sea

I keep you with me in my heartYou make it easier when life gets hard

 I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend

Lucky to have been where I have been

Lucky to be coming home again

I can’t hear you in my dreams.I can’t see you anywhere.I keep looking in my heartIt’s not so easy, you know it’s

very hard.

I want to be in love, but where are you?

I want to see you now and be with you

I want to be at home with you.

Draw it

ConclusionsWe live in a world surrounded by music, it’s part of

every learner’s life. Make sure it’s also part of their English life: include songs in your lessons

as regularly as possible – there are so many good reasons for doing so!

Conclusions• It’s a social act and let’s learners involve their emotions

• Movement stimulates and enhances memory• It develops spatial intelligence

• It allows for repetition and develops automaticity (chunking)

• It develops phonemic awareness• It reinforces stress, intonation, rhythm and pronunciation• It allows you to teach and learn new words and grammar

in a fun way

Want to listen to good EFL music?

•www.supasongs.com