Creative Ideas for Using Songs in the EFL ClassA collection of ideas to use songs in your classroom submitted by teachers from around the world.*Hello Miriam,Thank you for spreading the word among your colleages. Feel free to invite them to contribute with their ideas. Regards and have a great day!Hi this is interesting. I am going to share this with my Junior School teachers to see if it can be adapted to younger age groupsThe aim of this presentation is to create an idea bank full of creative activities to use songs in our English class.

Would you like to contribute?Add your activity, include the age range the activity is suitable for, level, objectives and a short description which helps other teachers to use it in their lessons.Thank you!

*Activity 1: A story behind the lyricsAge group: teenagers, adultsLevel: intermediate / advancedObjectives: - for students to improve their writing and speaking skills.Contributor(s): Inma Alczar ( @inma_a) from Spain.

Description: Choose a song wiith a story, for instance Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins . Divide students in groups of three people and provide them just with a few or four lines of the lyrics. Ask them to deduce what they think the song is about and write the rest of the song. Ask them to report their findings and tell their stories to the rest of the class. If they do not have time to do the last part of the activity in class, it would be a great idea that they use voicethread to record their song-story and receive feedback from their classmates.Activity 2: Back to the startAge group: teenagers, adultsLevel: upper-intermediate / advancedObjectives: for students to practise how to express wishes, make speculations about the past and use Type III conditional sentences.Contributor(s): M Jess Garca San Martn (@mjgsm) from Spain.

Description:browse Youtube for the videoclip entitled The Scientist by ColdPlay. Play it in class in one go and prompt the students to make comments using clauses that express what would or would not have happened if the singer had been able to go to the start.Write these helpful tips on the board: If ... If only ... Had I/she/he/we/they ... I wish ... Even if ... Even though ...

Activity 3: Exploiting a songAge group: teenagersLevel: intermediate / lower intermediateObjectives: make students aware of the problem of child abuse and neglect, revise tenses, and increase vocabulary.Contributor(s): Carolina Conejero from Spain.Description: Choose the song My Name is Luka by Suzanne Vega and play the video. Ask the students what the song is about (who is Luka? who is he talking to); they can choose from a variety of topics having to do with social issues. Exploit the song by using its lines and revise some important grammar and vocabulary points, for example, verb tenses (fill in the blanks with the biography of the singer, identify different tenses in the song); types of word (classify words from the song into noun, verb or adjective); increase vocabulary (find synonyms, revise compound words, complete a text about child abuse and neglect with words having to do with this topic).Activity 4: Song Race Age group: teenagersLevel: AnyContributor: Mrcia Lima( @bamarcia) from Brazil.Description: Choose some word from the song you'll use, prepare cards and stick them on the board. Pre-teach/work on vocabulary, if necessary. Divide class into teams. Ss stand in lines, facing the board. T plays the song. The first student on the line from each team races to the board to get the word card. First Ss go to the end of the line. Game continues until all words have been removed from the board. Ss are then given a worksheet with the lyrics and blanks (the words from the word cards) to fill in.

Adaptation: If the song is short, you can have the lines of the song on the board for the race. Or, with adults, who might not enjoy the race, on a table so they pick the one they hear.Activity 5: Lily Allen - The fear Age group: Teenagers (17-18) Level: Intermediate Contributor: Paco Gascn ( @pacogascon ) from Spain.

Description: Activities attached were designed for 2 Bachillerato students (pre-university stage). As students are to sit a written test before starting college, this stage is normally aimed at training them into exam strategies, and oral skills are often disregarded. So, this set is meant to compensate for this (it includes both spoken comprehension and production), but, at the same time, it includes activities that focus on vocabulary, use of English and reading comprehension that may come in handy for the Selectividad test.

Worksheet: http://bit.ly/yC1hAb Song: http://bit.ly/wTMX1kThis is not properly an idea for exploiting songs in class, but a set of activities. Gladys Baya says: link for worksheet doesn't work (tried to insert a comment, but couldn't!)Activity 6: Working with the text of songsAge group: teenagers, adultsLevel: Intermediate, Upper IntermediateContributor: @Mapartapa, Argentina

Listen to a song and work on the lyrics to check for understanding.Provide true or false statements about the text of the song.Students must answer true or false and justify their answers by choosing synonyms or antonyms from the text of the song.

Activity 7: Eye of the tigerAge group: teenagers, adultsLevel: upper-intermediate / advancedObjectives: for students to practise vocabulary regarding sports and some idioms.Contributor(s): M Jess Garca San Martn (@mjgsm) from Spain.

Description: follow the instructions and see full activity on this blog entry.

Activity 8: jobs - vocabularyAge group: 9 / 10 years old, Level: elementaryObjectives: learn jobs, listening activities, spelling Contributor Olinda Lima, from Portugal.

Description: http://www.learningchocolate.com/content/jobsStep 1: Go through each one of the following exercises: practise text to sound, text to picture, sound to picture, spelling and dictation.Step 2: Listen to the song here:Step 3: Sing along.Optional:You can also have a gap filling activity to check the vocabulary about jobs.Activity 9: AdjectivesAge group: 15 to Adults. Level: IntermediateObjectives: Introduce and reinforce adjectives. Talk about love.Contributor Eva Ramos, from Panama.Description: Step 1: Divide the class in groups of two. Cut out the following words from the song and give them to each pair of students. Do not tell them the name of the song yet. Words: heartbreak, cry, goodbye, love, feeling, impossible, kiss.Step 2: Match five (5) of the previous words with pictures that best represent their meanings.Step 3: Discuss with the students the meaning of all the words. Ask them to predict what is the song about, using the words. Ask them to create a title for the song.Step 4: Give the real title to the students. Students listen to the song: This Kiss by Faith Hill to confirm their prediction about the song. Step 5: Students to circle the words given to them in step one. They listen to the song again.Step 6: Students underline all the adjectives in the song and talk about their first love.Activity 10: PHRASAL VERBSAge group: 15 to adults. Level:Intermediate.Objectives: Introduce and reinforce PHRASAL VERBS (give in, give up, let me down, coming around, messed up etc.. Talk about CONTRACTIONS, SHORT FORMS, REDUCED FORMS AND EXPRESSIONS(Gonna, wanna, gotta, wansta, hansta, gimme, lemme etc).SONG: WHATAYA (What do you want from me) by ADAM LAMBERT/PINKContributor: STARRR7, from BRAZIL.Description: Step 1: Search the lyrics here (http://letras.terra.com.br/adam-lambert/1586051/traducao.html) Cut out the following words from the song and give them to each student.Words: give in, give up, messed me up, step away, slip away, coming around, let you down, working it out, whataya, gonna, gotta, wanna and others you want to work with this song.Step 2: students match all the verbs with the correct preposition or adverb to form a PHRASAL VERB.Step 3: Students find the meanings of the PHRASAL VERBS shoed in the songStep 4: Students discuss the meaning of all the words. Ask them to underline all expressions and SHORT FORM (DIDINT, DONT, ITS etc) in the lyrics. They must to write the complete form of each SHORT FORM they find on the lyrics.Step 5: Students must write what is the meaning of the song. They must write a version for it in their own language.Step 6: Students listen to the song: WHATAYA ADAM LAMBERT/PINK to fill the gaps with all PHRASAL VERBS. Step 7: Students find other songs with more PHRASAL VERBS AND PRESENT THEM TO THE CLASSMATES. They write on the board all the Phrasal verbs they can collect in other songs.Step 8: Students write the meaning of each Phrasal verb they find in other songs and present the video clip or the audio MP3 to other students explaining the meaning of the song to other students.Activity 11: From me to you - BeatlesAge group: TeensLevel: BasicObjectives: Listening practiceContributor: Luciana Caldeira (@luthcal)Description:I've used that song, but you can use any other.1. Stick the words you find useful (worksheet1) on the board. Ss are going to listen to the song once or twice and write the words they hear.2. Give each student (depending on the number of students you have) 1 or two lines (worksheet2)of the song without the words you have put on the board, so that they listen to the song again and fill in the blanks with those words.3. Now, Ss are going to listen to the song again and order the lines on the board (or floor).Worksheets: Lyrics Vocabulary