WHY USE SONGS?Songs have been part of the human experience for as long as we can remember. Adults sing at religious services, bars, in the shower, and listen-ing to the car radio. Songs have become an inte-gral part of our language experience, and if used in coordination with a language lesson they can be of great value. Fortunately, with the expanding prevalence of the Internet and specifically the World Wide Web into both the classrooms and lives of students, access to music and lyrics has been made easier.

The Affective Filter Hypothesis is one of five proposed hypotheses developed by Steven Krashen. Basically, it is an explanation of how the affective factors relate to language learning. It is particularly appealing to teachers because it provides an explanation to why some learners learn and others do not.Teachers have long recognized the need for students to have a positive attitude in regard to learning. Krashen (1982) explains that for optimal learning to occur the affective filter must be weak. A weak affec-tive filter means that a positive attitude towards learn-ing is present. If the affective filter is strong the learner will not seek language input, and in turn, not be open for language acquisition. The practical appli-cation of the Affective Filter Hypothesis is that teach-ers must provide a positive atmosphere conducive to language learning. Songs are one method for achiev-ing a weak affective filter and promoting language learning.

With the affective filter weak, Saricoban and Metin (2000) have found that songs can develop the four skill areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Eken (1996, p.46) states that songs can be used to:

• present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc.• practice a language point, lexis, etc.• focus on common learner errors in a more direct

way• encourage extensive and intensive listening• stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings• encourage creativity and use of imagination• provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere• bring variety and fun to learning

Lo and Li (1998) offer similar suggestions, writing that songs provide a break from classroom routine, and that learning English through songs develops a non-threatening classroom atmosphere in which the four language skills can be enhanced. The belief that songs provide enjoyment and develop language skills is also noted by several other authors (Adamowski, 1997; Bechtold, 1983; Domoney & Harris, 1993; Grif-fee, 1992; Guglielmino, 1986; Lems, 1984; Little, 1983; Monreal, 1982). The enjoyment aspect of learn-ing language through song is directly related to affec-tive factors.

(adapted from the Internet TESOL Journal. To view the full article visit: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Schoepp-Songs.html)

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MUSIC June 2009

F r e e C D

A MUSICAL EXPERIENCE(The following article, which has been adapted, first appeared in Issue 52 of the English teaching Professional.)

Songs and music are an essential part of our life. We are surrounded by music and our life experiences and memories are very often connected to it. A tune or a melody can create an atmosphere, make us feel relaxed or full of energy, and bring to mind faces, words or situations.

Music and learning theories Listening to music activates areas in the right hemisphere of the brain which are connected to the interpretation of meaning, feeling and the emotions. Our facility for language is located mainly in the left hemisphere, but when the proc-ess of language decoding involves the emotions, the right hemisphere is also activated and plays a part in processing meaning. Moreover, music activates other areas of the brain, including the limbic system, which is directly connected to emotions and to long-term memory. Georgi Lo-zanov’s Suggestopedia theory recommends the use of particular kinds of music during some phases of the learning process, in particular pieces by Mozart, Haydn and Brahms. Research shows that listening to this kind of music creates the so called ‘Mozart effect’, whereby learning is enhanced. It has also been shown that music can contribute to the processes of visualisation and creates alpha waves in the brain, enhancing concentration and intake of new information.Accelerated Learning, a methodology based on a multi-sensory and holistic approach, gives prominence, on the one hand, to the use of mu-sic in the classroom following Lozanov’s ideas, and, on the other, to the fact that music can be employed to create a relaxed and comfortable learning environment where students can learn without negative pressure. Music can then be used as a background to tasks (with students

working individually, in pairs or in groups), as a break signal between lessons or tasks, or even to create energy before a particularly demanding activity and to enhance and support attention and concentration.Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelli-gences identifies several different types of intelli-gences, including musical intelligence. Taking into account and fostering the different intelli-gences can improve learning. However, musical intelligence is too often ignored in the classroom and could be stimulated more by incorporating music into activities. This would also cater for those learners who have a preference for audi-tory input.

Music as a support to learning Music can have an important role as a back-ground to activities. Different musical styles such as rap, rhyme and jazz chants can be used, or specifically created, as a support to memorisa-tion.This can be done both for language aspects (vo-cabulary) and cognitive aspects (content, lists of data, dates, etc). Instrumental pieces can be useful, but we can also present activities based on songs, adding a linguistic aspect. The possi-bilities are manifold here, too. Songs can be used:

● to introduce or expand a grammar topic, theme, vocabulary area, etc;

● to support rhythm and intonation;● to support extensive and intensive listening skills;

● to support reading skills;● to set off a class discussion;● to introduce creative or structured writing. Songs offer great opportunities to develop auto-matic and unconscious language learning. We have already mentioned the fact that melodies can support memorisation of new items, espe-cially for auditory learners or those with a strong musical intelligence. Songs can in this sense also be a good alternative option to repetitive ex-ercises or pattern drills aimed at consolidating pronunciation, new structures and vocabulary.

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This is particularly true with young learners, but music can also be used with older students. As Tim Murphey points out, teachers often dis-cover how quick students can be at memorising song lyrics, even new items or chunks of lan-guage whose meaning is unknown or unclear. I remember at the age of five hearing a friend sing some verses of Here’s to you – Sacco and Van-zetti by Joan Baez. Without knowing a single word of English or understanding the meaning of what I was singing, I memorised these verses because I liked both the melody and the sound of the words. (I discovered what the song was years later.) Once, during a teacher training course, I learnt a song in Swahili; some 15 years later, I can still reproduce it despite having forgot-ten its meaning. The ‘melody in our mind which won’t go away’ is certainly familiar to most of us – something that advertising exploits very well by using jingles taken from successful pop songs. As we have seen, music can activate different brain areas and amongst them the limbic system, which is directly involved in long term memory. It can, therefore, be an incredible ally in language teaching. The kind of language used in songs is generally simple, colloquial and often repetitive. These are important aspects when teaching/learning a foreign language. Songs can, there-fore, support a textbook, enhancing it with com-municative, lexical and pragmatic aspects of eve-ryday language.

Songs as a link to real lifeTeenagers are particularly attracted by music, which is an integral part of their world. It can cre-ate kinships and links that go beyond borders and languages. It is a communication code in itself, in which language is only one aspect, oth-ers being notes, sounds and emotions. English and American songs are an essential part of the daily experience of any teenager, whether French, Italian, English, Spanish or Croatian. They are a source of authentic language and of-fer an extraordinary learning tool within the class-room. Using songs during lessons provides a link with real life, thereby creating a different relation-

ship and perception of lessons and of the sylla-bus. Using material from the outside world and the inner lives of our students promotes a sense of belonging to the learning community, and fos-ters motivation.When songs, as in the experience described be-low, are chosen and presented by the students themselves, we have a further added value: that of acknowledging and giving prominence to the different abilities of the learners, taking into ac-count and developing their musical intelligence and fostering their presentation and organisa-tional abilities, skills which are often underused. Another motivating factor is that these kinds of activities involve negotiation of part of the sylla-bus with the students. It is they who design the activities and choose the contents under the dis-creet guidance of the teacher. As Tim Murphey says, ‘allowing them to choose gives them some responsibility, involves them in the lessons more, and gives school relevance to their everyday lives and concerns.’ Such an approach can also develop autonomy and critical sense, and bal-ance the relationship between teacher and stu-dent, promoting one based on mutual respect. Lastly, designing teaching activities for a chosen song makes the learners reflect upon the core elements to be taken into account in preparing and presenting tasks, both from a language and a didactic point of view. Choosing one activity rather than another has to be gauged on the characteristics of the song and the singer or group. This point clearly emerges from the expe-rience described below: the students have de-signed different activities and exercises, from the dialogue among teenagers to introduce a group, to cloze, crosswords and even translation exer-cises involving the lyrics. It is interesting to note that some types of exercises, such as the listen-ing or translation tasks, seem to focus on difficul-ties the students themselves have encountered while preparing the tasks: these difficulties have then been transformed into a learning challenge for the rest of the group.

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2 IDEAS FOR A TOPIC BUILD-UPIdea 1 - WeatherLevel: ElementarySong: ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by The Beatles

Preparation: Cut up the lyrics - one line per slip. Make enough for each pair of students in the class.Procedure:1. Distribute the cut-up lyrics to each pair. Tell them to listen to the song and

order the lyrics. Play the song. Monitor and check. You will probably need to play

the song two or three times, depending on their level. If the students like the

song, and like singing along, play the song again and they can sing along.

2. On the board write up the following questions:

What time of year is it (in the song)?

How does the singer feel? Why?

Students discuss the answers in pairs.

Get some feedback

3. Start the conversation one-to-one with one of the stronger students in the

class by asking her what time of year she likes and why?. Then on the board

write up the following questions:

What time of year do you like and why?

What is your least favourite time of year and why?

Students discuss their answers in pairs.

Circulate, helping students with language.

Feedback

Note: Students generally like this activity as by the end of the lesson they have listened to,

and understood a song, participated in a discussion and, most likely, learnt some new

vocabulary. It also plays to a variety of learner styles - naturalist, kinaesthetic, musical,

inter-personal, intra-personal, auditory

Idea 2 - HomelessnessLevel: Intermediate +Song: Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’ by Otis ReddingPreparation: Complete song lyrics.Procedure:1. On the whiteboard build up the scene by drawing and eliciting the following: bay, dock,

bench, a (old) man sitting on the bench, a man walking towards the bench, mountains, ships,

waves.

2. Once your scene is complete, elicit from the class where in the world they think it is. Answer:

San Francisco

3. Divide the class in half. Half the class remain seated, and the other half stand up, and walk to

one corner of the room. Instruct the students that those seated are the man on the bench. The

other half (standing) are themselves, and that they are out walking in the park when they see this

old man sitting on the bench. Tell them that he looks friendly, and they should sit down next to

him and strike up a conversation. They should try and find out about who he is, where he’s from

etc..The students who are seated should answer any questions that are posed to them.

3. Let it run.

4. When you see the conversations drying up, give out the lyrics, play the song and tell the stu-

dents to listen for any similarities between what they talked about and the song. After you have

listened, conduct a group feedback and ask them who they think the old man in the song is. In

case you didn’t realise, he’s homeless. From here you can launch into a discussion about home-

lessness. For further tasks, try the unit in Taboos and Issues.

Note: This topic can be useful for extending a unit on houses.

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QUICK TOPIC INTRO AND WARMER Songs can be an effective means of introducing a topic leading into a whole class or group discussion before be-ginning the course-book unit. Explain to the class that you will play them 2 or 3 songs, and that they should listen very carefully and guess what the topic of the week / day is going to be. For example, if you are about to teach a unit covering ‘Houses’ play ‘Our House’ by Madness or ‘Coun-try House’ by Blur. It is not necessary for the students to understand every word, but to be able to catch the gist After they have listened to both songs, ask them what the topic is, and you have a natural starting point to ex-plore the topic further.

EXTENDING A TOPIC - GET IT OFF YOUR CHEST

Level: Pre-Intermediate +

Song: ‘Ordinary People’ by John legend. Or, any song dealing with prob-

lems in a relationship

Preparation: The lyrics and worksheet (see Appendix)

Procedure:1. The purpose of this activity is to set the scene and provide inspiration for students to ac-

tively take part in a role-play between two lovers. Therefore, it is necessary for the students to be-

come familiar with the song, and use this as a stepping stone. To familiarise students with the

song, I edit the song, changing words or phrases that sound similar (see activity Nine Million Bi-

sexuals!). However, any number of tasks and activities work just as well - gapped text, ordering the

text, or simply listen and read and then discuss what the song is about.

2. Once the students are familiar with the song, and what it is about (a couple having relation-

ship problems), put the students in pairs, and get them to work together answering the questions

on the worksheet. The questions will hopefully generate a lot of discussion and recycling of ‘rela-

tionship’ vocabulary. Circulate and prompt the students with language and ideas.

3. Conduct a class feedback sessions, asking the students to tell the class a little about their

imaginary couples. It usually produces quite a bit of laughter.

4. Now tell the students that they are the couple and they should role-play the situation be-

tween the man and woman and see if they can salvage their relationship.

NOTE: For teachers that think that using songs is light-weight, I know of one teacher that has

successfully used this activity with a group of lawyers, who instead of role-playing the conversation

between the couple, had to draw up a pre-nuptial agreement between the couple. If you were

faced with this scenario, how would you have approached it? Suggestions on a postcard to...

[5]

SHORT BITSMusic For MoodsTry playing some relaxing, soothing music in the back-ground whilst the students are working. Classical music works best for this. Research has shown that Mozart can help students concentrate bet-ter. Well, it said so in Straight-forward Pre-Intermediate. Do you believe everything you read in coursebooks? Try it.

Music for TimingPlay some background music whilst students are doing a task and when you want them to finish, turn off the music. It can be an effective way to re-gain control of a noisier class after a speaking activity. Music stops - they stop. An alterna-tive way is to tell the students that you will bring the activity to a close when the song fin-ishes.

INSPIRATION FOR WRITING - A FRIEND IN NEEDLevel: pre-Intermediate +

Song: Should I Stay or Should I Go by the Clash. Or any song where the singer has a problem

Preparation: Complete song lyrics

Procedure:

1. Play song and ask students to write down any words they hear.

2. Ask students, in pairs or small groups, to compare notes and explain, if they can, what the song is about.

3. Give out full text of song and play again.

4. Ask the students what problems the singer has.

5. Students write a letter to the singer, offering advice.

6. Take in students texts, display around the room and ask the students to decide on which letter offers the best advice.

7. Use the students texts to find what areas of language need further work.

LYRICAL LETTERSLevel: Lower Intermediate - Advanced

Song: ‘Something happened on the way to heaven’ by Phil Collins

Materials: Gapped song lyrics presented in the form of a letter (see example in Appendix)

a recording of the song: optional, a questionnaire (see example below)

This activity begins by recasting song lyrics in the form of a letter, one which calls for a fairly

emotional response. Often students working individually will feel somewhat insecure about this. I’ve

found that making the letter writing a group task (as in Step 30 reduces this insecurity considerably and generally speeds things up. it also makes

it possible for you to help students more in the writing phase.

Preparation

Write out the lyrics of your song in letter form (see Appendix for an example). For best effect, it needs an address, the addressee’s name and

a recent date. It should, as well, be handwritten, and not typed. if you decide to use a questionnaire at Steps 6 and 7, produce one of those. Pho-

tocopy enough questionnaires for each group of 3-4 students.

Procedure

1. Ask students to read through the gapped ‘song as a letter’. (But don’t let them know it’s a song!) Suggest they note any vocabulary they

don’t understand.

2. Teach/elicit the meaning of each noted vocabulary item.

3. Put your students into small groups and ask them to consider the following questions:

• What is the relationship between the people mentioned in the letter?

• At what stage is the relationship

• What is the writer trying to say in the letter?

• What is the mood of the letter?

• How do you think the recipient would feel after reading the letter?

4. Bring the class together. Elicit the different groups’ answers and lead a discussion of them. Keep a record on the board of useful new lan-

guage for describing relationships. This may come in handy later.

5. Either in groups or in plenary, students offer guesses about which words could fill the gaps. In reacting to guesses try to clarify differences

in intensity or connotation of apparently similar words and relate these differences to what has already been decided about the mood of the letter.

6. Working collaboratively, groups of students now draft an appropriate reply. They should have enough vocabulary from the original letter and

from the board to create quite an emotional piece of writing!

Circulate and help keep the language accurate.

7. Groups exchange letters and read them. The groups can either award points (1-10), perhaps) or add comments about suitability of mes-

sage, originality, intensity of emotion, poetic quality, accuracy of language or whatever you decide to ask them to look for.

An alternative is for students to complete a questionnaire (which is then given to the authors of the letter being read) about their reactions as

readers.

Example questionnaire

• Are all questions and other key thoughts responded to?

• Is the reply more or less passionate than the first letter? Why do you think this is so?

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• Is the reply encouraging or not?

• Will the recipient think the writer took a lot of care not to hurt his/her feelings? Draw a wavy line under any bit that seems to you especially

gentle or considerate.

• Put a solid line under any other bits you especially like. Say why you like them.

• Do you think the writer has a poetic nature? Why?

• A split personality? Why?

• What do you think of the handwriting? Romantic? Hasty?

• Do you think the letter is well-constructed? Or is it more like a collection of unrelated points?

• How do you think the author feels about Phil?

Incidentally, if you decide to use questionnaires, it might be a good idea to hand these out at Step 6 in order to provide the letter writers with

additional guidance and motivation.

8. Explain that the letter is actually the lyrics to a song. Now, play it and get students to listen for what actually occurs in blanks. This is a nice

way to wind down from a period of fairly concentrated language work. The fact that students have been working with the song for a long time

beforehand means that comprehension of the lyrics when sung is a lot easier than would have been the case if you had just played it ’cold’.

Note

This song is called ‘Something happened on the way to heaven’ by Phil Collins from his album But Seriously (Copyright 1989, Philip Collins

Ltd, Hit and Run Music Ltd). A lot of his lyrics work well in this activity.

MUSICAL CONSEQUENCESLevel: Pre-Intermediate +

Song: 7 very different songs

Preparation: None other than cobbling together some music.

Procedure:

1. Explain to the students that they are going to write a story about a couple.. To help them come up with ideas they will hear seven extracts

of songs and they should use these for inspiration, to guide their writing.

2. On the board write the following - Describe the man. Play the first extract and encourage the students to close their eyes, listen to the

song, and using the song as inspiration create a mental image of a man. Play the song for about a minute and then allow the students to gently

return to this world and when they’re ready begin writing. Circulate, help and encourage.

3. Continue in the same fashion with the next six extracts, writing up the following:

• Describe the woman

• Where did they meet?

• Where did they go?

• What did he say?

• What did she say?

• What happened next? How does the story end?

4. Finally, students compare their stories with those around them.

NOTE

Teenagers, in particular, can be quite adverse to any writing. This can be enjoyable way to get them writing. With all age groups this can be

used to recycle and review a variety of lexis and grammar - physical descriptions, adjectives of personality, reported speech, past tenses etc..

The songs do not need to have any lyrics, but will need to be different in the mood they create - fast, slow, haunting, melancholic etc.

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PRONUNCIATION - EVERY BREATH YOU FAKELevel: Pre-Intermediate +

Materials: Photocopies of gapped text and a suitable song (see below)

Plus: Teacher’s knowledge of phonemic chart

Procedure:

1. Choose a song, preferably with multiple rhymes; ‘rap’ is excellent for this. Put a gap at the end of each line of the lyrics, and make one

copy for each student.

Example text:

Every breath you __________

Every move you __________

2. At the top of a small poster, write the phonemic transcription for the ending of one of the words that you have omitted. Repeat this for each

group of line endings.

Example poster

/eIk/

3. Divide the class into pairs and circulate the posters. The students have to write on the posters all the words they can think of which end

with the sound that has been indicated.

Put the posters up around the room, and give the students the gapped text of the song. They should circulate, trying to complete the gaps in

their texts by selecting the words from their posters.

4. Finally, play the song to check the answers.

PRONUNCIATION - PHONETICALLY TRANSCRIBEDLevel: Elementary +

Song: ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong

Materials: Complete song lyrics transcribed phonetically

Preparation

1. Select a suitable song - not too long basically

2. Transcribe the song phonetically.

3. Make one copy for each student in the class.

Procedure

1. Distribute the photocopies.

2. Students work either individually or in pairs and extrapolate the words

3. Play the song for the students to check their answers.

Note

A useful and fun revision/consolidation activity if you have recently being working on the phonemic chart.

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INTENSIVE LISTENING - RUN AND GRABLevel: Elementary + (depending on the song)

Song: ‘Hand in my Pocket’ by Alanis Morrisette (Pre-Intermediate +)

Materials: Gapped text, and word cards.

Preparation:

1. Choose a suitable song for the class you are teaching.

2. Take some of the vocabulary from the song and write them on small cards.

man

pretty3. Stick them onto the whiteboard.

Procedure

1. Play the song once through to familiarise the students with the tempo and singer’s voice.

2. Divide the class into two teams.

3. Ask the students to come to the front of the class and form two orderly lines in front of the whiteboard - in their teams.

4. Explain to the class that they are going to have a race and as they listen to the song the person at the front of the queue should listen care-

fully and if they hear a word that is written on one of the cards, they should grab it. After they have taken a word, they should re-join the line, but at

the back. Play continues with student number two and so on.

5. The winners are the team with the most words.

6. You might want to get them to listen again if there are still words left on the board.

7. Give out gapped text and see how much of it they can fill in.

8. Play the song for the students to check their answers.

Variation

1. Instead of individual words write up chunks of text.

2. Include a few red herrings.

3. Include a few false friends - fit / feet - that work on minimal pairs.

NINE MILLION BISEXUALS IN THE GYMLevel: Any, depending on song

Song: ‘Nine Million Bicycles’ by Katie Melua

Materials: Doctored song lyrics - make one copy for each student in the class

Preparation

1. Choose a suitable song, generally slower songs where the singer has a nice clear voice work best.

2. Download the lyrics, listen to the song and doctor the lyrics words or expressions that sound ‘similar’ to the intended lyrics. See example in

the Appendix

Procedure

1. Hand out the doctored lyrics.

2. Play the song and ask the students to find the mistakes

Note

This activity works best if you set it up with a little anecdote. For example, very drunk last night and you’ve looked at it again today but...;you

wanted to use this song so you downloaded the lyrics but the person who did it must have been deaf...; you were on holiday / lived in a foreign

country and you bought this as a pirate CD and...

[9]

PICTURE GAPSLevel: Any - but works best at lower levels, and with younger students

Materials: A recording of the song and the lyrics

Preparation:

Type up a song, replacing the target vocabulary with small pictures.

Procedure:

1. Play the song and ask the students to sing along with it.

2. At the end, ask them to write down the words next to each picture.

LINE-BY-LINE MINGLELevel: Beginner to Intermediate

Materials: A recording of a song and a cut-up text (see below)

Preparation

1. Photocopy the words of a song and cut-up the song line by line.

Procedure

1. Give each line to a different student. If you have too many students for the lines of the song, you may have to allocate two students to a

line.

2. Ask the students to stand up.

3. Then ask them to stand in a line in the correct sequence, in order to form the lines of the song, in the correct order.

4. When the students have finished jostling for position, play the song, and see if the students want to move. You may need to do this more

than once.

5. Once the lines are in order, students should read the song aloud, saying one line each. They could even sing it, but don’t count on it.

WHERE ARE ALL THE NOUNS?Level: Elementary onwards

Materials: A recording of the song and the words (see below)

Preparation

Type up the song, omitting words belonging to one grammatical category, for example nouns, verbs, or adjectives. Do not indicate where

these words have been omitted.

Procedure

1. Put the students into pairs, and give each pair the text. Ask them to put a cross wherever they think a word is missing.

2. Check together as a class.

3. Now working in small groups the students then brainstorm possible words for the gaps.

4. Play the song and check the answers. Discuss which of the alternatives that the students have created might be possible in the context of

the song and how these alternatives might change the meaning.

MY SONGLevel: Elementary onwards

Materials: None - students provide their own songs.

Procedure:

1. Ask your students to come in with their favourite song in English, and be prepared to talk about it.

2. They play the music to the class, and explain why it is important to them.

3. Let the other students ask questions.

This can be done, either as a single lesson, or as an ongoing series or ‘thread; through the term or course

[10]

CREATIVE WRITING - MY PERFECT DAYLevel: Intermediate +

Materials: ‘Just a Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed; complete lyrics; worksheet (see be-

low)

Procedure

1. Pair off students and ask them to describe their idea of a perfect day.

2. Get some feedback from the students.

3. Play the song and ask them for any similarities between their idea of a perfect

day and the singer’s.

4. Get some feedback. If the students found it too difficult, give out copies of the

lyrics and play again.

5. Ask them what they think of the singer’s ‘Perfect Day’.

6. Ask the students to look at the first verse of the song (if you haven’t given out

the lyrics, do so now) and analyse the form - how many syllables, which line rhymes

with which.

7. Get some feedback.

8. Tell the students that they are going to change the song, and write their own verse.

9. Monitor, assist, check, encourage, pacify, spoon-feed, etc...

10. Take in the texts and using the verses the students have created type up a new version of the song. So, student verse, original chorus,

student verse, original chorus etc...If you don’t have access to a computer, photocopy the students’ work.

11. Give the new lyrics out and the class can sing along. It helps to have the music, so you can either play guitar or alternatively use the in-

strumental version of ‘Perfect day’.

12. Finally, ask the students how it feels to have written their own song, and in English. Cue round of applause!

Worksheet

My Perfect Day

Just A Perfect Day,

__________________________________________,__________________________________________, __________________________________________.

Just A Perfect Day,

__________________________________________,__________________________________________,__________________________________________.

Original Lyrics by ______________________________

[11]

THE ART GALLERYLevel: Intermediate +

Materials: pen, paper, colouring pencils, 6 different extracts of music (classical, easy-

listening, punk, slow, fast etc..)

Procedure

1. You will need at least 6-12 students, or more, for this activity.

2. Give each student a clean piece of A4 paper and some colouring pencils.

3. Tell them that you are going to play some extracts of music and as they listen they

should draw anything that comes into their head.

4. Play the first extract, and then give them 30 seconds after it has finished to continue

drawing.

5. Get them to pass their drawing to the person on their left.

6. Play the next extract and students continue the drawing.

7. Continue until they have heard all the extracts.

8. Divide the students into threes.

9. Each group will have three ‘pieces of art’. Explain that these are all works of art by the

same artist, and they represent a series. The students, working in their group, are agents for the

artist and they have create a biography for the artist, and will have to describe, and ‘sell’ their

art to the other groups who are ‘customers’.

10. Allow them enough time to concoct their stories. About 15 minutes is usually enough.

Circulate and encourage.

11. When all the groups are ready, take their art and pin them up on the walls. Nominate

one group to go first and to try and sell their paintings to the rest of the class - the customers.

Note

This can be used as a springboard for a discussion on art, and modern art in particular.

A fun activity which can be used to consolidate, and extend a coursebook unit on art, for

example Unit 4 in Straightforward Upper Intermediate.

[12]

IS IT ART?

Marla Olmstead According to her parents, Marla Olmstead began painting just before her second birthday in early 2002 when her father, Mark, gave her paint to divert her from distracting him from his own painting. Mark painted for a very brief period after his father died, and makes no claims of being an artist of any variety. Eventually, her work was on display at a local coffee shop. Soon after a customer bought one of the paintings for $253, a local gallery owner was shown one of her works and eventually organized a show at his gallery. From that point forward, Olmstead's paintings began to sell frequently.

SOMETHING SWEETLevel: Intermediate

Materials: Jig-saw reading

Song: Any (see below)

Preparation

Choose a band that your students are interested in, and make a biography of the band. Type the band’s website into a search engine or look

for information on Wikipedia. Using a Word-Processor software divide the information into 3 parts. Each part should be about 150 - 200 words

long. Label each part A,B or C. Make a worksheet which will test their knowledge and understanding of the texts.

Procedure

1. Divide the class into 3 groups. Give each group either A, B, or C. Group the students together so that all the As are together, Bs together

and Cs are together.

2. Give them a time limit of 5-10 minutes to read, understand and memorise the information on their sheets.

3. Re-group the students so there is a Student A, Student B, and a Student C in each group. Each student in turn tells, from memory, the

other students the information on their hand-out. Tell them that if they forget anything they can quickly look back at the text, but they are not al-

lowed to read aloud from the text.

4. When the students have all shared their information, give out the worksheet, and staying in their new groups, complete it together.

5. Finally, play one of the band’s song. The icing on the cake!

Note

Teenage students often don’t like reading (even though they spend an inordinate amount of time reading things on the web) but if you set this

up so they know at the end they will listen to a song, they will work well and quickly.

LINKS WITH MUSICLevel: Intermediate

Materials: A sheet of poster paper or OHP transparencies

Focus: Ice-breaker

This activity is excellent for helping participants to learn about each other quickly. It will enable you to find out a lot about your students’ atti-

tudes and interests as well as about their language level. You can do this with a new class or one that you have had for a while.

Preparation

Think of links between music and yourself. These may be of various kinds. Think of:

• your favourite composer, instrument, song, singer, piece of music

• dates or occasions when you discovered a piece of music or a musician

• music you associate with important events in your life

• music/instuments played by your family or friends

Choose five or six of these links and, on poster paper or OHP transparency write a display like the example (see Appendix) Or make sure you

can write the display on the board really quickly. In any case, use of different colours and various kinds of lettering seems to produce the best

results. Have your class in mind when you make your choices. Ideally, some should be similar to those which people in your class might make. If

you don’t know the class yet, guess on the basis of age, background, and so on.

Procedure

1. Greet your class and suggest they ought to get acquainted with each other before starting to work or do more work. Tell them that you

would like them to do this through sharing memories and feelings about music.

2. Display your transparency or poster, or quickly write it all on the board. Tell your class that these are clues about links between you and

music. Invite them to try and guess what these links are by asking you ‘yes/no’ questions.

3. Begin. Qualify and elaborate your answers, e.g. ‘Well. yes, but it’s not really an instrument I play.’ ‘Well, yes, Belafonte fascinated me when I

was sixteen, as he fascinated all my schoolmates.’

4. When your clues have all been explained, ask your students each to prepare, on a sheet of paper, an arrangement of clues similar to yours.

5. They do the activity in pairs or small groups. The latter takes longer but spreads information around more.

Extension

6. Ask each pair or group to join up with another pair or group. Everyone says what they learned about their partner/another group member

during Step 5.

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VISUALISATIONLevel: Pre-Intermediate onwards

Song: Any emotive song without lyrics. Classical or film scores work best. On

the CD you will find ‘Ripley’s Rescue’ from the film Aliens

Materials: None

Procedure:

1. Tell the students that you would like them to close their eyes and concen-

trate on their breathing. You will play a piece of music and that they should let the

music flow over them. Whilst they listen, they should try and imagine a film playing

in their head. Warn them that they will later describe the images to their partner.

2. Begin. Play the music, and let it play for a few minutes.

3. When the music stops, let the students slowly come to.

4. Instruct them when they’re ready to turn to their partner and describe their

‘movie’.

Note

You might like to try this as a 4-2-1 activity. First the students tell it to a part-

ner for 4 minutes. Then they find a new partner and re-tell it again, but this time they have 2 minutes. Finally, they tell it a third time, to a new part-

ner, for 1 minute. The idea is that each time they tell the story the fluency increases. The first time is a dummy run, finding out what language they

need.

GUIDED STORYTELLINGLevel: Pre-Intermediate onwards

Music: Film scores - music from the film Leon or The last Temptation of Christ.

Materials: None

Procedure

1. Instruct the students that together you and the class are going to tell a story. You will start the story going and along the way you will ask

them questions to help further the story.

2. Play the music.

3. Start by setting the scene. ‘It was a beautiful hot day, and you decided to go for a stroll along the beach. As you were walking along you

saw something glittering in the sand, you walked over to it, bent down and picked it up. It was......’ and elicit from the class what the object was.

Let them all volunteer ideas, don’t discourage but settle on one suggestion. Re-cap the story from the beginning, and then continue. ‘I carried on

walking along the beach when I suddenly felt like I was being watched. I turned around and saw....’Elicit from the class what you saw. Continue

like this.Describe, elicit, describe, elicit, re-cap and so on. Finally, bring the story to a close by getting the students to finish the story in pairs.

4. Ask each pair to tell their ending and find out if any of the other pairs had similar endings.

5. If you want to, you can ask the students to write the story up, either in or out of class.

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ON THE CD1. Our House by Madness

2. Country House by Blur

3. Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles

4. The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding

5. Hand In My Pocket by Alanis Morrisette

6. Ordinary People by John Legend

7. Nine Million Bicycles by Katie Melua

8. Lemon Tree by Fool’s Garden

9. Should I Stay or Should I Go? by The Clash

10. Perfect Day by Lou Reed

11. Ripley’s Rescue by James Horner

12. What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong

13. Something Happened On My Way To Heaven by Phil Collins

APPENDIX

GET IT OFF YOUR CHESTSample worksheet for extending a (love) song into a role-play

Imagine the story.

Work with a partner and answer these questions with your own ideas.

You can imagine the singer to be a woman or a man.

What are the names of the two people in this relationship?

How old are they?

What are their jobs?

Where and how did they meet?

How long have they been seeing each other?

The singer says he/she “misbehaved”, how?

Why does the relationship “get more confusing everyday”?

The singer talks of a “rise and fall” – what are the best, and worst, moments they have spent to-gether?

What exactly would the singer have liked from this relationship? List the things the couple want from the relationship and the things they don’t want. Think of concrete things as well as feelings.

Talk

Work with your partner and put yourself in their position. Will you salvage the relationship or go your separate ways?

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APPENDIXLYRICAL LETTERS

8 Vernon Place

Canterbury, Kent

Tuesday 11th June 2009

Dear Rachel,

! We had a life, we had a love, but you don’t know what you’ve got till you _______ it. Well, that was then and this is _________ , and I want you back. How many times can I say I’m sorry?

! How can something so good go so bad? How can something so right go so _________ ? Well, I don’t know, I don’t have all the __________ . I want you back. How many times can I say I’m sorry?

! Well, you know , you can __________ and you can hide, but I’m not leaving unless you come with me. We had our __________ but I’m on your side. You’re all I need, please believe in me.

! I only wanted __________ to love, but something happened on the way to __________ . It got hold of me and wouldn’t let go. I want you back. How many times can I say I’m sorry?

! They say you can’t take it with you when you go - and I believe it. But taking what I’ve got or being _________ with you, you know, I’d rather leave it.

With all my love,

Phil

lose now wrong answers run problems someone heaven here

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APPENDIX

Nine million bisexualsThere are nine million bisexuals in the gym.That's a fat,It's a thin we can't deny,like the fact thatI will love you till I cry

There are twelve billion light bulbs on the hedgeThat's a guess.No-one can ever say they're blue,but I know that,I will always see the view

I've been warmed by the fire of your laugh every day so don't call me a lyre just leave everything I say

There are six billion peepholes in the worldmore or lessAnd it makes my fingers smallbut you're the one that I laughthe most of all

We'll hire a wire with the whirl in our sight and I'll mend a tyre oh the laugh that you give me every night

There are nine million bisexuals in the gymThat's a fatIt's a thin we can't denylike the fact thatI will laugh till I cry

And there are nine million bisexuals in the gymand you know that I will laugh till I die

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