Complete TESOL Schools

Songs in the classroomThe connection between music and human communication is thick as well as ancient. In addition to the nonverbal language of melody and rhythm, verbal data integrated into music and songs can serve to communicate extremely complex ideas and emotions. Music and speech are closely related and indeed share many characteristics like using variations in tone, pitch, intonation, timbre, rhythm, and stress to produce meaningful sounds. Sometimes the line between the two is blurred and some have posited that speech may have developed out of music or vice versa. The field of neuroscience has found that there are whole parts of the brain related to storing and interacting with music. The author Oliver Sachs has noted cases of Parkinsonian and Tourettic individuals who can not move fluently but who can sing and dance. Music is a very effective in memorization and can motivate learners of all ages. On top of this, songs can be used to show the meaning and usage of a grammar point, expose students to a natural use of language, and be an insight into culture. For all these reasons, using songs to teach english should be a technique in every teacher’s arsenal. In my own experience in going to both public and private school, being a musician and studying multiple languages, I have found that learning a song is great for learning the rhythmic “feel” of the language as well as concentrating on the lyrics and being challenged to learn new vocabulary. The extra information of the melody and rhythm help children in the schools where I grew up to learn to spell their own names. A name may be sung “C-O-N-N-O-R” with each letter being one quarter beat and both “n”s being held an eighth beat each with the melody starting high, descending and finally rising rapidly again at the end. The music gives the children a frame of reference to recall the letters and their individual sounds and meaning. When one hears a piece of music over and over again the pronunciation of lyrics can be learned more easily. Sometimes words will be repeated over again within a song, allowing the learner to gain more information about the position of the mouth and tongue, amount of air to release and how to accent certain sounds. Music can be much more interesting than over forms of teaching and can be especially motivating to students when they truly enjoy listening to the music and would do so willingly and repeatedly. As a musician I find it very easy to pick up vocabulary or a grammar point if it in a song I particularly enjoy. I sing songs in spanish, french, italian and Portuguese. The framework of the music allows me to more quickly memorize new language and produce it fluently. The most important thing is that music gets the learner using language in a very natural way; it just rolls off the tongue. Many popular songs use fairly simple and direct language which is ideal for learners. Fortunately for english teachers, many songs in english are enjoyed by people all over the world. In other words, many students may not mind listening intently to any given John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Beatles, or Elvis song. Famous songs can also be used when students are already familiar with them and the teacher shows them that, through the music, the students are also already familiar with the language in the music. Being able to sing along with or reproduce a favorite song can be very motivating to the language learner and will keep them interested. Music can also bring students together in quite literal harmony. Music has been written for many different purposes and themes. One can find music related to any topic in the language classroom. Using songs in the classroom is so effective that I plan to make my guitar and ukulele a regular tool in teaching english.