TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH SONGS

Prof. RĂDUCU LILIANA

Music can play a very significant role in a foreign language classroom. It is an amazing
tool for helping students to acquire language as well as stimulating students’ brains, improving
their memory, and bringing lots of joy. As the Chinese philosopher Confucius said: ‘Music
produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.’ Furthermore, what makes
music such a great teaching tool is its ability to connect cultures and languages of students,
regardless of their age and cultural backgrounds.
Songs, rhymes, storytelling, role-plays and games allow children to be able to
memorize and reproduce chunks of language in games, texts in songs and they should be
encouraged to do so. Songs can help learners not only improve their listening skills and
pronunciation, but also they can be very useful in the teaching vocabulary and sentence
structure.
Another relevant aspect related to songs is the way in which songs can reflect culture
and at the same time increase students’ pleasure in learning a second language, and also how
songs can be used as language tasks.
All in all, from this point of view, through songs, young learners can be given the
opportunity to learn about seasonal or historical events in the target language.
Moreover, the element of fun is not to be overlooked by teachers, as pleasure for its
own sake is an essential part of learning a language, and songs can add interest to the
classroom routine, and may improve student motivation. Thus, enjoyment is probably the most
obvious advantage that song have during the English lessons. The majority of children enjoy
singing and they usually respond well to using songs in the classroom.
Songs can also bring variety to the everyday classroom routine, which can increase
student interest in learning the English language, by reaching higher levels of achievement.
Regardless the number of advantages that songs have as valuable teaching tools,
there are though some limitations that should be mentioned as well. First off, the teacher’s role
in selecting a suitable song for his or her class can be crucial.
Moreover, the teacher can face other difficulties when using songs as pedagogical
tools when teaching English to young learners. He shouldn’t repeat the same song over and
over again, because this way learners’ interest in the song can easily fade provided that the
song is used too often, although young learners are always happy to sing.
Secondly, another difficulty in using songs during English classes, is faced by some
non-native English-speaking teachers concerning the teaching of stress and timing of the songs
correctly, so they should choose only songs they are comfortable with.

Learning activities – practising speaking and pronunciation

Singing is great for learning the rhythm of a language. It helps us learn how words are
linked together in connected speech.
Singing along can be challenging, even for native speakers. So help your child with these easy
steps:
1. Find the song lyrics online, or find a music video with subtitles.
2. Read the song lyrics out loud. Look up any unknown words in a dictionary.
3. Listen to the song and read the lyrics at the same time. Encourage the students to sing along.
4. When they’re ready, try singing along without looking at the lyrics.
5. Remember, they don’t have to get it perfect straight away! It’s actually more effective to
repeat regularly.
Some children find it hard to speak English because they are shy or lack confidence. Singing
with other people can help. It creates a safe space for students to practise expressing themselves
aloud.
Improving pronunciation
When you learn a new language, there are lots of unusual sounds your mouth isn’t used to
making. Singing helps our mouths to form the right shapes and make these sounds loudly and
clearly. Singing also helps us learn how stronger and weaker sounds are pronounced differently
in English.

Learning activities – practising reading, writing and listening skills

Any chance to hear English is helpful. But to really improve their English, the children will need
to listen carefully. Make some time to understand the song lyrics and think about what they
mean.
Learning tip 
Writing activity:

 Songs can be a great inspiration for creative writing. Listen to a song. After 10–20 seconds,
pause the music. Ask your students to draw whatever comes into their head. Play another
10–-20 seconds, pause and draw again. Keep doing this until the song finishes. Your
students should have several drawings. Ask your students to write a short story to go with
their pictures.
Reading activities:

 Print out some song lyrics. Cut up the lyrics into separate lines or verses. Ask the students to
guess the correct order. Now listen to the song to check if it’s right.
 Encourage the students to think about the meaning and emotions of a song. What would
they put in the music video for this song?

Listening activities:
 Play some fun games to help your students practise listening carefully. Choose 10 words
from a song. Then choose two or three extra words that aren’t in the song. Write the words
in a random order and give the list to your child. Play the song and ask them to tick the
words they hear.
 Print out some song lyrics. Change 5–10 words. Then listen to the song. Ask your child to
‘spot the differences’. For example, in the song „This is the way”you could change some of
the nouns (‘face’ to ‘brain’, ‘hair’ to ‘train’, ‘school’ to ‘park’, ‘teeth’ to ‘street’.
 Ask the students to listen to a song and invent an action for each line. Then ask them to
teach the dance to you. Actions can help children to understand and remember new words.
Research shows that dancing increases memory, concentration and understanding at all.
 As a conclusion, songs are considered to be very good and productive tools for the
teachers to use during their language classes in order to develop and improve their students’
listening and speaking skills, which are very important skills for them to acquire.

Sources:
https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/parents-and-children/information-for-parents/tips-
and-advice/learn-english-through-songs/
https://www.myetpedia.com/ways-to-teach-english-through-music