subject: Motivating Esl Students Through Song [print this page] Songs for teaching may help you with the large problem of how to stimulate your pupils. Songs are fun, help relax the class room atmosphere, incorporate both reading and listening skills, and in general, are pleasing! When pupils observe a teacher entering the class room with a record in hand, they are suddenly quite motivated to study, especially when it comes to teaching ESL.
Teaching songs should ideally follow a conventional lesson plan. Since they incorporate both reading and listening skills, ESL teachers can weave these skills into their lesson plans. By all means, this lesson plan is not exhaustive.
Teaching songs must involve a motive for listening. It is up to the instructor to create that purpose. Here are some ideas for lesson beginnings regarding teaching songs. Give students the basic terminology from the song and ask them to predict what the song may be about. Show a bit of art work as an example for teaching the song "Starry, Starry Night" as a lead-in. Have students consider what the world could be like in twenty or thirty years as a springboard to the song & # 34; Imagine & # 34; by John Lennon. Collect their responses by writing them on the board. .
Now it is time to perform the tune. Make sure the music is recorded on a good quality cassette. Using CD's are finally, much better. Have clear copies with moderately large font. When selecting a song you yourself like, prevent singers who muffle the words and select age appropriate themes and lyrics. Use an attractive layout to enrich the visual side of your lesson plan.
Listening to the tune itself is the main center of your action. Play the song at least twice.
Below are a few sample main activity ideas: Give students envelopes with sentence strips. Ask them to study of course, if possible, put the sentence strips in the right order. (The chorus should be in one section) Students assess their answers while and after hearing the tune.
Delete every seventh word or so to make a detailed action. Based on the degree of your students, you may want to fit a word bank. Present the students the song with twenty mistakes. Have students circle the faults. Based on the degree, you could ask them to correct the mistakes or give them a word bank and also have them select the right word. Song Bingo. The mistakes are circled by Have students from the tune. They indicate an X when they hear the word being sung.
Have pupils at http://www.ucedaenglish.com/ write their very own 'imagines' in relation to John Lennon's song "Imagine." Encourage them to give the rest of the class. Students can think about the way the song made them feel and write down any random thoughts or emotions for an additional classroom discussion.
