Teaching English With Music: a Why and a How-to

It’s funny how the best teaching moments happen unplanned. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big proponent of planning before a lesson, especially with a plan A, plan B and, if necessary, plan C.

But the best part of teaching is being able to go with the flow, listen to what works and what doesn’t and that usually comes from your students. I’ve tried following lessons to a “t” before just to realize that the information I am trying to impart although necessary, is not reaching the students.

So recently a new ESL student started at one of the schools I teach at. A middle schooler, who is at an intermediate level of English but has a difficult time understanding what is going on in the class. And, of course, lack of vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary! – that’s the magic word for a lot of students who can crack grammar like nuts even without knowing what the meaning of the sentence is.

I tried a few traditional approaches, but she seemed reluctant to engage. Again, mind you, teaching one-on-one can sometimes be more difficult than managing a classroom because the teacher truly needs to be in tune with the student’s abilities, inclinations, learning styles and personality in order to reach them. As, of course, the student should meet the teacher half way, but that’s a different story.

Anyway, after racking my brain for some time, I remembered that I’ve had success teaching vocabulary and grammatical structures with songs. Music is such an amazing language teaching tool! If you haven’t tried it yet, here are a few reasons:

• It has a rhythm and a flow, just like a language. Ever wonder why different languages sound and “flow” differently and you have to get used to that? Or why children learn nursery rhymes? That rhythm allows the brain to capture the words in a more clear and systematic manner, which really helps students remember.
• You can focus on targeted structures such as parts of speech, tenses, vocabulary, phrasal verbs, idioms, comparative and superlative adjectives, etc. with natural repetitiveness as opposed to drilling.
• It is an amazing listening practice. Through listening to a song, students work on clarifying the meaning and focus on paying attention to the structure that is being taught.
• Because you know your students best, you can tailor the song to their taste. That way the student is motivated and you know your less was valuable. Which, really, makes you both feel accomplished.
• Melody stays in one’s head longer than a dry grammatical rule or vocabulary definition, so by humming to themselves even after the class, students will be able to repeat the same word or structure and through its repetition, they will “own” it.
• What’s even more amazing, the listening for targeted structures exercise usually brings up conversation topics, which allow for great speaking practice. For example, about music styles, about differences in music tastes, popular music in different countries, etc.

Interestingly enough, I’d just received an email from The Teaching Cove, to which I subscribed recently informing me that she had added a new resource – a song from La La Land. I loved that movie and the music! I thought it would be a great lesson to try out, so I quickly downloaded it.

Well, the middle schooler had a different idea. Apparently, La La Land was not what she’d heard of or was even remotely interested in, so I had to go to plan B.  Which was “What kind of music do YOU like/listen to?” It turns out that Glee is what makes her world go round. Yep, I’d totally forgotten about that.

We started looking at songs, she sang the karaoke versions of them and we went over some of the lyrics. She was engaged and alive and curious. It was one of the most productive lessons that I’ve had in a while with that particular student and she continues to utilize music in her language learning. What’s more, the other student that works with us at the same time was also thrilled about learning English through music. So much so, that they decided to participate in the school talent show!

After I’ve made this discovery (or “rediscovery”) I decided to make an actual targeted lesson. A lot of my students – middle and high school alike – enjoyed John Legend’s All of Me song, so it was a great candidate.

Have you listened to a song before and repeated the lyrics but did not really pay much attention to the words? It is amazing what language treasures you can dig up when a decision strikes to teach English through songs! Some are great for working on prepositions, others on nouns, still others on verb tenses.

If you’ve read my article on 10 Most Useful Phrasal Verbs, you know that it is an absolutely necessary but not an easy task to teach them. Really, explain the verb and then explain the preposition and then explain the meaning of the entire phrasal verb. It can get boring.

John Legend’s song falls into the category of “modern way to teach phrasal verbs” and idioms:) When I read through the lyrics, it was clear to me that phrasal verbs are “it” for the lesson.

Taking a song, going over its lyrics and making it into a fill-in-the-blank exercise along with the real-world application works wonders.

And in case you were wondering about the La La Land song, I did end up teaching it to the high school students and they loved it!

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Have you ever taught English with songs?

If so, what is your favorite way to utilize songs in teaching?