Job Discussion Forums

[Justin Trullinger]

There's some good introductory material about jazz chants on the onestopenglish website. www.onestopenglish.com

Also downloadable chants in MP3 format.

Best,
Justin

[nickpellatt]

Well Im quite new to this, and for the first time, I have started choral chanting....I actually quite liked it so a little disapointed to see its not favoured in most quarters here...

My rational behind using it is that i previously felt my classes didnt do enough speaking and that some of my students may not have spoken at all during classes..(big classes before)

as mentioned, I like the fact that it gives a certain anonymity to the shy students, and this week I have been leading the group through repetition, and then going to individual students..

I have also been using it to emphasise stress on certain words, according to their meaning in the sentence.

The way I have taught is as follows..the lesson is my first, so it covers my introduction to them...

I give them a question, they have to guess the answer...

question - Does your teacher have children?

answer - yes, he has a son...

I say the answer, and before they repeat, I ask them to listen, and give them the speech pattern, in a "da.....da da da da" type way...

I ask the question of them as a group, repeat, then ask to individuals. The 'da....da da da da' has helped keep them together when repeating as a class

[John Hall]

I think that sometimes our students get so focused on the pronunciation of English that they forget about the "rhythm." But the latter seems to be key. Jazz chants seem to fix pronunciation problems like magic. I've seen many students who constantly trip all over the pronunciation of English suddenly just get it right once they do a jazz chant. It seems to me that by getting students to focus on the rhythm of a certain structure, it makes most everything else fall into place.

I teach Spanish speakers, and of course, Spanish is a very rhythmic language; so, I'd interested to know if those of you who teach students who speak other languages than Spanish have found jazz chants to be as effective as I have found them to be.

[gaijinalways]

Chanting, singing, choral repetition, the trick is making them fun (or at least seem fun). Sometimes silly sentences are good, tongue twisters, etc..

PS backchaining is also referred to as backwards (phrase, sentence) build-up

[Justin Trullinger]

Make it fun alright!

I never liked jazz chants that much, but have been experimenting with them as part of our teacher training program, and have found them very helpful in dealing with rythm, which seems to fix some pronunciation problems without even trying. (Specifically weak forms and word/sylable stress)

But in response to the poster who saw this as a way to "get them talking," I'm afraid there's a danger in "getting them talking" if it's primarily repetition, without much in the way of communicative purpose. THese things can be really good for pronunciation etc, but repetition doesn't seem to do much for expression or comprehension. Just my two cents worth. (Though there's a lot of research out there.)

If your goal is to get them talking, in a large class, look towards pair work, group work, and teams. Get out of the middle!

Best,
Justin

[MELEE]

I really love Jazz Chants myself, but I don't agree that the book has enough instructions to know how to use them. I've never seen the most Recent book, Jazz Chants Old and New so I don't know what kind of instructions it gives. I also recognize that some teachers should never attempt to do a Jazz Chant, it takes a certain personality to pull it off. You can be an excellent teacher and not have that personality, it's a matter of knowing yourself. I work with 17 to 22 year olds in groups of 20 to 30. I usually teach beginners. Jazz Chants are great for getting them going. I always end the first week of the semeter with the Have a Nice Weekend chant. I also teach local high school teachers (non native Speakers) how to use Jazz Chants in our summer teacher's course, because I think they are particularly great for non native speaker teachers to use.

If you are interested in this thread, you might be interested in Dave's other teacher forums http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/

[OleLarssen]

Good point about the personality of the teacher. I downloaded a few and listened to them wondering if I could possibly, as you say, pull it off with what I've got, and I think not. For those who know the grammar raps in Side by Side, I could do those, though. :)

Nice thread.

[Margot73]

Side By Side?? CRINGE. What is up with those sequined vests they wear for the grammar raps???

[OleLarssen]

For real. Side by Side TV brings me screaming back to the 80s, when TV/VCR was relatively recently introduced into Norwegian schools and it was all the rage.

It's cheesy as all hell and then two dimes and a cupcake on top of that, but it IS amusing in the most obscure possible way. Maybe I'm just mentally deranged.

[Justin Trullinger]