Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello all,

I did look at the link on this website and it has some great ideas but not quite what I had in mind for my lesson!

I am really in a bind here. There's a website that is dedicated entirely to ways to use music to teach grammar and I can't find the website. I'd like to know if anyone knows what I'm talking about.

Also, I would appreciate any ideas about songs that would be good for teaching grammar points! Thanks! It means a lot to me!

I've looked on this site, and it may be there but if so I missed it. I did give it a good college try... so please no mean answers!

Thank you if you can help me.

Hi there,

I don't know of that website but here are some ideas for using songs to teach grammar.

1. Students listen, or read lyrics and spot all the examples of a given structure - for example all verbs in the simple past, or for more advanced students; all verbs in any form of past tense, which they then group together.

2. Students study the lyrics, then listen to the song and whenever the subject of any sentence is mentioned they stand up and clap. Use that idea for identifying any grammar you want to highlight.

3. Students can correct lyrics as there are quite often grammatical errors in songs today.

4. Students can rewrite songs in a different tense.

5. Students look for all short forms such as didn't, ain't, can't and write them out in their full version. They then compare notes with colleagues to check answers.

6. Have students write some lyrics to a tune they know that focus on a particular grammatical structure. It's hard to do but can be great fun - work in small groups for that for greater creativity.

Bye for now
Shelley
For preschool and primary songs with lesson plans please see:
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/eslsongs.htm