10 activities for working with song lyrics

[surrealia]

Here are a few ideas for using song lyrics in the ESL classroom.

1) Make a recording of a few snippets of a song you want to teach (for example, a drum break, part of a guitar solo, the opening of the song, a tiny piece of the chorus, etc.). Ask students to guess what some of the lyrics are and write these up on the board.

2) Create a worksheet with the lyrics of a good song, with a few errors on the page. Hand it out to your students and see if they can spot the errors. Then, play the song and ask them if they were right.

3) Dictate 10 to 15 words from a song. Your students must choose 5 of them. Play the song, and tell them to cross out the words when they hear them. The first one to cross out all 5 is the winner.

4) Make a recording of several different people reacting to 3 or 4 songs. Play the reactions (without the songs), then play a little of each song. Invite your students to match the verbal reactions to the song.

5) Write 3 song lyrics that you personally find interesting, amusing or memorable on the board. Then encourage the class to come to the board and do the same. Put students in pairs, and assign them to use the words and phrases on the board to write lyrics to a new song.

6) On an ongoing basis, every week have a different student bring a song to class, play it, pass out a handout containing the lyrics, and explain why he or she likes the song.

7) Ask your class to work in groups and transfer the lyrics to a song you've taught them into a different form (news report, personal ad, telegram, etc.)

Prepare a phrase or sentence from a song you are going to teach. In class, ask one student to leave the classroom. Put the the students in groups, the same number as the number of words in the phrase. Each group gets one word of the lyric. Then, bring the student back in. All groups call out their words simultaneously, and the student has to put the words back in order.

9) In EFL classes, you can have a student stand at the front of the class and use English to describe a popular native language song. His or her classmates must guess which song it is.

10) Prepare 5 copies of the lyrics to a song. Then cut up the lyrics into about 10 strips. Put each group of cut-up lyrics into an envelope. During class, divide the class into 5 groups and give each group an envelope. Their task is to put the lyrics up on the board in the correct order. Play the song so they can check their answers.


Do you have any other ideas for working with song lyrics? If so, post them here so we can all learn from each other.

If you are looking for more teaching ideas, try out this site:

http://www.geocities.com/allhou/lessgames.htm

[James Trotta]

I wonder what the reasoning is behind number 1:
1) Make a recording of a few snippets of a song you want to teach (for example, a drum break, part of a guitar solo, the opening of the song, a tiny piece of the chorus, etc.). Ask students to guess what some of the lyrics are and write these up on the board.

Even though my CELTA trainers told me to get students to anticipate what a listening or reading is going to be about, I'm very skeptical of this type of activity. My trainers reasoned that in real life we have background knowledge, the classroom should imitate real life, therfore students should spend a few minutes activating their background knowledge.

In real life, I have never tried to guess what a song's going to say before I listen (same goes for news reports, and other listening/reading activities). I've been experimenting with very brief explanations before a general listening question. The results have, in my opinion been better.

An example:

I use the song "Iron Lady" by Phil Ochs to intorduce the topic and some vocabulary related to the death penalty. What's better- asking students to guess what a song entitled "Iron Lady" might be about (cold hearted woman, etc) or telling them that it's about the electric chair? and getting them to listen for the singer's stance on the death penalty (pro or con).
I go with the latter; In real life we decide what songs are about but we never guess what they might be about and then listen to see if we're correct. I go for the skill that might be useful in real life.

[LarryLatham]

Hi again,

I too, wonder oftentimes what the value is for many so called "activities" from the perspective of language acquisition. I am speaking here as a generalization, rather than about the song activities posted above in particular, although some of these strike me as unhelpful.

There are, to be sure, some valuable activities for students in an ESL classroom; after all, students should often be doing something, but each proposal for an activity has to be evaluated individually. A lot depends on the age and 2nd language experience of the students in a partucular setting. But it often seems to me that too many teachers, and way too many teacher trainers, have the notion that anything we can do to keep the students busy is a worthwhile use of class time as long as a few English words are thrown into the picture. I cannot agree with that. It is my view that every minute of class time is precious because those minutes are so limited. Every minute of activity, whatever it might be, competes with a minute of some other use of the time, and it is up to the teacher to make judgements about how to use those limited minutes to best advantage. I guess it depends on how the teacher regards what his or her responsibilities are with respect to the students in class. Teachers need a firm grip on students' reasons for being there.

Larry Latham

[anina]

I have really enjoyed your 10 activities on using lyrics in the classroom and intend to use them during my second training period

Here are a few ideas for using song lyrics in the ESL classroom.

1) Make a recording of a few snippets of a song you want to teach (for example, a drum break, part of a guitar solo, the opening of the song, a tiny piece of the chorus, etc.). Ask students to guess what some of the lyrics are and write these up on the board.

2) Create a worksheet with the lyrics of a good song, with a few errors on the page. Hand it out to your students and see if they can spot the errors. Then, play the song and ask them if they were right.

3) Dictate 10 to 15 words from a song. Your students must choose 5 of them. Play the song, and tell them to cross out the words when they hear them. The first one to cross out all 5 is the winner.

4) Make a recording of several different people reacting to 3 or 4 songs. Play the reactions (without the songs), then play a little of each song. Invite your students to match the verbal reactions to the song.

5) Write 3 song lyrics that you personally find interesting, amusing or memorable on the board. Then encourage the class to come to the board and do the same. Put students in pairs, and assign them to use the words and phrases on the board to write lyrics to a new song.

6) On an ongoing basis, every week have a different student bring a song to class, play it, pass out a handout containing the lyrics, and explain why he or she likes the song.

7) Ask your class to work in groups and transfer the lyrics to a song you've taught them into a different form (news report, personal ad, telegram, etc.)

Prepare a phrase or sentence from a song you are going to teach. In class, ask one student to leave the classroom. Put the the students in groups, the same number as the number of words in the phrase. Each group gets one word of the lyric. Then, bring the student back in. All groups call out their words simultaneously, and the student has to put the words back in order.

9) In EFL classes, you can have a student stand at the front of the class and use English to describe a popular native language song. His or her classmates must guess which song it is.

10) Prepare 5 copies of the lyrics to a song. Then cut up the lyrics into about 10 strips. Put each group of cut-up lyrics into an envelope. During class, divide the class into 5 groups and give each group an envelope. Their task is to put the lyrics up on the board in the correct order. Play the song so they can check their answers.


Do you have any other ideas for working with song lyrics? If so, post them here so we can all learn from each other.

If you are looking for more teaching ideas, try out this site:

http://www.geocities.com/allhou/lessgames.htm

[strider]

surrealia, thanks for your suggestions, there are some interesting ideas here.

Larry, I agree with your comments up to a point. However, all activities can be seen as tools that make up our toolkits as trainers. Depending on the situation, virtually any activity could be just the one needed in order to achieve what is important, including songs. Having said that, I agree that there has to be be some purpose to activities, and fun should not be the highest thing on a teacher's list of goals.

Anyway, I must get on with my preparation of a Joni Mitchel song to complement my lessons on the environment !

Strider

[iann]

Hi, the best I have found for that type of student is at
http://eslgames.com/edutainment/

[Helga]

I found your suggestions quite interesting.