Creative language teaching through songs lyrics and poetry
CONTENTS
Introduction………………………………………….4THEORETICAL PART
Chapter I – Music, songs and poetry in language teaching
1. Benefits connected with using songs and poems ………..6
2. Motivation offered by songs and poems………..…....7
3. Criteria for selecting suitable song lyrics and poem texts…..8
4. Songs and poems as a memory aid……………….…….8
5. The role of the teacher in teaching English through songs and poems………..…….…....9
6. Teaching procedure…………….…..9
6.1. Using songs in the classroom……………….9
6.2 Using poems in the classroom…………..10
7. Procedures for developing language activities ..…...11
7.1 Reconstruction……….………12
7.2. Reduction……………..12
7.3 Expansion……………...…...12
7.4 Replacement….……….12
7.5 Matching…………..12
7.6 Media transfer…………………….13
7.7 Selection………………………..13
7.8 Ranking…………………..…….13
7.9 Comparison and contrast………………………..13
7.10 Analysing………………………13
Chapter II – Activities based on songs and poems
1. Activities for children – at beginning and elementary level….15
1.1 Activities based on poems…………15
1.2 Activities based on songs…………….16
2. Activities for intermediate level………….17
2.1 Activities based on poems…………17
2.2 Activities based on songs…………….18
3. Activities for advanced level……………...18
3.1 Activities based on poems……….…19
3.2 Activities based on songs…………….19
PRACTICAL PART
Chapter III
1. Lesson plan nr 1…………………..21
2. Lesson plan nr 2…………………….24
3. Lesson plan nr 3……….……29
Conclusions..…………………………………….………….34
References…………………………………………………………………..……………..36
Appendix A…………………………………………………………………..……………37
Appendix B………………………………………………………………..……………....39
INTRODUCTION
“There is no human society without its poetry. There is no human society without its music. When
put together, they constitute a powerful force for both cultural cohesion and identity and for
individual fulfillment” – writes Alan Maley (Murphey 2004:3). Music
and poetry are elements of each human society. They show many aspects of its culture –
the relationship to the past and the ancestors, the faith, the fun and the anxieties of its people, the
hopes and the view of the future. Music and poetry have immanent powers, for example they give
people energy or they can change people’s mood. They occur in all phases of one’s life from birth to
death. So they are an essential part of the process
of learning. Music and poetry also play an important role in foreign language teaching.
Language learning is a difficult and often tedious task, and throughout the history of foreign
language education, teachers have turned to a variety of devices to make
the process more successful and enjoyable. One of the more enduring recourses has been the use of
authentic materials such as songs and poems. They are fun, they help motivate, they are real-life
examples of the language, literature and culture of the people who composed or wrote them. In
addition, they are a natural bridge between the interests
of the student and the target language.
In recent years, the role of literature and songs as a basic component and source
of authentic texts of the language has been gaining momentum. The use of literature
and songs as a technique for teaching both basic language skills (i.e. reading, writing, listening and
speaking) and language areas (i.e. vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation) has been variously
interpreted over the past 100 years.
The issues of using authentic matherials like songs or literature have been developed, tried, and
tested by experienced teachers and methodologists of English in their classrooms around the world
(for example Basssnett & Grundy, Collie & Slater, Anatol Szewel, Tim Murphey, Alan Maley and
others). Their works pass on ideas, techniques, practical activities and theory that were used also in
this work.
The purpose of the work is to show the value of songs and poems as a teaching tool and to provide
further insight into the topic. The work also intends to demonstrate that songs and poems are
valuable sources and can be used effectively in teaching English. Beside these theoretical points the
author gives practical advice how to teach songs
or poems and present the topic with particular attention to the skills such as reading, listening,
writing and speaking, but also how other communicative skills can be integrated and to demonstrate
the ideas with author’s chosen texts.
The work is divided into three main chapters. Chapter I gives an overview
of the field of using songs and poems in the classroom. Some theoretical points are laid out and are
briefly discussed. Chapter II introduces selected activities which can be used with students at
elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. This chapter is organized around different activity
types. The author takes into account the interests and needs
of the students. Chapter III – the practical part, includes lesson plans: two based on the song and one
based on the poem, which can be used with students at intermediate level.
In this chapter the emphasis is on activities which dealt with various themes and develop all the
language skills: reading, writing, pronunciation, listening and so on. The work concludes with an
Appendix which includes the research. The students of the Lower Secondary School in Gorlice were
asked to answer some questions. The goal of this research is to show that students would benefit
from the addition of music and poems.
The main motivation for choosing this topic was that the author is interested
in English music, poems and the way people learn languages. One of the motivation was also the
possibility to conduct an experiment (appendix I and II).
Although songs and poems are so enjoyable and so little used, they can be as useful as conventional
classroom materials. It is often thought that if something is fun, you cannot be learning. This work
attempts to show otherwise.
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