Using Music in the EFL Classroom
Kari Miller, M.A.L.S.
Academic Coordinator, DLIC, kmiller@cec-epn.edu.ec
Centro de Educación Continua, Escuela Politécnica Nacional
July 3, 2007
Note: Just like any lesson, a music lesson should contain a warm up activity
where students predict the content of the song or talk about a theme in the
song, as well as pre- and post-listening activities.
Activities:
1. Bingo: Make a list of key words from the song. Give the list to the
students and ask them to write the words on their Bingo card in any order (16
spaces is a good number). Then play the song and tell students that, when
they hear a word on their sheet, they should mark it off. Someone gets Bingo
if they get four words in a row (diagonal counts!). [“You Gotta Be” by
Des’Ree]
2. Pictures: Give students the pictures of some nouns/verbs in the song.
Ask them to listen to the song and put the pictures in the order they hear
them. Variation: Have students choose a picture from a magazine. After
listening to the song, have students rewrite a verse from the song, including
the picture as part of the song. [“You Gotta Be” by Des’Ree]
3. Dictation: The teacher dictates a verse from the song to the students two
times. Next, the teacher reads the lines and has students repeat, following
the stress, intonation and pronunciation modeled by the teacher. Afterwards,
students listen to the song and then create their own verse using a template.
[“I’ll Be There for You” by Bon Jovi]
4. One word per line: Tell students the title of the song. Give students a
key word from each line. Ask them to write a line from the song for each
word. Afterwards, they can check their song against the original. [“Suds in
the Bucket” by Sara Evans]
5. Video: Give students a list of verbs from the song. Have them listen once
and try to put the verbs in the order they hear them. Lead a brief discussion
about what the song is about. Then, pass out the lyrics and listen again.
Next, ask students to complete a video clip (frame by frame) for the song,
drawing each verse/scene of the song. [“Suds in the Bucket” by Sara Evans]
6. Dance lessons: [“You Had Me” by Joss Stone]
a. Hand out verb tenses to the class. Play the song. When the
students hear their tense they should raise their card.
b. Divide the class into six groups. Assign each group one of the
following tenses: simple present, simple past, present perfect, future,
imperative, present progressive (-ing). Ask each group to make up a dance
step for their tense. After the groups have made the dance steps, they must
teach the rest of the class their step.
c. Give the lyrics to the students. Play the song again. As they listen,
the students must perform the dance step corresponding to the italicized
tense in the lyrics.
Using Music in the EFL Classroom
Kari Miller, M.A.L.S.
Academic Coordinator, DLIC, kmiller@cec-epn.edu.ec
Centro de Educación Continua, Escuela Politécnica Nacional
July 3, 2007
1. Why should we use music to teach English?
Motivating, generates enthusiasm, personalize learning, develop
vocabulary, creates positive feelings about English, practice
pronunication and stress, represent culture/folklore/history/slang,
builds confidence, can be incorporated to all language skills, students
love them, melody and rhythm helps process and recall structures
more easily,
2. Pass out Pre- / Post- handout: ask participants to decide in
pairs. Check answers. Discuss using music in lesson plans.
3. Go over activities:
a. You Gotta Be:
i. Put Bingo words on board. Play Bingo.
ii. Have participants decide order of pictures. Complete
lyrics.
b. “I’ll Be There for You”:
i. Dictate verse. (Half the group) Participants choose a
magazine picture, then rewrite a verse to include the
picture.
ii. Rest of participants are given the template and must
rewrite the verse.
c. “Suds in the Bucket”:
i. One Word per line: participants write the verse,
including the word in the verse. Then groups get
together and share their song.
ii. Listen to song with lyrics. Draw the video clip frame
by frame.
d. “You Had Me”:
i. Hand out verb tenses. Listen and hold up.
ii. Participants group themselves by tenses, then create a
dance step.
iii. Groups number off into sixes and have them teach
each other their dance steps.
iv. Play song and do the “dance”.
4. Evaluation