What makes for a successful song-based lesson?

Adam Simpson, second-time

winner of the British Council’s Teaching English blog award for his post on
conditionals (written with Paul Mains), explains.

One of the big problems we all face, whether teaching English to children or adults, is
maintaining learners’ interest throughout our lessons. Consequently, we often have to
be very creative in the techniques we use. What makes music such a great
teaching tool is its universal appeal, connecting all cultures and languages. This makes
it one of the best and most motivating resources in the classroom, regardless of the age
or background of the learner.

Planning for the use of songs in class

The process of selecting a song is one of the most difficult aspects of using music in a
lesson. Here are some things you probably need to think about to ensure you get the
right song.

Carefully examine what it is you want your class to learn in the lesson

Is this going to be a lesson focusing on vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, or a

particular topic? I once used ‘You’re so vain’ by Carly Simon to introduce a text that
looked at vain people. In another lesson, I used ‘In the air tonight’ as it uses the present
perfect continuous tense. Whatever your focus, remember that this doesn’t necessarily
place a limit on what you can do with the song. For instance, you might wish to use the
song in question to exemplify a particular verb tense, and structure your lesson
accordingly, but you might at the same time wish to take the opportunity to look at those
interesting idioms in the lyrics!

Think about the language level of your class

The language level of your class will determine not only which songs you can use, but
also what other activities – such as games or written exercises – you will use to develop
the lesson. Lower levels will become extremely frustrated with fast-delivered lyrics, for
instance, while simple repetitive lyrics might not be interesting for more advanced-level
learners.

How old are your learners?

If you’re a teacher of young learners, you will probably want to use songs that are
repetitive and very easy to understand. For teenagers, however, use contemporary or
fairly recent pop and rock songs. My advice: it’s often best to ask them ‘what’s cool’.
Alternatively, for adult learners, who will probably have a more open approach to
classes, use songs that are interesting to their age group.
 Are there any specific cultural issues regarding the make-up of your class?

What kinds of things are generally unacceptable in the culture in which you teach?
Whatever you do, don’t use music solely based on your own cultural norms. Consider
the audience and their sensibilities; even better, let them choose the songs that you
use.

What kind of access do you have to the song?

Let’s face it, this is the age of YouTube and you can find practically any song on this
website. Nevertheless, an mp3, which doesn’t require a connection, or even a good old-
fashioned CD, can often be a useful backup.

Six steps for making a song the focus of your class

My intention here is to provide a basic outline you can use with any song. Remember,
these are just suggestions so make sure to keep the profile of your learners in mind.

1. Listen to the song

That’s it – start things off by just listening. It’s important to remember that this is
supposed to be a fun activity; don’t make it too serious or boring.

As an alternative, you can show a video clip if you have one – in fact, I strongly
recommend it, as it will cater to more learners’ learning preferences.

Ask learners if they’ve heard it before, and don’t overload them with tasks at this point;
simply let them enjoy the music.

2. Ask some questions about the title

Here are a couple of examples of the types of questions you can ask:

For John Lennon’s wonderful ‘Jealous Guy’:

 ‘What is a ‘jealous guy’?’

 ‘What are three things a jealous guy might do?’
 ‘What kinds of jealousy are there?’
For Queen’s classic ‘We are the champions’:

 ‘What is a champion?’
  ‘What kinds of champions are there in the world?’
 ‘What activities have champions?’
Such questions tend to work really well as conversation starters, so group three or four
learners together and then get feedback from each group on their thoughts. If you think
it would help, make this your first step, i.e., before the initial listening.

Alternatively, prior to having listened to the song you can teach a couple of words and
give a simple task for the first listening. My favourite strategy is to give three or
four words from the song and ask to them to listen out for the words that rhyme with
them. You could also brainstorm possible rhymes before listening.

3. Listen to the song again, this time with lyrics

This time, you should give learners the chance to read the lyrics to the song. At this
point you might do one or more of the following activities:

 Learners can just read the lyrics while they listen. They can possibly highlight
unknown words for later discussion.
 You can make a lyric worksheet as a gap fill; learners fill in the gaps as they listen.
 You can make cut-out strips of selected missing words and again make a lyric
worksheet as a gap fill; this time learners match the word strips to the gaps as
they listen.
4. Focus on a particular verb tense or aspect of grammar

Virtually every song centres on a particular verb tense. This is too good an opportunity
to pass up in terms of uncovering the grammar. My suggestion is to start with questions
such as these:

 How many examples can you find of the past simple in the lyrics?
 Why did the writer of this song choose this verb tense?
This acts as a springboard for discussing the function of a specific tense, as well as
examining its form. Furthermore, it often tends to raise awareness of grammatical
flexibility and ‘poetic licence’ in the construction of song lyrics. Students often expect
songs to obey the grammatical rules that have been drummed into them. In
a surprisingly large number of cases, this can lead to the enlightening discovery that
rules can be broken!

5. Focus on vocabulary, idioms and expressions

We’ve noted that many songs bend the rules of grammar. It’s also useful to focus on the
creative and artistic use of vocabulary we encounter in lyrics. Start with questions like
these (again, for Queen’s classic song ‘We are the champions’):
 What does ‘I’ve paid my dues’ mean?

 What does ‘my share of’ mean?
 What does ‘I’ve taken my bows’ mean?
Go through the meanings, illustrating with other examples if necessary. Songs often
serve as really good contexts for phrases and idioms, but it’s good to make sure that the
meaning is clear. As with grammar, years of misunderstanding can come to light in this
way!

6. Round things off with some creativity

Creativity is an important part of maintaining motivation but it shouldn’t be limited to the

teaching approach. Depending on the factors highlighted in the first part of this post
(age, language level, cultural specifics, etc.), you might want to try finishing things off
with an activity that stimulates creative thought. Here are a few examples of things you
can do to get the creative juices flowing:

 Write another verse of lyrics, maintaining the same mood and style as the original.
This can be done individually or in groups. These new lyrics can be presented to
the rest of the class. Perhaps several groups can work on this to come up with a
completely new set of lyrics for the whole song.
 A song tends to give you the perspective of the singer. Write a response (this can
be a paragraph, i.e., not necessarily in lyric form) from the point of view of the
person the song is being sung about, or any other protagonist.
 Have the learners plan a music video for the song. In groups they decide the
location, the characters, and what happens. Then each group explains their idea
to the rest of the class and the learners vote on the best one. The results can be
surprising, as they frequently come up with an interpretation that hadn’t even
occurred to you!
 Write a diary entry for a character in the song. Get learners to examine the
thoughts and feelings that inspired the story being played out in the lyrics.
Visit our award-winning website for more tips and activities for the English
language classroom.
 Emmannuel Alexandre • 2 years ago
Prepositions are very difficult to properly use, especially when dealing with a foreign language. I
think it is commonplace that every person will feel tempted to transfer the usage of the prepositions
of their mother tongue to any similar structure found on the target language.

gkduniya • a year ago

Nice article for sharing...it make us to learn a lot about the preposition...thanks from gkduniya

MD Yusuf • 3 years ago

Actually English language very essential for us because of this is an international language. However
main theme is English is an essential language.
o
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Carl Teacherman • 2 years ago
Jigsaw read/sing the song.
Print out the lyrics in large font. Cut them up into numbered lines or phrases and distribute
them amongst the class.
Listen to the song together first and then get them to read/sing the lines in order.

Certain songs are really good for this like Queen, We Will Rock You.
We usually sing the chorus together.
We then discuss and role play the story of the about the 3 stages of life.
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Rucheka Bhargava • 5 months ago
has anyone used the song "Ironic" for a lesson?
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 Najwa Abedrabuh • a year ago
The above description is extremely helpful
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Chris Walklett • 2 years ago

Please check my Creating Uses for Songs Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/gr... a
place where ideas are shared and interesting songs and lyrics discussed
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Diana White • 3 years ago

I agree using a song is a great way of giving a fun lesson while learning at the same time
but do you have to subscribe to a music licence when you use music?

Azim Turakulov • 3 years ago

The article is very useful and helpful. I have discovered a lot of interesting activities that
can be organized with songs. I think, that the songs are one of the best methods of
familiarizing students with a new theme, or reviewing some forgotten grammar rules, or
increasing the vocabulary of the students. While listening to music you enjoy as the same
time you sharpen your language skills. And it is much more helpful rather than just learning
something by rote. Also I agree, both reading and listening skills can be improved by
listening to the songs with lyrics. Additionally, the use of pictures as visual aids can be
helpful as a supplementary item to mentioned points. As it is said about 90 percent of the
information is obtained visually.

Thank you for sharing with such good methods to teach English using songs.
 Charles B.Bedard • 3 years ago
Gap fill and word substitution.Find a song that has a lot of new vocabulary you want to
teach your students.Find a song with tenses you would like to review.

Ben McCONELY
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Sheila Margaret Ward • 4 years ago

You can find some lessons with songs on my website www.sheilamargaretward.co.uk
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