Teaching English Through Songs and Music

KNU Teacher Training 2013

M r Bri a n M a lo v a ny

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Pay Me My Money Down

I thought I heard the captain say Pay me my money down Tomorrow is our sailing day Pay me my money down Pay me, pay me Pay me my money down Pay me or go to jail Pay me my money down

Well, If I'd been a rich man's son Pay me my money down I'd sit on the river and watch it run Pay me my money down (CHORUS) I wish I was Mr. Gates Pay me my money down They'd haul my money in a crate Pay me my money down

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Pay Me My Money Down

I thought I heard the captain say Pay me my money down Tomorrow is our sailing day Pay me my money down Pay me, pay me Pay me my money down Pay me or go to jail Pay me my money down As soon as the boat was clear of the bar Pay me my money down He knocked me down with a spar Pay me my money down (CHORUS)

Well, If I'd been a rich man's son Pay me my money down I'd sit on the river and watch it run Pay me my money down (CHORUS) I wish I was Mr. Gates Pay me my money down They'd haul my money in a crate Pay me my money down (CHORUS) Well, forty nights, and days at sea Pay me my money down That captain worked every last dollar outta me. Pay me my money down (CHORUS)

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Reasons to Use Songs & Music

Theyre Authentic! Music is an aspect of culture, and it is more authentic than any material or dialogue artificially prepared for an ESL classroom Theyre Fun Theyre Familiar to the Students They Contain a Wide Range of Language-Skills They lower anxiety and generate enthusiasm

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Reasons to Use Songs & Music

songs provide a break from classroom routine, and that learning English through songs develops a non-threatening classroom atmosphere in which the four language skills can be enhanced Lo and Li (1998) Gatbonton and Segalowitz (1988, p.476) state that we must "place students in an environment in which it is appropriate to use target utterances in a genuinely communicative fashion." The nature of songs is fairly repetitive and consistent.

Songs also present opportunities for developing automaticity which is the main cognitive reason for using songs in the classroom. Gatbonton and Segalowitz (1988, p.473) dene automaticity as "a component of language uency which involves both knowing what to say and producing language rapidly without pauses."

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Reasons to Use Songs & Music

Some songs are excellent examples of colloquial English, that is, the language of informal conversation. Finally, two studies, Domoney and Harris (1993) and Little (1983) investigated the prevalence of pop music in the lives of EFL students. Both studies found that music is often the major source of English outside of the classroom. The exposure to authentic English is an important factor in promoting language learning. It relates directly to both the affective lter and automaticity. If students are exposed to songs which they enjoy, more learning is likely to occur since they may seek out the music outside of the classroom. The repetitive style of songs then helps to promote automatization of colloquial language.

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Reasons to Be Wary of Songs & Music

Sometimes, Theyre Too Authentic Music and songs are culture-bound; be sure to understand and know the source material that you use! Not all of it is Familiar to the Students Do you use new music or older music? Will they be familiar with it, or is it from your era/ generation instead?

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Reasons to Be Wary of Songs & Music

What English does the Song Teach; Standard, Formal English vs. Informal English
Songs vary from Standard English to extremely informal, specific and idiomatic forms of English. Are these forms helpful to the Students? Are you teaching them things that they will actually use?

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Means & Methods of Presentation

Playing The Actual Recording of the Original Musicians Playing the Songs Yourself Live (Singing accompanied by Guitar, Piano, etc) A Combination of the Two? Who Sings, the Teacher, the Students, or both?

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Music, Songs, & English Teaching Goals

Which songs do you like to use in class, & what aspect of English-language learning do they address?
Grammar-Emphasis Vocabulary-Building Speaking & Conversation Pronunciation Listening Writing

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Elisabeth Chan The International Center for English Arkansas State University Delta Symposium April 6, 2011

Tuesday, January 22, 13

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} At

what age did you start listening to music as a hobby?

Tuesday, January 22, 13

} At

what age did you start listening to music as a hobby? adults an adult, what type of music are you most nostalgic for? Is it music you listened to as a teenager or young adult?

} As

Tuesday, January 22, 13

(Levitin, 2006)
Tuesday, January 22, 13

} The

same amount of vocabulary was acquired words were acquired when they were

from listening to a song as listening to a story.

} More

sung rather than spoken.

} But

the greatest amount of vocabulary was

acquired when the stories were both sung and illustrated! (Medina,1993)

Tuesday, January 22, 13

This Song Is Stuck In My Head!

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Music is the Motherese of Adolescence

It is to teen ager s, wha t ba by talk i s to babi es.

(Murphey, 1998)

l hmica Rhyt allows ucture re str be mo i t to rable ) memo , 1999 agawa (S

Baby talk by adults and words in pop songs shares many similar aspects (Murphey and Alber, 1985)
Pop songs have a high verb count and few concrete referents for participants, times, and places.

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Why do songs get inextricably stuck in our heads? Experts say the culprits are earworms (or "ohrwurms," as they're called in Germany). cause a sort of "cognitive itch" or "brain itch" -- a need for the brain to ll in the gaps in a song's rhythm. When we listen to a song, it triggers a part of the brain called the auditory cortex. Researchers at Dartmouth University found that when they played part of a familiar song to research subjects, the participants' auditory cortex automatically lled in the rest in other words, their brains kept "singing" long after the song had ended [source: Prokhorov].

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Tuesday, January 22, 13

The only way to "scratch" brain itch is to repeat the song over and over in your mind. Unfortunately, like with mosquito bites, the more you scratch the more you itch, and so on until you're stuck in an unending song cycle. Just as there are many theories, there are many names for the phenomenon. It's been called everything from "repetunitis" to "melodymania." Researchers also aren't sure why some songs are more likely to get stuck in our heads than others, but everyone has their own tunes that drive them crazy.

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Tuesday, January 22, 13

How to Get Songs Out of Your Head:

If a song is nagging you to the brink of insanity, here are a few tips to try:

1. Sing another song, or play another melody on an instrument. 2. Switch to an activity that keeps you busy, such as working out. 3. Listen to the song all the way through (this works for some people). 4. Turn on the radio or a CD to get your brain tuned in to another song. 5. Share the song with a friend (but don't be surprised if the person become an ex-friend when he or she walks away humming the tune). 6. Picture an earworm as a real creature crawling out of your head, and imagine stomping on it.
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Tuesday, January 22, 13

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Pronunciation is more than pronouncing the sound /b/ correctly for the letter B. Stressing the correct syllables and how you say more important to increase English comprehensibility.

certain words of a sentence faster than others is

Different languages and timing.

have different stress

Tuesday, January 22, 13

I | read a BOOK | in the LIbrary | YESterday.

} In

the English example, you take the same

amount of time to say read a book as in the library, although there are more syllables.

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Ki/no/u/ to/sho/ka/n/ de/ ho/n/ wo/ yo/mi/ma/ shi/ta.

} In

the Japanese example, each syllable receives music to teach English can help increase

the same amount of time.

} Using

comprehensibility and intelligibility by helping students with their stress-timing!

Tuesday, January 22, 13

Chan, E. & Beni, K. (2007). Sounds Good to Me: Using Music and Song in L2 Teaching Workshop. Presented at DaTESL hosted at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Levitin, D. (2006). This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession. New York, NY: Dutton Adult. Medina, S. (1993). The effect of music on second language vocabulary acquisition. FEES News (National Network for Early Language Learning), 6(3), 1-8. Murphey, T. (1990). The song stuck in my head phenomenon: A melodic din in the LAD? System, 18(1), 53-64. Murphey, T. (1992). The discourse of pop songs. TESOL Quarterly, 26(4), 770-774. Murphey, T. (1992). Music & song. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Murphey, T. & Alber, J.L. (1985). A pop song register: The motherese of adolescents as affective foreigner talk. TESOL Quarterly, 19(4), 793-795. Sagawa, M. (1999). TESOL: The use of arts in language teaching. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from http://homepage3. nifty.com/mmsagawa/hooked/tesol_art.html

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Tuesday, January 22, 13