REPORT ON ACTION SONGS PROGRAMME

Action song is the way how to improve our pupils in English as a foreign language and make them more confident in front of the audience. As a teacher, I really enjoy helping pupils learn `how to learn` the process of learning, the strategies involved in any task, are as important as the outcomes. In action songs, every interaction with a teacher ought to leave the pupils more in control, more independent and more aware of the need for them to achieve their personal best. They also learn how to be in cooperation with friends. Action songs also help them to be more patient.

BENEFITS OF ACTION SONG PROGRAMME The benefits of Action Songs are: -They allow for self expression, encouraging a child's own response in his or her use of body and speech. -These activities encourage students to participate verbally. -They provide relaxation (a legitimate opportunity to wiggle and move around). -They assist the child in learning to follow directions. -They increase attention span. -They develop listening skills. -They teach order and sequence. -Help teach number concepts. -They increase manual dexterity and muscular control.

WEAKNESSES OF PROGRAMME Some pupils will get nervous when speaking in front of other pupils. The same goes to our pupils. In order to avoid it, they need to speak in front of group and give presentation. They must not be afraid of speaking in front the public. For some pupils, they do not focus while training action song with their friends. The teacher needs to choose the correct songs and actions for the pupils to enjoy. Only then they will be paying more attention. Beside that self confidence is good but when they are too confident, they stop learning or practice.

SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Teaching students to associate new words in English with the concept represented by the word and not with the word equivalent in their own language can be very challenging. Learning English language activities serve a viable substitute for traditional instructional materials, while introducing material students to various enjoyable ways of learning a foreign language. Such activities can provide students with the opportunity to use their imagination and creativity and can motivate them to learn English. There are many ways to do teach and make the pupils learn action songs, and here are some of the most well known ways:

1) Inventing a new strophe. As songs use a lot of structure repetition we can continue the song with new strophes including vocabulary that children already know. 2) Follow instructions or use the song as an activity. Songs as "Head and shoulders" and many others teach parts of the body and can be used as a Total Physical Response instruction activity. 3) Changing sentences to facilitate comprehension. There are a lot of songs that teachers like but they don't use in Primary because they find the vocabulary too difficult. Why don't you try changing the sentences with words and structures that students know? Be careful to maintain stress and rhyme. 4) Inventing actions or movements. Songs about animals, habits, skills or sports include movements showing the actions and improving comprehension. 5) Using onomatopoeic sounds. Onomatopoeias are very useful for practicing pronunciation and difficult English sounds for foreign learners. Some songs can include onomatopoeias to express the sounds of objects or actions; working in this way makes phonetics non boring exercise. 6) Acting-out a song. Songs such as "The wheels of the bus" allow acting-out by giving "characters" to children: some are the wheels, some are the people on the bus, one is the driver, and they act with the proposed movements of the song.

7) Translate and adapt an action song from L1. Probably the most difficult one, but if you can get it, success is assured. There are a lot of songs that children know from nursery school: melody and words are worked out and the translation facilitates faster learning. Final suggestions we have to take into account when using songs:

Songs must be suitable for the English level of the students group. In Primary school, the topics of the songs must be close to children's interests: Nature, habits, sports. The melody has to be "sticky", to pop into students heads very easily. Don't introduce too many items of vocabulary in one go (five or six are enough) The recording has to be clear and understandable. The pupils and the teacher must like the song!