Learning English with music can enhance learning and create a more engaging and dynamic classroom environment. In a previous post, we discussed if music can help you learn a language; this post looks at how music can be incorporated into the classroom.
Using music in your classroom can help improve student motivation, focus, and retention of information. Here are some ways you can use music to enhance your classroom teaching:
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Playing soft, easy to listen to background music in class can help create a calm and comfortable atmosphere for students. Music with English lyrics playing in the background can help students with passive memorization of English. Research suggests[1] that studying with music improves focus, also with the bonus of relieving stress and anxiety.
This can also help students discover new music. If they hear one they enjoy, they might listen to the songs outside of class and during their own study time.
To help and encourage them with this, you can also build a regular playlist that students can access or refer to. You can also ask students if they have any favorite songs with English words to add to the playlist, to get them more involved.
Often it's good to take breaks or short pauses during the school day to help students recharge and refocus their attention. These kinds of breaks are typically 10-15 minutes long and can be utilized in different ways, such as physical activities, games or mindfulness exercises; it can also just be a time to relax and reset.
Adding English songs to these breaks can make them even more effective. Upbeat, high-energy music can get students moving and dancing and calming music can be used for relaxation and mindfulness exercises. Music can also be used to accompany physical activity and help children learn new words, skills or practice routines.
Using music to help students memorize words and phrases can be a fun and effective strategy. For example, you can create a song or rap from scratch or to an existing song or familiar beat, including important words or concepts that you're currently teaching. This can help students remember the information better and make learning more enjoyable.
For younger learners, add actions to your song to make it more interactive and even more memorable.
If you are short on time, use existing relevant songs to supplement your lesson. If it's a widely known song in current popular culture, students are more likely to connect or engage with it due to its familiarity and appeal.
Music can inspire creativity and help students think outside the box. You can get students to create their own song, rap or performance in English to present to the rest of the class.
If you have less time, get students to sing along to songs, perform karaoke style, or create their own song lyrics to a familiar/existing tune. This can help with their English vocabulary, pronunciation and speaking practice. It can also help students practice public speaking, improvisation, and other performance skills.
Music can also be used as a tool for classroom management to help with transitions of different classes throughout the day. Use a song to signal the start or end of class. You can also use it to signal changes throughout the day.
Choose songs that reflect the time of day or an event. For example, if it is lunchtime, play a song related to food, such as .
Students will start making associations with the words of the song and start picking up words and phrases, similar to the previous point of background music.
Integrating music into your classroom can be a great and fun way to engage students and enhance their language learning. Encouraging creativity, focus, learning, and growth. Utilizing music throughout the day adds a dynamic element that benefits the students in many ways.
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[1]Antony, M. & Priya V, Vishnu & Gayathri R, Gayathri R et al (2018). Effect of music on academic performance of college students. Drug Invention Today. 10. 2093-2096.
As the leaves turn golden and the air becomes crisp, it's not only the ghosts and ghouls that come out to play. Halloween may happen only once a year, but learning about spooky idioms and phrases can add an exciting twist to your language journey throughout the year. So, grab your torch and let's delve in.
It’s almost Halloween, and the ghosts and vampires will soon be coming out to play. Did you know that although we often associate Halloween with pumpkin carving and eating candy, the festival has much older origins?Ìý
is an ancient Gaelic festival that celebrates the end of the harvest and the start of winter. This is why people often associate the colors of orange and black with Halloween: orange is the color many leaves turn in autumn and black is the color of the darker winter months.
People used to believe that spirits walked the Earth on the night of Samhain. The tradition of dressing up as ghosts and demons started as a way to hide from the spirits who walked the streets. Similarly, people used to leave treats outside their houses for the spirits and from this came the tradition of trick-or-treating.
So to help get your younger students in the Halloween spirit, here are five spooky ideas to try in your primary classes.Ìý
Pumpkin carving is fun - but it’s also messy and pumpkins can be really heavy. Instead, bring in an orange for each student and give them a black marker pen. Get them to draw a scary face on their orange and then write a short text describing it.Ìý
My pumpkin orange, Ghoulie, has two big eyes. He’s got a small nose and a big mouth, with lots of teeth. This Halloween, he’s going to sit outside my house. He’s going to scare people but he doesn’t scare me. I think he’s very funny.
This is a great way to practice questions and review language with your younger students. Have your students cut out bat shapes on card and tell them to write a question on the back of each one. They can write personal information questions, such as ‘What do you eat for breakfast?’ or questions related to topics you’re studying at the moment, like ‘How do you spell dinosaur?’Ìý
Attach a paper clip to each bat and put them on the floor, with the questions face down. Then attach a magnet to a piece of string.
Divide the class into teams and have students take turns to fish a bat from the floor. When they catch a bat using the magnet, a student from another team asks them the question written on the bat. If the team can answer correctly, they keep the bat. If they don’t answer correctly, the bat goes back on the floor.
When all the bats have been fished, the team with the most wins.Ìý
This is a good activity to review prepositions of place and house vocabulary. Before you start, elicit some scary things from the students, such as ghost, spider, witch, zombie. If these words are new for your students, draw a picture dictionary on the board for them to refer to in the next stage.
Next, give students an outline of a house with the rooms labeled, but without any furniture. Then dictate a sentence to the students and have them draw what you say on their individual houses. For example, ‘In the kitchen, there’s a big cupboard. In the cupboard, there’s a witch.’ Or, ‘In the living room, there’s an old sofa. A zombie is sitting on the sofa.’
You can then divide the class into pairs or small groups and have them take turns dictating sentences to each other. When they finish, they can compare their pictures and then write a short story about their haunted houses.Ìý
Draw a 7x5 grid on card and add Start and Finish squares. Number the other squares so the students know what direction to move in. Then, on some of the squares write Trick and on some of the other squares write Treat. Finally, prepare a set of ‘trick’ and ‘treat’ cards for each group. (There are some ideas for tricks and treats below).Ìý
Before students play, teach them some phrases to use while playing the game. For example:
Then divide the class into groups of four and give each group a board, a set of ‘trick-or-treat’ cards, a dice and a counter. Have them take turns to roll the dice and move. If they land on a TrickÌýor Treat square, they have to take a card and do what it says. Then they put the card at the bottom of the pile.ÌýThe winner is the first person to reach the Finish square.
Ideas for ‘trick’ cards
Ideas for ‘treat’ cards
Are your students bored of celebrating Halloween every year? Mix things up with stories or readers. Allowing their imagination to run wild. There are lots of you can use or get inspiration from, creating your own. If you want your pupils more involved you could also have them make or take part in your very own 'create your own adventure' spooky story.Ìý
After reading the story, have your students create comic strips of different parts of the book and display them around the classroom. If your students prefer theatrics, get them to act out or sing parts of the story.Ìý
Why is it that some groups work smoothly together, whereas for others it always seems to end in arguments? It may seem logical to avoid group work with classes where it often leads to disagreement, but is there such a thing as ‘healthy disagreement’?
Perhaps the groups that appear to be working well together are actually just letting one or two people do everything? This would certainly avoid conflict, but they might also be avoiding learning very much.Ìý
Sometimes conflict is a necessary step that teachers (of all subjects, not just language teachers) have to acknowledge as an important part of a learner's development.Ìý
