SONG lyrics provide a valuable source of authentic language as teaching tools. There are hundreds of ways to exploit them in the classroom. Here are a few of them:
* Classic gap-fill
Every language student has been at some point asked to fill in the gaps (missing words) to song lyrics. Before making your own handout, think about why you’re taking out certain words. It may be better to take out all the words in one group, such as prepositions or verbs. Tell students what they should be listening for. Another option is to take out rhyming words. But don’t be tempted to take out too many words; eight or ten is normally enough. To make the task easier, provide the missing words in a box at the side of the handout.
* Spot the mistakes
Change some of the words in the lyrics and, as students listen, ask them to spot and correct the mistakes. As with the gap-fill limit, keep the mistakes to a maximum of eight or ten. If possible, choose a word set. You could make all the adjectives opposites, for example.
* Order the verses
With new English learners this is a very simple activity. Chop up the lyrics of the song by verse and give a small group of students the jumbled verses. As they listen, ask them to put the lyrics in order.
* Translation
Although some teachers oppose use of the mother tongue in the language classroom, some students really enjoy translating lyrics. If you do ask students to do this, ensure the lyrics are worth translating.
* Write the next verse
Higher levels can write a new verse for a song. Focus on the patterns and rhyme of the song as a group, and then let students be creative. If they are successful, the new verses can be sung. Norah Jones’ “Sunrise” is a good song for this activity.
IN this course, students develop their listening and note-taking skills through recorded listening comprehension material of about 10 minutes. In-class activities include listening to lectures, taking notes, discussion, and pair/group work. The following is a suggested teaching procedure.
Step 1: Before playing the listening material, ask students to take out a notebook.
Step 2: Tell students to take notes on the listening material as best they can. You can also emphasize “natural” note taking, meaning messy notes are okay as long as the student can read them.
Step 3: When you play the listening material, ask students to keep their books closed.
Step 4: Tell students that notes should be in English. If English note taking is too difficult at first, writing some words in their native language is okay. You can either put pauses at main divisions of the lecture, or use a segmented CD and go segment by segment.
Step 5: After the lecture, ask the students to exchange information about the lecture with their partners in English (including their notes). Depending on the English level of your students, you can allow them to use their native language.
Step 6: As you circulate, ask different groups of students whether they have questions about the content. Give them the information they need. You may need to teach some question-asking skills, such as: “Could you repeat what the speaker said about X, please?”
Step 7: Tell the students to open their books and answer the questions based on their notes. They can consult with their partners if they wish.
Step 8: Confirm the correct answers as a class.
Step 9: Tell students they are to listen again to the same lecture, this time improving their notes. This means adding new information or improving the structure and organization of their notes with numbers, underlining, and so on. They should also be trying to listen for the vocabulary words.
Step 10: Tell the students to again share notes and do whatever they can to improve what they have.
Step 11: The teacher should circulate with the transcript, asking the groups whether they have questions. Read from the transcript, if necessary. Look at individual student notes and locate trouble spots.
Step 12: Tell students to open their books and answer questions for detailed information. (Partner work is okay.)
Building listening skills through the basic emphasis pattern
Mark Alberding
THE listening activity described below can only be used once the students have known the features of word stress.
Step 1: The teacher can select a listening passage suitable for students from the textbook, or record a passage himself/herself.
Step 2: Prepare copies of the transcript for students. Use 1.5 line spacing to make it easy for students to mark the transcript. Use a large font size to make it easy to read.
Step 3: Play the listening passage. Tell students to listen for the stressed words.
Step 4: Distribute the transcript, and play the passage again. Ask students to mark the emphasized part in each sentence by placing a dot above stressed words (or the stressed syllable in a multi-syllabic word). Pause after each sentence or clause if these are very long so that students can have time to mark their transcript.
Step 5: Play the passage again. This time students should listen for and mark the focus words in each sentence or clause, indicating the most important idea in that sentence or clause. The method of marking these words should be different from the marking of stressed words during step 4. Perhaps they could underline the focus words.
Step 6: Go over the transcript with the students, indicating where the stressed words are. The overhead projector is useful here, as it enables you to use your marked transcript as a reference for the students.
