What are your thoughts on using music in your classroom environment?

[elderbob Brannan]

Are you using music as a learning format now? How? What would you like to explore here?

[clairmtaylor]

Hi. I use music in all my EFL classes as an anchor to get students into a learning state at the start of class and play it again at the end so that they leave in a positive state. I also use BGM during some activities to raise the energy level. I always give the students a choice - music or quiet - I think the more choices we can give learners in classrooms the better.

I also teach a class called English through Music where we look at lyrics of pop/rock songs. I'm still developing that course.

I don't know a lot about music at all, but someone just posted this really interesting article from the Science Daily to another list, so I thought I'd share. It basically says that music and language are processed in the same places in the brain- one place for memory and another place for syntax/rules. http://tinyurl.com/329ekh

If any of you stumble on that kind of research I'd be really interested. I'm curious as to why I have taught some students who are great at music (level 7 or 8 piano) but still beginner level at English after 6-7 years of instruction. How can this be if they are using the same parts of the brain?

[elderbob Brannan]

Clair, I enjoyed the article and have set up a box for Music Articles and Links on the right. Hope you don't mind but I went ahead and added the link to the article you suggested. Thanks again.

I like the idea of the "English through Music" class, and I wonder if that is something we could explore for the big EVOnline presentation in January and February....we might use it as an introduction to some collaborative brain-storming.

elderbob

[Dara]

Hi there! I´m trying to follow this course the best I can... let´s start here commenting on the uses I make of music in my lessons. So far, since I´m a teacher of English, I´ve included music to promote and encourage "free writing" which I think is a very interesting activity ´cause they can let their imagination flows according to the music and don´t worry about good grammar, just writing.
Other uses I make for the language classroom is working with lyrics to practice grammar points, vocabulary or intonation. Students love learning songs of their favourite bands and singers..
I´d love to increase this poor list of uses,... so I´m looking forward to read everyone´s ideas!
Cheers!
Dara

[Berta]

Hi everyone, more than music, I use songs that convey certain meaning and which are rich in vocabulary. In the past 15 years I have taught EFL reading comprehension for science and technology to freshman engineering students so I have tried to pick videos on TV of songs that are popular at the moment and which lend themselves to be analyzed from a reading point of view. I might concentrate on referents, characters, cause-effect relationships, synonyms and antonyms, passive voice, etc. (I remember one by Metallica, entitled "Through the never" that was a hit in our class discussion about the universe before we went to readings on the evolution of man). I also bring "classics" such as Queen or The Eagles and students from different years, decades, generations have loved these class activities. In the past when I taught four skill courses, I used songs as pre or post class activities, to start discussions, writing, a grammatical point (if clauses, for example), to focus on parts of speech, to fill in blanks as a listening activity -with or without captions-, to make students aware of cultural differences (I remember a rap by M&M that was quite a class success) or simply just for fun or because students wanted to know what the song was about when they listened to it on the radio. I sometimes include a question in my survey the first week of class about the kind of music my students like, their favorites groups, etc., and then try to include some of those throughout the term. I have to be honest and say that I do bring to class those songs I love the most and which sometimes my students like but sometimes they don´t, like Linking Park´s songs that are rather sad but which are rich in ideas and vocabulary.
I am looking forward to sharing more on the use of music and songs in the ESL-EFL classroom, on music and memory links, on music and the brain and how sometimes a tune magically gets stuck in a loop in our head and we cannot get rid of it ... the more we try, the more difficult it becomes ... the wonders of sound, of music in our lives ... of ...
Cariños a todos,
Berta

[maria martha]

One of my recent experiences has to do with using music, especially classical music, during the class. From time to time I take different CDs and I play them while I give my talk or during the reading time. Most of my students are young adults at university and when the class finishes many of them want to know the name of the artist we had been listening to.
I enquire about the effects music played on them since I am very interested in knowing more about the brain and the learning processes. I know that music helps anchoring knowledge.

Love to you all from the red land of Misiones (Argentina),

[Alfia]

Hi ! I'm very fond of music from classical to modern. And I wish I could use it more at the lessons than I do . Now I'm using songs that are given in the textbooks for the elementary level in such textbooks as Chatterbox, Zabadoo (there were good songs in Open Doors 1-3, but we aren't using them now) . Some of them are really good with specially chosen vocabulary and grammar and easily catching tunes. In other textbooks there are rock and pop classics by Beatles, Queen and others. Students like to sing these songs.
When we study "musical " units we do projects about popular performers and students enjoy that. They bring their favourite music to the classroom. I have many projects for several years in my bookcase and I think it would be better if they were made in an online format and younger generations of my students could use them as examples or just for information.
I hope that during this session we will be able to find resources for students' works , different ways of using music at the lessons, teachers' sites, examples of tasks.

[SONIA]

Hi. I've been using songs to teach grammar points, to improve the skills, to have fun... I like to select very modern songs but some groupsare fond of the classics... I also ask them to give me new links to keep updated. One activitiy that is challeging for the students is to scramble the lyrics. They have to organize the song by listening to it. Sometimes I like to play music in the background to set the mood for other activities.
Lately I'm into video clips, you can find them in YouTube , My Space, Yahoomusic. and some other websites. My students love them.If you like the Beattles and pop songs visit: http://www.braam.ik.org/. There you have lyrics, music and activities.
Bye for now,
Sonia

[elderbob Brannan]

Sonia,
Thanks for the ideas, and especially for the link to the Beatle exercises. The Beatles repertoire is among my favorites...and to see it used in a classroom setting is terrific. Thanks for the post.

[Berta]

Wow, Sonia. Your links are very creative and resourceful. I particularly liked the film trailers and how you make the most of them. Very motivating for your students, I am quite sure.
I too usually use songs that are popular at the moment. Students enjoy analyzing them and finally realizing what their real meaning is all about. After we discuss them, they say these particular songs have an added value. It is not always easy to find songs that work well, but there are some that are real jewels. Thanks so much for sharing your site !!! May we refer to it or use it in our classrooms?

[SONIA]

Hello again, Bertha
Sure, you can use it in your classes. The site is a treasure I found in one of my endless searches on the Internet looking for the Beatles music and activities and I love it. I am designing a site with ideas about songs I have been using through the years, but it will take time because I'm a full time teacher at the university.
There is another site with songs in flash format, text and links to the bands sites and with your experience you can organize activities or musicprojects with the students. They love it!
Music is a universal language everybody can understand. Please go to: http://www.elllo.org/months/weeks/music.htm
Un abrazo
Sonia

[Dara]

Hello everyone!!
Sorry I´ve been away for a few days and I´ve missed some things... I´ve attended to some conferences for teachers of English and one of the speakers provided an activity I found really good. The idea is to work with Eminem lyrics because for reasons we all may guess is a band many teens love. They are given the lyric of let´s say 8 MIles and we ask them to correct the lyric and give synonyms to those slang words.... I found it fantastic...what do you think? I´d never imagine to do something like that!
Dara

[albert braam]

Hi,
I was surprised to see my website ' www.braam.ik.org' mentioned in this forum.
I've just created another one: www.freewebs.com/nicolaasga

Press 'ouvir' to listen to the lyrics and read them at the same time.