How many times have we had to deal with
those last lessons before the end of a term when our students, anticipating
holidays, can’t perceive any new information (who can blame them?) but there’s
still a lot of material to be revised from course- and grammar- and skills
books and past papers? More than once, I
bet. Apparently, almost every teacher has a number of enjoyable activities to
help recapture students’ attention and bring them back to the learning process. Using popular song lyrics is one of mine.
A lot has been said about the advantages of
using songs in EFL, the most obvious of which are the authenticity of the
language, a wide range of vocabulary and accents, an easy access to lyrics and
songs themselves for the teacher, the opportunity to introduce or revise
grammar patterns, to teach cultural phenomena, to initiate a discussion. As
Harmer put it “it can make a satisfactory connection between the world of
leisure and the world of learning.” (Harmer, The Practice of English Language
Teaching, p. 242)
It’s worth mentioning that using songs in
class helps a teacher to build a rapport with the students. One of my teenage
students used to say that “if a teacher listens to this song (take any popular song),
he/she must be really cool”, which might make it easier to deal with even
unruly students and possibly win their respect.
Aware though as we, Greek teachers, may be
of the benefits of using songs in class, we don’t have the luxury of using them
on a regular basis (as we all have course- and grammar books “to finish” and
past papers in exam classes) and we are extremely pressed for time. Nevertheless, there are certain occasions
(the end of a term, the end of an extra-hour lesson taken place on Saturday or
late at night, the last 30 minutes of a “difficult” lesson) on which it’s
excusable to deviate from the course books, enjoy our favourite songs and at
the same time still have our students practice for the exam.
Why not turn the lyrics of our favourite
songs into exam-based exercises, i.e. into four parts of the Use of English,
FCE exam, namely a multiple-choice exercise, an open cloze, an exercise with
derivatives and transformation exercise, and deal with the lyrics as text
first, using listening stage for checking the answers. Does it make any difference to using a past
paper exercise? It does, especially as far as the first three parts of the exam
are concerned. Besides the apparent reasons, mentioned above, such texts, which
are actually lyrics, arouse interest among students, making them read the texts
through before choosing the correct answer or guessing the correct word. In most cases, as we all know, students deal
with the task on a sentence level rather than on a text level, which causes
numerous inevitable mistakes. It’s the understanding of the text as a whole
that makes it possible to succeed in the Use of English part of the FCE exam.
“In the absence of any global understanding of the text, post-reading tasks may
well be a waste of time.” (Thornbury, 2005:54).
Unlike most texts in past papers, songs
directly appeal to the reader’s feelings and emotions. As a vast majority of
FCE students in Greece are young people, they are keen to read about eternal
values like parents/children relations, love, friendship, breakup, getting over
difficulties, first date, etc. Such texts evoke a strong emotional response
with students and arouse their interest, making the process of preparing for
the exam more effective and enjoyable.
When choosing a song, it’s advisable not to
get carried away by the music but deal with the lyrics first and make sure
there is a recognizable topic in the song, which allows students to get the
grasp of the main idea of the text. Although it can be rather daunting to find
suitable lyrics, for example, full of derivatives, tested in FCE level, you
could easily use different tasks in one song.
Song lyrics can be a powerful (apart from
being a very pleasant) tool for preparing students for ESL exams as long as the
content of the song we chose to use clearly makes sense. After trying out some of the songs-exercises
with your students, they might get interested in making such exercises
themselves – they take a song they like and make part 1, 2 (the easiest parts
to make) and then distribute their songs among each other. Making their own
tests familiarizes students with the format of the exam and, more importantly, provides
them with a better understanding of lexical and grammar items examined at B2
level.
Listen to songs, get your students involved
and… good luck with the results!
