How to Use Music in the Foreign Language Classroom for Maximum Effectiveness 

I have written in previous posts about the importance of using music in the classroom and which songs or chants to use for which reasons or situations. This post is about how to use music effectively and for maximum benefit for your students. Although singing in class one of the ways to use music, it is by NO means the only reason to use it. A few teachers shy away from using music either because  they don’t sing well or they say that they can’t get their students to sing. (After reading this blog post, they WILL be able to happily and successfully use music in their class)

Use Music to Introduce Genres or Specific Songs

Play the same song all week (or song of the same genre) everyday as the students walk in. They are learning incidentally at this time. On Friday talk about the genre.

Use Music to Create an Atmosphere

Play a few songs as the students (or you) get organized or as they do bell ringers. These songs can be of any type. Soft and soothing instrumentals help settle the students down and the more lively kind wake them up and get them ready to fully engage in the lesson. There have been some classes that like soothing songs so much that they unanimously begged me to play them during the final.  Of course, they ALL had to agree before I played them.

Use Music to Teach Culture

Matching lyric strips with pictures

Very often songs can help you teach many elements of culture (history, social mores, music types, dances, dialects, foods, animals, plants, and more). You may play the songs as explained above but then teach the songs further. If the song is too difficult to use as a musical listening comprehension exercise,  pass out the lyrics. They follow along as you play it again. Discuss the superficial meaning of the words, then continue to point out the cultural references or have the student research them. (“Los Desaparecidos” from the song Latinoamérica by Calle 13, a song so full of culture that it is the subject of an entire  future post)

Use Music to Teach or Reinforce Vocabulary and Expressions

I usually play a song that has vocabulary or expressions that I have been teaching. Sometimes I get lucky and have more than one word in the song. If the songs have been made up specifically for the classroom, they very often have songs that have as many as 5-8 words form a thematic unit. By using these  songs you get “more bang for your buck” or at least more reinforcement and learning per song. Some examples of good songs (chants) that have a lot of these thematic words per song are :

(Spanish) Tengo hambre
(French) J'ai faime
(Italian) Ho fame
(German) Gut und Schlecht

 Once you chose your song you have MANY choice for how to use it the best way to fit your and your students’ needs:

1.   Visual  listening comprehension.

Physical fill-in-the-blanks
 cloze activity for songs

·      Have students draw or cut out provided pictures form some words form the song. (4-8). Play the song. When the students hear the words pictured, they raise the cards. 

·      Alternately, you can give big colored cards to a  few students and have them raise them when they hear the words in the song.

·      For some songs, you can pass out big colorful cards and have the kids listen to the song, arranging themselves in the same order as the song. This activity may require that you play the song 3 times or more. That’s a good thing because the more they hear it, the deeper the song (and the reinforced words) get  into their heads. Many of the songs

·      You can get images and put them up on the interactive whiteboard and have them appear when they are sung . Thus is a very flashy exercise, but less engaging as the visual/physical ones above.

·       After completing any of the activities above, you can pass out sentence, phrases or word strips  (from the song ) for the students to pair with the pictures individually, by walking around the room to find their “partner”, or putting them on a wall or board.

Some songs that include pictures with the MP3 and exercise packet are:

(Spanish) El tiempo
(French) Le temps
(Italian) Il tempo
(German) Das Wetter

3. 2. Have the students count how many times they hear a certain word or phrase in songs that are very repetitive (Eres tú - Mocedades)
   
   
   3. Perform an action when the specified word is heard. The actions can be  standing up, clapping, or doing a physical action or gesture. (I like to use the Tex-Mex song El pantalón Blue Jeans by the Texas Tornados when I teach clothing, and I usually make the kids with jeans on stand up when they hear the words “Pantalón blue jeans”)

    4. Listening comprehension and writing

Student filling the blanks in a
musical cloze activity

• Play the song and have the students write the missing words from a cloze sheet that you make up. Sometimes, if the song is fast or the words are difficult, I’ll write the words in random order on the board.  Almost all of the song packets that I sell have these fill-in-the-blank sheets,  small pictures for many of the songs , and other activities or exercises. (I have these in Spanish, French, Italian, German, ESL, and Arabic) 
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• For a variation of the normal written cloze activity, you can have lines of the song written up in bigger writing on strips. The students can either arrange these strips on a table, the front of the room, or tape them in order on a wall.

• You may enlarge the whole song sheet, with certain words or phrases left blank. Pass out the missing words or phrases and let the students tape them on the correct blank.

5. Grammar reinforcement

• If a song uses a lot of certain grammar structures (future, preterite, future) you may want to further the usefulness of the song’s grammar by having the students make up original sentences using the same structure used in the song. An example is after hearing and writing the words to Cielito lindo  (..Canta y no llores..), the students write other pairs of words  and write affirmative followed by negative commands.

6. Extend the song by making up more verses or wring or presenting orally a narrative about the circumstances of the song. Who is singing it, why, to whom is he singing the song etc.

7. Change the tenses of the verbs used, the person  (from “I” to “he”, “she”  etc.

Some good songs for reflexive verbs and tense/persons changes are:

( Spanish) Esto es lo que hago

(French) Voici ce que je fais

(Italian) La vita mia

(German) Mein Tag

8. Have volunteers act out the song. It’s fun especially if it is romantic, which includes most of them.

9. Sing the song! Kids usually can’t wait to sing if they’ve heard it enough times and completed some activities. I have NEVER had a group of students at any age not sing songs when introduced in some of these ways. Sometimes I ask them to sing only parts of the songs, or have half of the kids sing one part, the other half sing the other half.

10. The line from Cielito Lindo  song expresses my philosophy.

“Canta y no llores, porque cantando, Cielito Lindo, se alegran los corazones.” (Sing and don’t cry, because singing, my beautiful heavenly one, make the hearts happy.)

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WHAT ARE THE BEST SONGS FOR TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES?

I strongly advocate the use of music in the foreign language classroom (See my previous blog post) not only because it is so fun and engaging, but also because music is so very effective. However, not all music works for all levels. For example, songs that are:

Mariachi musicians like those on "Mariachi y Más" 

•  too hard (very difficult vocab)
•  sung too fast for the level
•  have nasty, street or too dialectical vocabulary
•  incorrect grammar
•  nasty or otherwise inappropriate (drugs, crime…) content
•  nonsensical
•  just plain bad

… will probably not help your students learn much. Using the right kind of music and at the right time and level helps music work its magic much more easily.

There are some music snobs that insist that only “real” songs be played in their classroom. I LOVE using authentic music in my class, but at the lower levels it is harder to find music that fits all my criteria. The general sequence and criteria of the types of music I suggest for optimum usage are:

1. Simple rhymes, rhythmic “ditties” or mini chants. They are very easy, fun, and they help at the very beginning lower the affective filter, help with pronunciation, pre-teach (incidentally or purposely) grammar and simple word order.

Musical Echoing

Some good mini-chants or snappy sayings can be found in various languages. Click below:

Spanish Snappy Sayings

French Snappy Sayings

Italian Snappy Sayings

2. Simple children’s songs (check for nonsense or surprisingly difficult words)

3. Musical chants that teach or review elements of your lesson (grammar, vocabulary, other content)

      Some unique musical chants in various languages can be found by clicking on the links below:

       

 Musical Arabic

 Gesang, Rhythmen und Reime ( in packets)

Canti, Ritmi e Rime

Cantos, Ritmos y Rimas

Cantiques, Rythmes et Rimes (in packets)

4. Educational songs made up to teach something. Many people, mostly teachers, make up cute and appropriate songs. Listen to them before you buy. I have heard many that are bad, forced translations of English songs, very amateurishly recorded, sung by children (which doesn’t work well for older students although children’s songs sung by adults do), sometimes even with horrible accents.

Italian musician like those
on Canti, Ritmi e Rime

5. Popular or traditional songs that accent something by its constant repetition or perhaps weird yet cool way of expressing it. Sorting through all of the songs out there in the Spanish, French, Italian, German world can be daunting task  but worth it if you find the right good and powerful song.

6. At upper levels (4 or AP) I go more for culture, beauty and especially songs that represent the country’s heart and soul. I don’t mind using older, classic songs that EVERY ONE, no matter the age form that country knows and loves.

Andean musicians from "Gira musical
por el mundo hispánico"

7. Sometimes songs without words can also be played for their mood altering qualities (calming, exciting, danceable) or used to discuss the many musical genres available in the country or even the typical instruments used.

Two very cultural and lovely collections of traditional music with good extension exercises and readings are:

Mariachi y Más (7 song Bundle and Book)

Mariachi y Más (16 songs book and MP3)

Gira Musical Por el Mundo Hispánico

Read also:

How to  Effectively Use Music in the Spanish, French, Italian, ESL(and other Foreign Languages) Classroom...

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Using Music (Chants, Rhythms and Rhymes) in the Foreign Language Classroom 

Using music, chants, rhythms and rhymes to teach foreign language is like having a secret (stealth) weapon! Not only does my "research" of 40 years of teaching, prove it; scientific research proves that using music (and singing) is twice as effective as traditional foreign language learning. The words learned through music sticks to the learners brains effortlessly.Even brain research shows that music is great for language learning. Unfortunately not all language teachers have been enlightened as to the efficacy of using music in the classroom. In my many years as a conference presenter, I have met people who don't use music, chants, rhythms or rhymes in their Spanish, French, Italian, ESL , German classroom. Their reasons are that they "don't have time " to do so, they "don't know how to", their "students don't like to sing" and a few other sad excuses. I feel sorry for their students, but I also realize that if they read this blog (and the blogs that follow) they might, fortunately for their students' sake, change their minds. 

WHY USE MUSIC TO TEACH?

Maracas like those used
in Cantos, Rimos y Rimas

ALL HUMANS NEED MUSIC. All cultures throughout the ages have embraced and developed music, rhythms and even rhymes. These range from simple drum beats with gourd maracas to complex symphonies.  As individuals, our love for music and rhythm begins even before birth. We hear or feel the heartbeat and later the breathing of our mother, and continue developing our love further when our mothers sing, say silly things in a sing-song voice and rhymes (“This little piggy went to market…”)

MUSIC IS GREAT FOR LEARNING – Howard Garner writes that music is one of the strongest of the multiple intelligences. I have seen the proof very often in my classes. Sometimes they use the exact phrasing found in the songs. Sometimes a word is substituted, yet appropriate. My young daughter had learned one of my "ditties" or Snappy Sayings and used it quite appropriately when for the first time in a long time, the family was together eating in a restaurant. "Todos estamos aquí, todos estamos aquí, queremos comer sí, sí, todos estamos aquí" She had substituted the "Comer" for the original "aprender". I have been teaching for so long that I get emails from many of my previous students. Most of them state that they learned so much and attribute it to the many songs we used in class. 

Besides being pleasant and very effective, music is also mood and emotion altering. Music can motivate the bored and calm the over - excited. Music lowers the affective filter (or makes people less stressed and more uninhibited) so that even the reluctant learner can and will learn more easily. Special ed. students learn very easily with music. Author and teacher Irene Brouwer Konyndyk in her book Foreign Languages for Everyone  writes (about why music is so effective for her learning disabled students), “ I believe that music embeds learning by bypassing rational cognition.” This might also be why brain damaged, stroke victims and others can communicate by singing their message when they can’t  speak  normally. It helps special need students, but the regular ed. students benefit by learning with music, too.

Conga player like those
recorded in Lonnie's chants

MUSIC AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES -  A lesson taught through music (chants, rhythms or rhymes) is learned more willingly and permanently. I’ve seen and heard students during tests quietly singing parts of songs to access  the needed vocab, phrases or even grammar points. One girl on a student trip to Spanish let the group know that she had a headache by singing part of a previously learned song. “Me duele la cabeza, ¿qué hago yo?" Some of the kids sang back “Toma aspirina y olvídalo”. (From Cantos, Ritmos y Rimas) Will she always sing when she has a headache? No, but because of the chant, she’ll say it correctly.

Upcoming Blogs (Partial list) :

What are the Best Songs for Teaching Foreign Language? 

How to  Effectively Use Music in the Spanish, French, Italian, ESL( and other Foreign Languages) Classroom 

Active Grammar

Old School Methodology or New Tech for Your Class?

Should We Use Textbooks or Not?

Teaching Art Effectively and Actively

Is traveling with Your Students for You?

Reading in the Lower Level Language Classes

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