ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Curtis Kelly

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Curtis
Date: June 2003

Topic: "How can we use songs in the language classroom?"

Peter Viney

There are three categories here: chants, songs and instrumental music. I'll ignore the last here, even though there is a place for using instrumental music to create mood, aid creative visualizations and simply for discussion.

“I often thought that most Christian churches were not designed for the tone-deaf, and it was unlikely that anyone with a really poor singing voice would ever become devoutly and highly religious.”

Chants are clear - stress, rhythm and intonation combined with memorability. Carolyn Graham's work on 'Jazz Chants' almost created the category single-handedly way back in the late 70s, though it might be cooler to call it rap nowadays! I was a great fan of Jazz Chants. They were a brilliant short filler in other lessons, and they were so memorable that I could do them off the cuff even without the book:

Do you know Mary?
Mary Who?
Mary McDonald.
Well, of course I do...

And that's from memory twenty odd years since I last used it. Classes loved taking the two parts, and even if you couldn't hold a note, you could participate without embarrassment. Concern over a poor singing voice is a major stress area for some people. I often thought that most Christian churches were not designed for the tone-deaf, and it was unlikely that anyone with a really poor singing voice would ever become devoutly and highly religious. Most religious services would be a huge source of embarrassment, leading to lack of enjoyment, lack of interest. Conversely someone with the voice of an angel would bask in the sound of the service.

Whatever, chants get round the classroom problem. I started writing a few very short ones when we did 'A Grand Day Out' video practice book, as we were aiming for younger students. I've included a couple of longer adult chants on the Photocopiables for my latest book, 'In English'. I wouldn't have had the courage to put them in the main Student Book as some teachers would not touch them, but they make an ideal photocopiable for those who are interested. I recommend Carolyn Graham's work to anyone wanting to explore chants further.

Songs were my first revelation in English teaching. My first teaching job was as a first-year student at university during my summer vacation. The "school" was over a shoe shop and sent you eight sixteen-year old Germans, who you taught from nine to twelve-thirty each morning in your own home. The "material" was a series of Gestetnered handouts on yellowing paper, which were lists of words and idioms, mostly lifted from a book for English secondary schools called 'The New First Aid in English' by Angus McIver. There were lists of collective nouns (gaggle of geese, pride of lions), and of 'male-female-young' for about sixty animals. 'drake - pen - duckling' was the easiest one on the list. It was dire crap of the first order. No text book you have ever seen approaches the same league of totally misguided direness, believe me.

All the students were pre-intermediate, so I started playing them songs and explaining the lyrics instead, and getting them to practise the expressions they heard, and to discuss the ideas in the songs. We went through the complete works of The Beatles, Paul Simon and selected Bob Dylan. They all started bringing friends along, and I ended up with a class of fifteen. As you were paid per student, this nearly doubled my income. Yes, one of the songs used was indeed Simon and Garfunkel's 'Keep The Customer Satisfied.'

When I started teaching full-time four years later, we used to have a lot of songs on tape in the language laboratory. There was plenty of early Paul Simon - he had, and still has, extremely clear diction, which helps. I always used songs in class. Later I started writing originals (with Vince Cross), and we usually tried to pastiche definite styles of song, though in my latest book I've gone for authentic songs. Because of copyright issues, most ELT courses re-record the songs. It would be prohibitively expensive to get permission to use the original recording. We were quoted several thousand pounds a few years ago for Summertime Blues, plus something like a 5% royalty on the two hour audio, of which it would have occupied two minutes. I usually give a careful and detailed reference to the original in the Teacher's Book, including which version has the identical lyrics to the printed version. Of course you should not use the original unless your school has a licence to play songs...In most cases, it's going to be more convenient to use the cover version.

You can approach songs in different ways. It's common nowadays for text books to set up an initial listening exercise by dropping out words -

Roses are ___, my love
Violets are ____
Sugar is ____, my love
And so are you.

or by giving alternatives:

I love to see the (moon / loon)
when it shines in (the lagoon / June)

...well, that sort of thing. I use this too, but I sometimes feel it's a barrier to the true purpose of a song. That is a song should be a fun way to practise stress, rhythm and intonation, which hopefully you'll go out of the classroom singing. I don't feel a song always needs the justification of an added exercise, though a pre-listening exercise has its own virtues.

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Panelists: Marc | Peter | Curtis

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