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Vogel M. W.
Удмуртский госуниверситет
FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION THROUGH SONG
If so inclined, an English teacher could create a curriculum for intermediate or advanced students based entirely on the music and lyrics of Bob Dylan, the American singer and songwriter. The ingredients of second language acquisition are all present - grammar, vocabulary, usage in context - but more importantly, the teacher may choose from more than five hundred songs that are exemplars of history, cultural knowledge, and idiomatic expression.
I have not, of course, gone to the logical extreme of creating such a curriculum. I have, however, used English-language songs extensively in my tenure at Udmurt State University. This article will explain my rationale for doing so, discuss how to select a song, present teaching methods, and give further resources as well as a list of example songs.
I. PURPOSE
Songs offer students an incomparable window onto idiomatic language; this is the principal value of the method. Songs not only contain all of the components that are covered in an ordinary lesson - grammar, vocabulary, usage, all of which can be explicated in the song lesson - but they are also a perfect example of these components being employed in a natural and idiomatic way. Furthermore, when selected correctly, songs are also a window onto a moment in history, as well as the cultural context of that moment. For example, the song "Mississippi Goddam" by Nina Simone or "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan make ideal lessons for Black History Month (February in the US and Canada, October in the UK). They provide students with concrete and linguistically educational instances of topics about which they know something, but perhaps would like to learn more: the Civil Rights Movement, the 1960s in the US,
uniquely American genres of music, just to name a few of the most basic.
Songs in the target language also demonstrate a wealth of rhetorical techniques for which the students generally have an analog in their native language. To return to the examples given above, Nina Simone's song is a powerful satire—a universal genre, but one which is often difficult to grasp in a language other than one's mother tongue. As opposed to a static satirical text on the page (Gulliver's Travels, for example), Simone's satire is immediately accessible in the tone of her voice, in its dynamism, in the mismatch of the style of music and the content of the lyrics. Music brings the satire to life for students who are frustrated by the difficulty of satire in other forms (e.g. written); they feel that they really get this complex form of expression. This confidence, I have found, translates into successful class participation.
Songs, furthermore, are embedded in the memory in a more automatic way than vocabulary lists; students who may not remember where they left their mobile phones may memorize lyrics to a song in a language they do not yet understand. Even this passive knowledge facilitates learning of vocabulary and grammar, both by becoming active knowledge at a later time, as well as by increasing the student's intuitive grasp of the target language (i.e. the student will pick up on the same patterns in new contexts). Another ubiquitous feature of music that aids memorization is that of repetition - yet another classical rhetorical device which the teacher may ask students to identify and explain.
Music, finally, is an icebreaker - that is, it changes the atmosphere of the class in a way that opens the students up.
II. SELECTION
In this section I will explain the most crucial step in preparing a song class -song selection. The most important criteria are the content, history and cultural context of the song; the teacher may use his or her own judgment for this on an
individual basis, and I make specific recommendations for song selection in section V.
Nearly any song may be used, with proper preparation on the part of the teacher. The preferences of the students as well as those of the teacher must be considered. I have spoken with other proponents of teaching through song, and most of them recommend considering the students' likes and dislikes, and -while this is, of course, true - the teacher's own inclinations may make as big of a difference. If the teacher selects a song about which he or she has strong feelings - and such modern (lyrical) songs exist for all teachers, even those who prefer classical music - this passion comes through in the teaching, in the teacher's attunement to multiple levels of meaning in the song, and in his or her earnest desire to impart the important aspects of the song to the students. Without the teacher's intellectual investment in the material, the subject might as well be ornithology, or a passing interest of one of the students - not something that will inspire a performance from the teacher that leaves an impression on the students.
In selecting a song suitable for one's class, one question to consider is how old the students are. University-age students tend to be very open, but may prefer either very old or very new songs (but may be less accepting of those of the 1980s, for example). The aura of old songs often makes them a good choice - the crackling sound on the records of Woody Guthrie (1930s and '40s), for example, gets students' attention for two reasons: they realize they are listening to something of historical value, and it is an authentic article of the fashionable "vintage" aesthetic, just as the faded clothes that many of them wear.
On the other hand, perhaps the teacher will find that his or her students only like music from the 1980s; the teacher must ask. Teachers may find areas where their students' idiosyncratic tastes overlap with their own. I have a technique for probing, in detail, to find these areas: when I first introduce myself to the class, I tell them personal information about myself including
my hobbies, interests, and musical preferences, and I ask the same information of them (this is how I initially gauge the level of my students' language abilities). Most importantly, I write all of it down. Then, later in the course, I use this information to select songs that the class will appreciate.
It is also crucial to consider the actual sound of the song -nothing with a dense "wall of sound" behind it will work, unless the vocals come out clearly on top. For this reason, vocals accompanied by minimal instrumentation, such as acoustic guitar, are ideal. Folk music, therefore, is a well-suited genre for foreign language lessons, and (at least in the English language) this genre has the added benefit of a strong connection with history in the United States of America - with the early African American experience, with the Great Depression, and with progressive movements of the 1950s and '60s, namely the Civil Rights Movement - all of which may be discussed to generate student interest and to instruct.
It goes without saying that the singer must be comprehensible - in accent, in enunciation, and among the background of the song's recording - but it is not necessary to choose a singer who represents the standard dialects: for English, the General American, Received Pronunciation (the Queen's English), or any other. In fact, choosing songs that contain elements of non-standard English is one of the best choices a teacher can make in selecting a song. A song with grammatical "mistakes" (such as "don't" in the singular third person) allows students to relish picking out these non-standard usages and explaining them to the teacher and the rest of the class. Differences in dialect and accent give the teacher concrete examples with which to explain the rich diversity of the target language, conventions of artistic forms in the target language (e.g. pop music, folk music, soul), and colloquial forms -language as they will hear it spoken in natural contexts.
It is worth re-emphasizing that, beyond the mostly technical criteria above, the most important criteria for song selection are
content, history, and a cultural context that can be broken down by the students. These can only be assessed on an individual level by the teacher, who should also consider when preparing for the class how much of these criteria (content, history, context) the students will already know, and shape the lesson plan accordingly.
III. METHOD
Once a song has been selected - a process outlined in detail in the previous section - the teacher is past the most difficult task. The song itself is instructive, so the teacher must now only spur his or her students to pull as much content, context, vocabulary, and grammar from among and between the lines of the song.
My method is as follows: I come to class with printed lyrics for all of the students, and for myself I write down a list of vocabulary, of phrases, of all non-standard usages, and of metaphors and other rhetorical techniques used in the lyrics. I also come with notes on the sound of the song: what it evokes, and what the song's sound tells about its history. I check the definitions of all of the difficult words in a dictionary, to ensure that I am aware of their full range of meaning; I also sometimes look up specialized vocabulary in the students' native language, in case we hit a roadblock. Lastly, if it is possible to display images, I come with pictures of the musician, visualizations of some vocabulary from the song, and anything else related - for example, a famous piece of visual art that illustrates something featured in the song. Visual aids are helpful because they get the students even more engaged - they are using not only their intellectual sense and sense of hearing, but also their sense of sight.
Start the class is with a biography of the musician, and then ask the students to explain what was happening in the world at the time the song was made. Pique their interest with one or two images (the musician, for example) before playing the song -then play it once with no pauses, making sure that the students
follow along with the lyrics on their printed sheets, marking all unfamiliar vocabulary and phrases. Once the song finishes (and the students fall back out of their daydream - some of them), keep them on their toes by asking what unfamiliar words and phrases they marked. If they say none, then challenge them by picking out difficult words or phrases and ask them to use them in original sentences.
After the first listen is the best moment to go through the vocabulary - this way, the students have had a chance to hear it all in context, so they may be able to guess the meaning of words they had not known. Again, here, visual aids are useful; if the teacher does not have any way to display images, then he or she may draw on the chalkboard. I prefer an interactive activity at this time, if possible - illustrate as many vocabulary items as possible on the chalkboard (no need to be beautiful; better yet, students find poor artistry funny), and then write the words in jumbled order along the bottom of the chalkboard, and then ask a student to come and connect the word and image with a line. The teacher should take advantage of the time while the song is playing - this is the time to illustrate vocabulary on the board, or prepare whatever other activity he or she has. The songs that work best with this vocabulary-illustration method are of course ones with concrete imagery, such as Barry Lou Polisar's "All I Want Is You."
After this, I begin to replay the song one verse at a time, this time clarifying grammar patterns and elucidating conventions of singing (for example, 'n' instead of "and"), and asking students to interpret the lines of the song - allusions, metaphors, subtexts. Once the song has been played through again, the teacher may ask the students for broad, personal interpretations of the meaning of the whole song - here, the teacher should encourage as many wildly different answers as possible (not so with grammar!).
Once the students have given all of their interpretations, the teacher may lead a discussion about the meaning of the song
based on his or her notes. The class will enjoy one final listen in light of all of the different interpretations.
Another possible way to approach song lessons is with cloze deletion tests, i.e. fill-in-the-blank worksheets. Delete key vocabulary words, or simply the last word of each line, and ask the students to fill in the blanks as they listen to the song for the first time; then help them correct it, asking for vocal feedback from each person. For one verse of the song, the teacher may delete all articles (a, an, the) and ask the students to predict which blanks will be filled with definite articles, which with indefinite ones, and which with no article at all.
In my experience, the above methods are more than enough for an 80-minute class.
IV. TECHNICAL
Teaching using songs requires some equipment. For a class of less than 20, a laptop without speakers is generally loud enough. Having speakers (cheap portable ones are fine) helps, and in the ideal situation the teacher would have a full AV setup: both speakers and a screen onto which he or she could project visual aids.
For teachers without any appropriate music, there is a practically endless supply available on Youtube.com.
For example lessons, see this website that I recently discovered: Tefltunes.com. In addition to free lessons with worksheets, this website lists songs according to what grammar patterns they can be used to teach, as well as their topic.
V. EXAMPLE SONGS
All of these songs may be used with advanced students; there is no song too simple for a student of language. Some of them, however, also work well with lower-level students, such as:
• The Beatles, "Yesterday" (good for past forms)
• The Beatles, "Blackbird" (can also discuss the African American struggle for equality)
• Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind" (same topic; the above three songs have the advantage of being internationally well-known)
• Woody Guthrie, "This Land Is Your Land" (students will be pleased to learn a song that all Americans know)
• Harry McClintock, "Big Rock Candy Mountain" (more complex than the above songs, but makes a perfect combination lesson with "This Land Is Your Land" about hobos, Dust Bowl Migration, America, utopia, and the folk music genre)
And for all other levels, the following songs all have different strengths:
• Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are A-Changin" (there is an incredible wealth of idiomatic language in this song)
• Bob Dylan, "Only a Pawn In Their Game" (this song and the above one are also useful for lessons on social movements, specifically the Civil Rights Movement)
• Bob Dylan, "Masters of War" (about the Cold War)
• Bob Dylan, "Mr. Tambourine Man" (one of his most poetic and famous songs)
• Bob Dylan, "Motorpsycho Nitemare" (this song, and the next two, are fast-paced but hilarious story-songs, best for students who can move quickly through a song and understand allusions to mid-20th-century culture and world affairs)
• Bob Dylan, "Talking World War III Blues" (strong country accent in this song)
• Bob Dylan, "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" (the most complex of this trio)
• The Beatles, "When I'm Sixty-Four" (good for British English word choice, phrases and pronunciation)
• Barry Polisar, "All I Want Is You" (great for second conditional; fast)
• Gloria Gaynor, "I Will Survive" (simple past and simple future, and also makes the students feel good about themselves)
• Otis Redding, "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (good for gerund, past forms)
• Don McLean, "American Pie" (past forms, future, contractions, huge amounts of references to American culture, rhetorical technique of allusion)
• Nina Simone, "Mississippi Goddam" (rhetorical technique of satire)
• John Lennon, "Imagine"
• John Lennon, "Jealous Guy" (past continuous)
• Rolling Stones, "Sympathy for the Devil" (don't tell them the title, but let them guess who it is about; conversational English; use instrumental breaks to talk)
• Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth" (good for old and new slang, about the Vietnam War and American/Canadian resistance to it)
