Ideas for teaching English through songs

Escrito por Carina Fragozo

Every teacher knows that students love learning English with songs… I’ve found a very interesting website on the topic: http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/popsongs (see related links). It shows a variety of listening activities ready for you to print and use!
If you want more ideas, the books “Cem aulas, sem tédio” and “Teacher Tools” (the first one by Vivian Magalhães and Vanessa Amorim, and the second one by Vivian Magalhães) present many ideas for listening activities. Then, you just have to choose a song that your students may enjoy, get the lyrics in a website (http://www.lyrics.com/, for example), and prepare your task.

You can see below an activity that I learned in my Teacher Training Course, at Quatrum, about 3 years ago. I’ve used it both with basic and advanced levels, and it worked really well.

First, you have to ask students to mention words that rhyme with TAKE and DAY. As they mention, you write them on the blackboard. Then, you tell them they’re gonna listen to a song, and they must fill in the blanks with the missing words, which rhyme with ‘take’ and ‘day’. Then, as you check the answers, you help them interpret the lyrics. It’s very simple, but perfect for an icebraker!

I hope it’s useful! For more activities with songs, click on the link Song Activities, where you can find other worksheets available for download.

Every breath you take – by The Police

Every breath you ________

Every move you ________
Every bond you _________
Every step you __________

I’ll be watching you

Every single ________

Every word you ________
Every game you ________
Every night you ________

I’ll be watching ________

Oh can’t you see

you belong to me?
How my poor heart ________

With every step you ________

Every move you ________