Literaure 4

For Young Learners Songs Can Mean Business

Reference: TESOL Quarterly

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Posted June 2004: Abdulvahit Çakir designs song-based activities around play, the most important part of small children's lives. See Michael Carroll's article, 'Japanese Students Can't Think Critically. Or Can They?,' Essential Teacher, Summer 2004 (pp. 54-56).

I remember one of my English teachers saying repeatedly that knowing is something, but doing is quite something else. What he meant was that knowing words and structures is useless unless you are able to use them to do something in real life.
Play constitutes the most important part of small children's lives. Some play is accompanied by songs, and many songs are accompanied by actions. When children play and sing, they mean business. To them, success in play is success in life. If they need language or songs to win the game they are playing, they will indeed need them.
Have Song, Will Teach
Besides being enjoyable and motivating, songs are also useful in language teaching because they
model English sounds, rhythm, and stress and intonation patterns
often repeat high-frequency words and expressions
can reinforce structures and vocabulary
are much easier to imitate and remember than language that is not set to music (Çakir, 1999)
You can use songs to teach almost any aspect of the target language: counting up and down; structures such as there is/there are; prepositions of place; and language functions such as accepting or refusing, asking for information, and greeting, to mention a few.
"There's a Hole …"
A case in point is the U.S. folk song "There's a Hole" (see Gelineau, 1999):
1. There's a hole in the bottom of the sea.There's a hole in the bottom of the sea.There's a hole, there's a hole, there's a hole in the bottom of the sea.
2. There's a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea ...
3. There's a branch on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea ...
4. There's a bump on the branch on the log in the hole ...
5. There's a frog on the bump on the branch...
6. There's a tail on the frog on the bump...
7. There's a speck on the tail on the frog …
8. There's a fleck on the speck on the tail ...
The song describes several objects in a hole and on top of one another, repeating the prepositions over and over. To use this song to teach or reinforce these prepositions,
1. Have half the children in the class represent a large hole while others act as the log, the bump, the frog, and the other words mentioned in the song. You might have the children hold pictures of these things (labeled or unlabeled).
2. As you play the song, have the children play their roles. For example, in the verse "There's a hole in the bottom of the sea," have the children form a large ring. When they sing "There's a log in the hole," have the child playing the log put the picture of the log in the ring. As you play the next verse, have the child representing the bump place the picture of the bump on the log.
3. Continue until all the objects are placed.
You could also create simple verses modeled on the ones in the song. For instance,
There's a chair in the room ...There's a book on the chair in the room ...There's a radio on the book in the chair in the room ...There's a ruler on the radio on the book on the chair in the room ...
Give each of the children one of the objects, and ask them to sing the song and put the objects in their places as they are mentioned.
Endless Possibilities
You could practice the use of the articles a (used when the object is first mentioned) and the (used for subsequent mentions), or make up simple play for this purpose.
References
Çakir, A. (1999, November). Musical activities for young learners of EFL. The Internet TESL Journal, 6(11). Retrieved March 12, 2004, from http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Cakir-MusicalActivities.html
Gelineau, R. P. (1988). Songs in action. New York: Parker.
Abdulvahit Çakir (abdulcakir@yahoo.com) is the director of research and application at the Center for Instruction of Foreign Languages, Gazi University, in Ankara, Turkey.

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I agree with the author about the idea that it’s a good way to use songs to teach. As the author’s English teachers mentioned, knowing is something, but doing is quite something else, applying the knowlede you learn to real life is what you really learn. What the author stressed in the artcle was that knowing words and structures is useless unless you are able to use them to do something in real life. Thus, the author believes that teaching songs is a useful way for children to use their knowlede in real life since play constitutes the most important part of small children's lives and much play is accompanied by songs, and many songs are accompanied by actions. When children play and sing, they are doing something meaningful. It’s really important for them to success in play because it’s just like success in life. If they need language or songs to win the game they are playing, they will indeed need them. Besides being enjoyable and motivating, songs are also useful in language teaching because they model English sounds, rhythm, and stress and intonation patterns. They often repeat high-frequency words and expressions as well. Songs can also reinforce some common structures and vocabulary used in real life. Furthermore, they are much easier to imitate and remember than language that is not set to music (Çakir, 1999).
I remembered that when I was tutoring my freshman students for the first time, they just told me that they want something more interesting and different to learn. One of them told me that, “ Actually, I think adding something interesting besides using the textbook as the only material is a good way to call our attention and motivation to learn. The contents in the textbook sometimes just cannot really make me interested in. ” The other student also mentioned that “Maybe adding something novel or much closer to life would arouse our motivation to a greater extent. I think listening to music or watch movies can also be fun. More extensive readings like novels or dramas would be good for us because they can really call up our imagination. ” It seems that thay want to learn something interesting closer to their real life instead of studying the texts on the book only. They like songs, movies, novels beyod the textbook and try to use their knowlede in understanding the contents of these materials much closer to their daily life. From their opoinons and my personal experiences, I think it’s really a good idea to teach English by using songs or any other authentic materials. Because I think not only children or stdents, but also most of adults like to learn something really closer to life and want to understand or apply the knowlede we learn in the real world. That’s also a reson why I chose to use an authentic song in my micro- teaching lesson about Christmas. Some of my classmates just mentioned it’s a good idea to use mutimedia resources to teach as well. And I believe that authentic mterials like songs and movies can really arouse students’s motivations to learn, too. By learning to sing songs or watcing movies with chances to practice speaking and litening, I think students can learn from them a lot and get knowledge from these authentic mterials in their real life. Thus, I believe that it’s indeed a good way to use interesting songs or really useful materials to teach.