COMBINING SONGS WITH TPR IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

COMBINING SONGS WITH TPR IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Why should we use songs in teaching English?

• Using songs is a very natural process of learning a language,
• They are valuable resources to expand students’ abilities in listening, speaking,
• Songs propose a change from habitual classroom actions,
• Songs are a real source of authentic language,
• Songs can be used to enrich vocabulary, to improve grammar, accent, good pronunciation as well as functions.
• Learning through songs is funny and stress-free for the students,
• It leads to instant comprehension,
• It helps long-term retention.
Which songs to use and what to sing?
Depending on your objectives you can use:
• Songs specially written for ESL/EFL teaching,
• Songs by popular English speaking musicians,
• Self-composed songs.
How to get songs?
English teaching songs and songs of popular English speaking singers can be found:
• In any English textbook,
• With colleagues
• On the internet
• Self-composed songs are songs composed by the teacher himself according to his objectives. The teacher should find a beautiful tune to perform his song. Popular tunes are a good source of fine melodies for your lyrics.
Effective activities with songs
A bunch of activities can be carried out using songs.
• Fill-in-the blanks.
Give (or write on the chalkboard) a new version of well known song’s lyrics. In this version you deliberately omit the words or expression you want to put emphasis on, then ask your students to fill-in the blanks with the missing words.
• Spotting the mistakes
Give to students (or write on the chalkboard) a version of a song’s lyrics stuffed with mistakes e.g. omit the ‘s’ at the end of verbs used with the third person singular in the simple present tense, and ask them to correct the mistakes. They can do this activity by listening to the song, or by singing the song.
• Changing the order of verses
Scramble the verses and have your students put them in correct order.
• Pictorial representation of songs
Have your students draw comic strips or any pictorial representation of a song is a good way of relaxation and bringing change in your activities.
• composing follow-up verses
This activity is appropriate for higher level students and it’s an effective way to test their creativity.
Choosing the best songs!
Using songs in teaching English can be very effective, provided you are quite selective with the songs.
• Choose songs that are good to listen to, with each word, each syllable being clearly articulated.
• Emphasis should be put on the theme of the song.
• Avoid songs that have slang or typically cultural references, or else you may have hard time explaining them.
• When composing your own lyrics, go for plain, simple and appropriate language.
• Your self-composed songs should be short and very explicit.
• To make the singing funnier, choose songs that involve your students both mentally and physically.
This physical aspect of the performing leads us to what is called TPR
What is TPR?
TPR stands for Total Physical Response. It was created by Dr. James Asher a Professor of Psychology and Statistics. It’s based on the way children learn their L1. Parents use Language-body conversation with their children, they talk and act and the child gives a physical response by imitating. These conversations continue for month before the child takes the sounds and patterns and is able to decode and use the language quite spontaneously. Dr Asher discovers that this technique can also be very effective in L2 acquisition.
How can I use it in class?
• In the classroom the teacher plays the role of the parents. She starts by saying a word (jump!) or a phrase (look at the board) and does the action.
• After repeating a few times, the students are expected to do the actions as they say the words.
• You can then have the students directing each other or the whole class.
• For more effective results you can have your students in a circle around you and even transform the TPR into an extra mural (out of classroom) game!
According to Dr. Asher, the key to successful application of TPR is minimum work from the instructor and maximum output from students. Think yourself as the director of a play with your students the actors in a theatrical production
What can I teach using TPR?
TPR can be used to teach and practise many things:
• Vocabulary
Words connected with actions (smile, chop, headache, wriggle…)
• Grammar
Tenses and aspects (past/present/future and continuous aspects) e.g: “every morning I clean my teeth, make my bed and eat breakfast”
• Classroom language
e.g: Open your books, do exercise 6-10 etc
• Imperative instructions
e.g: Stand up! Go out! Close your eyes!...
• And also in story-telling.
In fact this technique can be adapted to all kind of teaching situation; you just need to use your imagination!
Why should I use it?
• It is a lot of fun, students enjoy it and it can be a real stirrer in the class. It lifts the pace and the mood.
• It is very memorable. It really helps students to remember phrases or words.
• It is good for kinaesthetic learners who need to be active in the class.
• It can be used in large or small classes provided the teacher is prepared to take the lead, the students will follow.
• It works well with mixed-ability classes. The physical actions get across the meaning effectively so that all the students are able to understand and use the target language.
• It doesn’t require a lot of preparation or materials though a rehearsal beforehand can help! Anyway it won’t take enough time to get ready.
• It is very effective with teenagers and young learners.
Combining songs with TPR
Like mentioned earlier, a way to make teaching through songs more effective is to have students singing and acting at the same time. Both of the techniques are good reminders, indeed the student has only to remind the melody or the gesture to guess the meaning of utterances. Here are some ways to combine these two techniques:
• With songs used to teach numbers have your students use their fingers to count while singing.
• With songs for teaching body parts, have them touch the different parts of their body while singing.
• With songs used for teaching imperative instructions have them do the action as they sing. e.g.: clapping hands, stamping feet, clicking tongues…
In short give them the opportunity to act a bit instead of sitting always on their desks!
A few TPR games
• The Circle game:
Have students in a circle around you. Say a word and the last student to do the action is out. Eventually there is only one student left, he is the winner.
• Simon Says game:
In this game, when you give a command, students should execute only when you precede it with “Simon says!” e.g: if I say “clap your hands!” they should not do the action unless I say “Simon says clap your hand!”