Reupload and clean up of a classic presentation made here from karaoke.

See the original and resources HERE.

For years, I used to make lots of traditional karaoke songs like this, for learning / singing English.

Get hundreds like this and hundreds of thousands of other resources on our Mediafire site by becoming an EFL 2.0 supporter.

Huge song / video in Korea. Subtitled it after being reminded by a member today. My way of chilling :) A good intro to Korean pop culture. Get some old karaoke style videos of Korean hits . This video and lyric sheet available HERE

Classic "chant". Sing in parts and students can make their own lyrics. Supporters - go here to get the lesson materials for this song. Also try this nice text version.

It is a beautiful day so used this song to make a test of a new karaoke to video converter. Get the karaoke player which allows you so many playing options + thousands of file - on our Karaoke page.. Lyric listening sheet HERE

I remember my beginning days as an English teacher now 20+ years on. Dusty, cold, dirty rag, bucket and chalkboard in a cavernous top floor classroom in E. Europe.  Cambridge books we had to "get through".  I could only survive due to 2 things:  English pub night Friday evenings and adding songs to the monotonous routine of teaching (and of course, lovely students - Vera, Petr, Karl, Zuzanna - remember them all). 

Yes, songs just brought us all together in the classroom. And since that time, developing into a teacher trainer - I've literally become a "song pusher".  First it was "Karaoke" and getting teachers to make their own.  The it was innovative games to play with song - like Lastonestanding. Finally, it was just endlessly posting about how teachers can use songs in their teaching. 

I've been off that bandwagon for awhile but with this post, would like to climb back on.  Here's a look at a few of my resources for teaching English with song and a list of activities you can do - teaching recipes. 

To begin, find here my presentation on Using Song In The EFL Classroom. Click the images to go to a resource that compliments each idea.  The presentation covers all the reason you should use songs extensively in your teaching (if you can get away with it).  Click here for an audio lecture version.

Get and download the "50 ways to use music and song in the English language classroom".

Secondly, here are a few links to great resources right here on this community - free to all. My own collecting and hoarding to benefit other teachers. 

-  Song lyrics sheets  --  all the videos with lyric sheets.  All our song and music resources.

-  Karaoke in the classroom. Download the player and player the karaoke files.

    Video examples + Kids Karaoke Videos

-  Song lyric ebook and songs!  Best Second Language Singers  ebook and songs! 

-  Best blog posts about songs.  Also a search of everything on our community. 

-  Best Kinetic typography on the web - a great example of using song. 

-  Our Project Peace - an amazing project. Why not make your own with your class? Or do a doodle video?

-  Literal version collection of great contextual music videos

-  Try our Music Wall. Great for just relaxing too. 

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Teaching Recipes For Using Songs In Your Teaching

1. Students listen and order the lines of the song that have been mixed up.

2. Students listen and decide what kind of song it is – romantic? song with a message?

3. Students listen and select the best of 3 possible titles for the song.

4. Students listen and complete a copy of the lyrics with gaps.

5. Students find and underline examples of a particular grammar point in a song.

6. Students study two or three unfamiliar idioms from a song and try to work out what they mean.

7. Students listen and decide which one of three pictures best represents the song.

8. Students listen and answer True/ False or multi-choice questions.

9. Students rewrite the lyrics of a song, trying to fit their words to the melody.

10. Students listen and select the best of 3 one-sentence summaries of the song.

11. Students listen to confirm their predictions about the content of a song based on having looked at 5 key            

       vocabulary items listed by the teacher.                       

12. Students listen and answer comprehension questions about the song.

13. Students do a role play based on characters or a situation from the song.

14. Students sing the song together as the CD plays.

15. Students listen in order to identify and correct a wrong word in each line of the  song.

16. Students are given a list of words from the song. They match together the words  that rhyme, then listen

      and complete a gap-fill of the lyrics using those words.

Beyond TEFL certificate training, I first got into giving serious workshops through and about "Karaoke in the classroom". I find karaoke a great tool for not just improving reading skills but also getting students some controlled speaking practice.

In that vein, find lots of karaoke on EFL Classroom 2.0. However, today I'd like to highlight our Kid's Karaoke. A sterling set of kids songs. See them in video but also download the karaoke player and play the files from your desktop, class computer. Slow the tempo, change words, make a cloze, it's easy! Enjoy these great kids songs....

Read all the "gems of EFL Classroom 2.0" series, highlighted all this month.

The blank dialogue is a very "natural" teaching approach. Something intuitive about it. I used it in my early days of teaching - just pausing a dialogue on cassette tape and asking students to respond. You had to get skilled with using those big buttons! That is what being a teckkie used to entail!

Most blank dialogues are receptive - students listen and fill in. Then repeat the lines and try to do it "without looking". That's okay - Molinsky and Bliss would be in bliss - however, nowadays with video and technology, I believe we can do more.

Blank dialogues are highly engaging to students because they do some important things:

1. They embrace a powerful principle of teaching - anticipation. Students don't know what will be coming and must respond. So it is very engaging.

2. They recycle language and are repetitive. The form is controlled and students just substitute.

3. They allow production of language by students in a controlled fashion. Students can produce language and self correct themselves immediately against a model. Swain and Long are two researchers who stress the importance (and value) of production for language  acquisition.

4. Students can personalize language. They utter the words, they can change them about, say them differently. Even respond differently than the original model.

Practical examples.

Let me show you clearly, how I envision the video blank dialogue.

1. Here is a standard dialogue for language learning. The teacher plays. The students repeat. The teacher asks questions. blablabla.... Standard and non anticipatory.

2. Here is the video as a blank dialogue. Much more engaging. The teacher can even get this in Karaoke and slow the dialogue ever so slightly and make it easier for the students. I even made a book using 20 dialogues with cloze scripts. This page has all the videos too.

You can even go one step further and get students to record the lines and produce their own video! This is the direction I want EnglishCentral to go. Where the actual recording is interactive and there is simulated communication (however controlled). This I believe would revolutionalize the now a bit tired and too true blank dialogue.

What do you think ?

Here's my own recording! I just used NCH's Wavepad to "silence" selected parts of the audio. Then put that into Audacity and recorded over the track. Finally, used the karaoke editor to put it all together (Studio version allows you to produce a video). Get all this on the Software for Education page I put together.

Karaoke is a great tool for teachers and students that I've been promoting for ages. Lots of posts on here about it. It is great for both controlling audio and text, contextualizing audio and listening/reading skills coupled with phonemic awareness. It is multimodal and really has the WOW factor.

I finally updated the tutorial on how you can make your own karaoke file. Watch - it really is simple. Also, in the first part , I outline the resources available for instant addition to your library and meeting your classes' needs. One great thing about crowdsourcing and teachers sharing these great resources.

PS. I didn't mention but with the editor, you can download any song and then in the editor, copy the lyrics, paste and print for a transcript for your students. That's a pretty cool backdoor!

Anyone who has read a few of my postings knows without a doubt, that I'm a karaoke/music enthusiast! I find it a very motivating way to teach and learn English. It isn't the whole cure but it sure dulls the pain of learning English. See my full listing on our karaoke resources (especially this post) as proof of my commitment to this method - also my teacher training presentation on using music in the EFL Classroom.

Lyrics Training is a great addition to the karaoke for self learning list. Basically, it uses youtube music videos which the student listens to and then fills in a "cloze" exercise. One of 3 levels of difficulty, starting with just a few words to trying to transcribe the whole song. You get points for accuracy and completing lines. It will also slow down if you can't keep up and wait for you to guess the lyric.

It works surprising quite well. The one draw back is that teachers can't copy the lyrics easily for use in class. So it probably is only good to refer students there. Also, there is no referencing for the vocabulary or story line. So it pretty well just works as a listening exercise.

Check it out and tell us what you think! (use our generic account ID/PW - eflclassroom@mail.com / eflclassroom)

The one drawback I do find - for sites using youtube - is that often youtube will remove the video and then it just comes up blank. (like the site Cantanding) So be warned about that....

Singsnap is the newest of a long line of karaoke sites! What I love about it is that you can both listen to the karaoke singer and also by clicking the A, follow with the lyrics!

** Not your ordinary, endless list - just what's number 1.


The Hokey Pokey

The Hokey Pokey is a standard song and TPR activity in the language classroom. It gets my pick over "Head and Shoulders" just because instead of using just vocabulary / words - it is whole language. Always the superior teaching form. Another one of note and a classic, is "If you're happy and you know it". Get all these in our Kidz Karaoke page. Here's the hokey pokey if you have the karafun player (get it on EFL Classroom 2.0)

Watch Devon of Super Simple Songs, describe how to teach your students this song!

Cantanding is a new online karaoke site. Traditional karaoke that uses youtube videos to stream / show karaoke songs.

It has a very easy to use search option, just plug in the song and you should get it. It is much like the traditional karaoke in our A/V player. Same midi background music. Unfortunately, there is no contextualizing of the song with background/photos/pictures. However, it could come in handy for parties/events etc....

I've added it to our Music resources. Take a look and tell us what you think.

I'm really proud of the karaoke on EFL Classroom! We have so many options for teachers - see this post for how to get these and set up the player and make your own karaoke.

However, often not mentioned, is a cool alternative, Go Sing.

Go Sing is a traditional karaoke player that is in the public realm. You can't edit and it just has a standard karaoke background music. So it is different from the Karafun player here. Yet it does have its strengths.

You can get many songs on the Go Sing site but if you want to avoid a lot of time downloading all of them individually, just Go HERE and download my own. Thousands of songs! Install the player and right click the screen. You can change the main picture - a picture of your class/school works wonders! Using the arrow keys, you can scroll your library and even fast forward through parts of the song.

Go Sing is a great tool for learners, especially for parties and less formal learning environments. Give it a try! (also, make sure you get a microphone for your class!).

MIXTUBE

We have a lot of music here for language learning and teaching. Too much to even begin to list! (actually I have listed it HERE!)

However, here is one other hidden resource - our Mixtube list of Lyrics. A vast collection of great videos with only lyrics.
I find when teaching, a video with lots of imagery can really distract from language learning - so these along with our karaoke and karaoke videos are excellent for language learning. HERE - you can also find a nice mixtube of Michael Jackson's best! Both videos and lyrics.

What's really neat about mixtube is that you can just use it as a jukebox. Press play and it will only play the music, no video! So you even could use it for a listening exercise or background music. Play around with it and even create your own list at Mixtube!

We have LOADS of karaoke for use in the classroom here. See the links assembled below.

Karaoke is a great tool for any language teacher. It really helps with phonetic recognition (connecting text to speech - reading) and highly motivational. It also is adaptable and you can vary the speed, the context (pictures) , the presentation and even have students record.

11. Karaoke Videos on EFL Classroom 2.0
12. Karaoke Dialogues

As anyone who's read anything I write about learning English will tell you --- I love music as a way to learn language! It rocks, it socks and it blocks, all the impossibility of sound and stammer and meaning. Meaning, music is from our very origins and is a way for people to learn while not learning. Sing and you don't just sing, you bring yourself into a realm of vulnerability and communion with a force that makes all possible - learning English included.

So today I offer this great rendition, cover of Journey - Separate Ways, by a group of 9 year olds. Inspiring for your own students and I guarantee it will make them WANT to learn... to sing....

If you really have doubts about the power of music to help students acquire English and be motivated to learn English, read my Top 10 reasons to use Karaoke and Music in your Classroom....


JOURNEY LYRICS.doc

www.sannhac.com
http://sannhac.com/MrDarlingSings.htm

In Vietnamese only but I figured out how to use it.

Record Your Singing by playing the song through your speakers at home and turn up loud enough so your microphone can pick it up along with your vocal. A bit of tweaking but it can result in a fairly good recording. A audio board at home can improve that with some effects if you have them.

Find your artists/songs in the English search box on top of the page.

You can add lyrics or pictures to appear with your recording.

A lot of fun for kids I'm sure.

Ken
Voicetender

Audacity recording software is free online. An excellent way to record multiple sound tracks, add effects and transfer to many file types like mpg.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

All EFL teachers need to love songs and chants: they work, they're fun, and it's such an easy wage to engage!

I've got a resource page up for many things including karaoke files supported by the Karafun program: .kfn format. You can check the site here: ICnelly's Resource Page

And, I've just started a Youtube channel for English Karaoke. Since i'm a dedicated elementary teacher, the majority of my files are definitely geared towards the young learner. But, a resource is a resource is a resource.

Check that one here:

ICnelly's English Karaoke Channel

Enjoy!

EDIT: I just updated the site and it's got 103 songs on it now. Check it and use it!

This is a very fun activity that I developed based on the popular music appreciation lesson we have here on EFL 2.0.  (also see this one)

 

Choose 4 videos and then ask students to review and discuss each for specific criteria.  

 

Here are 4 videos from EnglishCentral that could be used but we have thousands of quality videos on this community (and of course there is youtube!). 

 

 

 ]

A website for CLIL teachers!

A nice way to inspire students and we have many HERE.  

 

This one shows parts from 40 movies.  Pause and test student listening skills by getting them to repeat the line and bonus if they can name the movie! 

 

 

Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

A guessing game that is simple. Made with the Google Montage maker by Grant Robinson - go there to make your own. 

Simple to play. 

Students individually or in teams guess 1. Who / What / Where  and also name the person / place / thing. 

Give points for each correct if playing competitively. 

Have fun!  Get the powerpoint below.  Flash  here. 

I've followed with anticipation each time over the years - a new website allowing teachers to make comprehension quizzes for Youtube videos.  As the director of Education at EnglishCentral, this is interesting to me because EnglishCentral is working on similar functionality.

There is a long list of sites doing this, going back to ESL Video and Mystudio (now Quiz Revolution) and more recently TED ED   Each has/had their own strengths and weaknesses but none of them I ever felt had what it takes to really get this user generated application to be the "full monty" and extremely useable widely by teachers.

Now we have a new contender Blubbr  (hat tip to Maria Constantinides for letting me know about this). View the quiz I created HERE.

I was able to make the 5 question quiz fairly easily but ran into some difficulty with dragging the buttons at the bottom and figuring out how that works. Watch out for that if you make one.  Except for this  I find it having the most potential of any youtube quiz maker. It has an attractive interface, is well laid out and designed and the library is very accessible.  One downside - it doesn't allow you to edit the quiz after you've produced it (usually the case with just launched sites).  I'm sure they'll work things out. 

All in all a welcome addition to the video quiz world and I'm looking forward to seeing the changes they make - right now it won't get wide use by teachers but with a few well thought out changes - Blubbr could! 

The new year is a good time to practice the future tense and making resolutions. A perfect lesson activity.  This video is for the activity sheet below - a strong listening skills activity.

Here are some resources and materials to help you.  Supporters can also see the full lesson described using these materials in Lesson In A Can #135. 

This resolution generator is also very fun!

This is a nice shared lesson too!

A classic cartoon now in video form and subtitled so students can learn verbs.  

Get the ppt for teaching with this video (below).

Also,a flashcard set where students can study the verbs. Printable flashcards attached (below). 

This is a catchy, repetitive song to use with students. 

Here is the power point for offline playing / editing.  Also a nice lyric rewrite sheet.  

Students first sing with the song but then rewrite the chorus with their own words. Perform for the class afterwards. 

 

Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

This is a famous episode of the hit TV series. This story is perfect for higher level listening. George recounts how he saved a whale etc....  see the great kinetic typography version HERE. 

 

Here's the whole transcript.

 

He continues to be loved by our students!  

Here are a few presentations to use and teach lessons about him. 

Check out these music videos and worksheets also.... 

We have so many wonderful karaoke files here on EFL Classroom, and I'm wondering how teachers use them in the classroom. Here are some of the things I wonder about:

Do you use it as a warm-up or cool-down for the class?

Do you use it as a pleasant interlude, singing a song together and then going onto something else, or do you concentrate on learning that song, working on it until the students can sing at least the chorus by heart?

How do you choose what songs to sing? Do you try to integrate particular songs into the curriculum, or simply go by a song you like, you think the students will like, and is at their level?

Have you noticed a difference in your classrooms since using karaoke? What do you think the effects are?

What ages are your students, and what are their favorite songs to sing? Do you have trouble getting students to participate?

I haven't used singing much in the classroom, though when I started teaching a group EFL online I quickly saw its potential. Because of syncing issues, it is still difficult to have a true sing-along, real-time, online. There's just enough delay in the voice transmission to make it frustrating. But once that problem is worked out, that's the class I'm going to teach!

I'd love to know more about how you use singing and music in your teaching.

I just finished orientation last week and David showed us how to use the karaoke website in a class. He mentioned how we could get it on our desk top or something so we don't have to rely on the internet being up. I forgot what he said, can someone please tell me how to do it. I want to use it next week in my lessons.
Thanks,
Shelly

Nelson, one of our active members in the Karaoke classroom forum has done it again!

*** Now go here for better quality of these fine materials!!!! Also, see these songs too!

He has edited and formatted (produced) these Korean songs from the elementary textbook -- in Karaoke Karafun format! All collected on youtube for easy viewing and if he allows, I'll put them up "toute de suite" on our karaoke page (in the original karaoke format, .kfn, they are nicer, clearer. ) . Thanks so much Nelson!

ELEMENTARY TEXTBOOK KARAOKE!

I"ve been busy creating real karaoke for our own benefit. This can be found in two ways. One, basic and true karaoke through clicking our A/V player and True Karaoke. Lots of your all time favourites and more coming as time permits me to make/convert them...

Two -- through vimeo. I'm using vimeo for these semi-true karaoke files because I like the quality of its stream. I'll keep it seperate from the youtube channel. Go here to view and play and sing!

Eventually I'll have a full self contained site and player for all the hundreds of karaoke streamed videos for click and play at home or the classroom! Please rate our youtube karaokes, it will allow me to seperate the grain from the chaff when I reorganize....

As always, lots more stuff newly uploaded on our Practice /Games and Stories pages......

David

As you may have noticed, I have started putting all the hundreds (thousands?) of karaoke's I've made/created/produced onto a video channel at youtube. Eventually, I'll take them off the main page and onto its own page. I'll also eventually put them into a nice player so you don't have to go through youtube which can be confusing sometimes! (but it isn't that bad...).

I'll have the following playlists and here are the direct links to their locations for easy access. Karaoke's will be added as I have the time to convert them. It is a rather labour / time intensive activity (and frustrating with all sorts of conflict/technical issues ^%*%*^*^) but I'll succeed! EFL Classroom 2.0 member, Nelson Beard will also be converting his amazing kids karaokes and making his own channel to share.

My goal is to get more teachers and students using this amazing stuff for motivation and language instruction / learning. Maybe also then they will take the plunge - download the karafun player (for much better quality of these) and make their own to share!

PLAYLIST:

POP SONGS

KIDS KARAOKE

KARAOKE DIALOGUES (BEGINNERS AND INTERMEDIATE)

TOP VIDEOS (where I'll put the most recommended so vote!)

I'll be putting up a story / speech playlist as soon as I convert some of these.

Enjoy!

David

if you're one of those traveling english teachers, who has to move from classroom to classroom every period, then downloading Karafun onto every computer can be a problem if you want to use karaoke in the class.
i got this site from a Korean last week at a workshop, and it is very useful http://weekstudy.coolschool.co.kr/study/pops/pops_list.htm
they dont have the largest selection, and you cant create your own karaoke with it, but it does the job.
and if you're teaching in Korea, they even have the Korean translations to the lyrics.

Hey folks

Got a song you want to sing and dont want to print out boring lyric sheets for the kids?

why not go to www.karafun.com

you can download a karaoke player and creator there.

It took me about 30 min to get the hang of it and I was busting out new Karaokes for my grade 5 and grade 6 ESL classes in no time.

I will attach a few of mine an others songs to show you want you can do. You need to download the player first


]Tell me what you think

Rob

Does anyone else use karaoke in the classroom? I think it is a great language learning tool. I've attached an article I wrote which outlines all the reasons why. Briefly, it is fun, motivational. It allows text to sound recognition so it fosters reading development. It can be shared by students and creates classroom community. Karaoke also like all music, is the most powerful way for language retention by students.

I like some other sites, I've listed them in my karaoke folder. www.singshot.com is just fantastic and can even be used by the teacher in the classroom, if they have the screen and computer. Students can sing and review/rate each other. Really dynamic stuff!

I also use karaoke for a lot more than music. I use it to present anything that has a sound file and transcript. This can be a newscast, an interview, stories and lots more. See my Book Nook for examples.

So what do you think about karaoke? Let me know, I'm curious.......

Here is a screen cast of how to make a karaoke file.....

DD