Great John Mayer song. Lots of language and about language. Use with this song/lyric listening and rewriting activity sheet . Become a supporter and get thousands of resources like this and the video.
I recently spent some time in Turkey training teachers and speaking. I had an amazing time and picked up some great Turkish second language singers. Here's one. Use with the Listening lyric foldem sheet
Get more second language singing inspiration HERE
Arlo Guthrie's immortal folk song. Get the lyrics. A wonderful NPR interview and recording HERE.
An amazing song by an immortal artist. Here's a nice lyric activity sheet.... Become a supporter and get an endless supply!
Amazing visual lyrics for this classic song. Get the lyric listening sheet for this song HERE.
Also interesting to ask students what the lyrics mean, what the writer is writing about.
** Not your ordinary, endless list - just what's number 1.
I spent part of the day with my Second language singer playlist playing in the background as I walked along and worked at my treadmill desk. My favorite group and by far the best representation of a multinational group singing in English is Outlandish. So inspiring to our students!
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The group consist of a Moroccan, a Pakistani, a Honduran, all singing in English while based out of Denmark. A plus is that their songs are about global issues, issues people around the world face. They get my vote by far! The greatest Second Language Singing Group (SLSG) ever. Here's a short interview with them.
Checkout the others I recommend and the songbook for teaching on the Second Language Singer page. Enjoy this fine example from Outlandish!
Yesterday, the genius and voice behind "The Count" died. A Sesame Street great, the count is just a wonderful character for teaching English. Even better to use his iconic song to get students doing a lyric rewrite.
We have many lyric rewrite activities on EFL Classroom and they are simple to prepare.
1. Find a song with a catchy chorus.
2. Pull out the chorus and write it on the board
3. Erase some of the main, repeated words and have students write their own versions
4. Monitor and correct.
5. Get students to perform their own creations - loads of fun!
Songs I've used previously include: What A Wonderful World, We are family, If I had a million dollars. Get all our songs with lyric and activity sheets HERE A handy book ishere. .
Here's the rewrite sheet for "The Song Of The Count". Enjoy using it with your students.
SONG OF THE COUNT - lyric rewrite sheet
While learning English, songs can help you a lot. But unknown vocabularies and some idiomatic usages can make it difficult to understand.
We have prepared a songbook to overcome this problem. In this book, you will find 12 different songs with Turkish meanings of possible unknown vocabularies and phrases. You can see a sample page in here.
I just spent an hour or two tagging all the songs on EFL Classroom that have lyric sheets. Wow! Didn't know we had so many. Find them here. Look below the video for links, many with ppts too. Plus, see our International Second Language Singers collection for many more. Also, many in our lyric sheet resources.
To celebrate this "new" or rather, "renewed" resource, I've made a nice lyric sheet and worksheet to go with one of the most popular songs for teaching - Mr. Morton is the subject of the Sentence. Get more Schoolhouse Rock songs HERE.
I'm a big fan of always exciting students with "possibility". By that I mean, designing a lesson so that they can change and interact with the content in creative, personal ways. They can be touched by possibility - much like we are when online and using Web 2.0 tools.
One easy way to do this is to use music/song. A "change the lyrics" activity.
Basically there are 3 steps involved.
1. Teach the song in any way you see fit. It could be the typical listening cloze,Lastonestanding,karaoke or many other ways.
2. Have prepared on the board the chorus or one main part of the song. In front of the students rub out some main content words. Ask students to put in their own words for the song. Have fun!
3. Challenge students to do the same and then share.
Here are two already prepared examples. The first, very simple for the gospel classic, "This little light of mine". The second more lengthy for "What a wonderful World".
Whatever you do, have fun adapting a song - I know your students will!
Go here for the What a Wonderful World lesson.
This little light of mine song cards
Poem Hunter is a site I chanced upon. It offers a really deep array/list of songs based on a "subject" or "theme". Here's the one for "FUTURE". Click the topics on the left for others.
It gives a great list for each topic. A perfect teacher helper - in finding a song to compliment a lesson. I know how difficult this can be! Music is vital when teaching Young Learners, especially teens. So Poem Hunter can't but helped. HERE is also a nice list for teachers with some teaching suggestions. I hope to start a discussion and collecting songs for teaching EFL subjects/themes soon! Stay tuned. See our SONG BOOKMARKED SITES for other music options....
The world of Michael Jackson... from A to Z
A is for ANOREXIA: There was fervent speculation in the early 80s that Jackson was suffering from the condition. He was apparently determined to shed weight in his quest to have a svelte dancer’s body.
B is for BLANKET: That’s Jacko’s nickname for his third son Prince Michael II, who he dangled from a hotel window, because the child was always wrapped in a sheet.
C IS FOR CONCERTS: He had booked a whopping 50 concerts at London’s 02 arena, beginning in July this year and finishing in March 2010. In total, he made more than £300million from his days on the road.
D is for dangerous: In 1991, Jackson produced his fourth solo album, Dangerous. It reached number one after just three days.
E IS FOR ELIZABETH TAYLOR: The movie star is possibly Michael’s best friend and stood by him throughout his court case in 2005. F IS FOR FIRE: In 1984, Jacko suffered terrible burns to his head after a freak accident set his hair ablaze. The performer was filming a Pepsi Cola advert when sparks from a firework landed in his hair. G IS FOR GARY: The small town in Indiana where Michael was born and raised with his brothers.
H IS FOR HOLLYWOOD: The Hollywood Palace was the venue of The Jackson 5’s first television performance. The brothers had been on the Motown circuit for quite some time and this was their first big break.
I IS FOR INJURY: Jacko broke his nose in a dancing accident and required rhinoplasty surgery to correct the damage. The nose job was the first surgery Michael had on his face.
J IS FOR JANET: Michael’s sister was relatively unheard of until they released a duet single together. Since then, she has released albums of her own and has starred in movies.
K IS FOR KINDNESS: Jackson has donated to, and set up, many charities but rarely spoke of his generosity.
L IS FOR LABELS: Michael signed record contracts with many different companies over the years, including Motown, Epic and CBS.
M is for MONEY: Jacko had some very serious problems with his finances. He took out a £23million loan on his Neverland ranch and failed to ever pay it back completely. Advertisement - article continues below » Click Here!
N is for NEVERLAND: The huge theme park in his back garden. Jackson regularly invited children to come and enjoy it with him.
O is for OFF THE WORLD Michael’s big album was the first that managed to turn out four US top 10 singles.
P is for PARENT: Jacko has three kids – Michael Jr, Paris Katherine Michael and Prince Michael Jackson II.
Q IS FOR QUALITY: The music video for his number one single Thriller is famed for its attention to detail both in the make-up of the dancers and their choreography.
R is for RHINOPLASTY: Jackson had two cosmetic surgeons to perform all kinds of operations on his face, including having an artificial cleft put in his chin.
S is for SUPPORT: Hundreds of fans turned up on the day of his court case to cheer him on. There was even one woman who released a white dove every time a jury member announced “not guilty”.
T is for TOP 10: Only one of his solo albums has failed to produce a single that made it to No1 in the US charts. Thriller managed to stay in the American top 10 for a record-breaking 80 weeks.
U is for UNBREAKABLE: He’s always had a very strong personality and was very forward thinking. He managed to keep smiling for his fans even when he was being prosecuted.
V is for VITILIGO: This disease affects the pigmentation of the skin and Michael was supposedly diagnosed with it in 1986 and blamed it for his severe discolouration.
W is for WORLD: He started his first global tour in 1987 after the release of his third solo album Bad. The tour consisted of 123 shows.
X is for X-WIVES: Jacko’s been divorced twice – first from Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie and then from nurse Debbie Rowe.
Y is for YOUTH: Michael started his career at the tender age of five, performing in a school talent show.
Z is for ZOMBIES: The undead featured in the music video for Thriller.
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!).
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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!
Nice video to use to start or build a lesson. Rihanna is super inspiring.
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.
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.
I think one of the great ways to get our young to learn English is through music. For many reasons. as I outline in this article. It is even better, more inspiring, more engaging when they see their fellow country men/women singing in English! So in this spirit, let's share some of our favorite international artists singing in their second language! Get the full player and lyric book HERE.
Here's a brave singer from Korea, to start off this directory!
I'm putting together a video karaoke selection of the Top 20 most popular karaoke songs (based on downloads off our server).
But, I'd like to know what your list of the top 10 would be. From these I'll compile a nice click and play playlist with Cloze songs of each also + lyric sheets.
So let me know!
Here's my quick list (Disclaimer ***** no way does this indicate I "personally" like the songs)
1. YMCA
2. Don't Worry - Be Happy
3. We are the Champions
4. We are family
5. That's the Way uh uh I like it
6. Yesterday
7. It's Friday, I'm in Love.
8. If I had a million dollars
9. My love
10. Sugar , Sugar
by ddeubel Great song book with videos - loads of resources for any teacher.
http://community.eflclassroom.com/page/music-and-lyric-listening
