Using authentic songs with Language Learners

What are the wonderful benefits of using authentic songs in the ESL classroom? What types of activities can we do to take advantage of musical materials? How can we, as teachers,  exploit a song in the most useful and creative ways?

Benefits of using songs in language learning

Motivation - Many of us have experienced with amazement how fast students can learn the lyrics of a song. It is for certain that students love music, and using songs in class can stimulate positive associations with the study of language.

Skills - Listening to songs and working with them in class can help our students to improve their listening skills and pronunciation, enhance vocabulary, and reinforce grammar. What's more, songs consolidate what they learn in class by listening to them at home so the learning process does not end when students leave the classroom.

       CLIL - Songs can also be used as a springboard to talk about controversial issues, learn about cultures, history, etc. Listening to music can be an engaging way for students to learn about a period of time, cultural differences, etc. Songs are important tools in sustaining cultures, religions, etc.

Brain - They are repetitive and stick in the head easily. Songs work on our short and long term memory.

There are many different ways of exploiting songs, from the traditional text completion to the line order exercise. In the list below you can find different tasks we can do with a song:

• Study, reinforce grammar
• Practice reading comprehension
• Improve listening skills
• Fill in the blanks
• Star Reports
• Create a dialogue between the characters of the song
• Teach culture
• Project work

Songs appeal to many types of learners and this is the reason why using them in the classroom is so effective. What's more, when using music for language purposes our students' brains associate language learning in a positive way.