Autor: prof. Bogdan Georgiana
Music is a powerful stimulus for student engagement precisely because it speaks directly to our emotions while still allowing us to use our brains to analyse it and its effects if we so wish. A piece of music can change the atmosphere in a classroom or prepare students for a new activity. It can amuse and entertain, and it can make a satisfactory connection between the world of leisure and the world of learning in the classroom. Some teachers, for example, like to put music on in the background when their students are working on a reading or language task or when they are involved in pairwork or groupwork. This may help to make the classroom atmosphere much warmer, and one of the methods from the 1970s ( the teaching method ‘Suggestopaedia’) had background music as a central part of its design. However, it is worth remembering that not everyone is keen to have music in the background at all times, and even if they are, they may not necessarily like the teacher’s choice of music. It makes sense, therefore, to let students decide if they would like music in the background rather than just imposing it on them ( however well-intentioned this imposition might be). We should allow them to say what they think of the music, we then play, since the whole point of playing music in the first place is make students feel happy and relaxed.
Because the appreciation of music is not a complex skill, and because many different patterns of music from a variety of cultures have become all over the world through the Internet, most students have little trouble perceiving clear changes of mood and style in a wide range of world music types. In class, therefore, we can play film music and get students to say what kind of film they think it comes from. We can get them to listen to music which describes people and say what kind of people they are. They can write stories based on the mood of the music they hear, or listen to more than one piece of music and discuss with each other what mood each piece describes, what ‘ colour’ it is, where they would like to hear it and who with.
One of the most useful kinds of text for students to work with is song lyrics, especially where the song in question is one which the students are very keen on. However, songs can present a problem, particularly with teenage students, because it is often difficult to know exactly which songs the students like at any particular time and which songs, very popular last week, have suddenly gone out of favour!
There are two ways of dealing with this problem: the first is to have students bring their favourite songs to class. If they do this, however, the teacher may want to have time ( a day or two) to listen to the song and try to understand the lyrics. Some of the songs may deal with issues and language which the teacher is not keen to work with. Another solution is to use older songs, and to ask students whether they think they still have merit – whether they like them despite their antiquity. Teachers can then choose songs which they like or which are appropriate in terms of topic and subject matter. and which they themselves think pass the test of time.
According to Sylvan Payne, ‘ the ideal song…repeats key phrases; attracts students’ attention; and teaches some natural, interesting language without offending anyone’ ( 2006:42). He finds that typing in grammar points like ‘ should have’ along with the word lyrics into his Internet search engine often finds him exactly what kinds of songs he wants.
All in all, music can play a really important part in the language classroom. It can change the atmosphere in the room within the seconds. Undoubtedly, music is a highly effective, engaging and motivating tool for teaching English, helping students improve listening skills, pronunciation and vocabulary through rhythm and repetition. It caters to different learning styles, allows for cultural exposure and can be used to set the tone of a class, such as settling students or raising energy levels.
Works cited:
Payne, S 2006 A song – based grammar lesson in record time. Essential teacher 3/1
Harmer, J 2007 The Practice of English Language Teaching, Pearson Education Limited
