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Current research in the field of Foreign Language Teaching states that students’ motivation and
interests are amongst the most important factors when learning a foreign language. One of the ways of
raising students’ motivation and improving teaching effectiveness is the use of songs.
Songs are familiar materials for teachers and students, and they are strongly related to everyday life.
Most people like songs and music, especially children and young people. They spend a lot of time
listening to music in English. Many people have become familiar with the English language because
of their interest in pop music sung in this language.
Traditionally, songs have been used as fillers for slack classroom time, rewards for rapid assimilation
of the day’s lesson or changes of pace from a routine procedure in a lesson. But this approach to songs
undervalues their teaching potential. Their usefulness is recognized nowadays by specialists in
language teaching, especially in Primary Education. Here are some general features of songs:
o The tune. Tunes often stick in our minds, making the song easy to remember.
o Rhyme and rhythm. These features enable children to grasp intonation patterns and pronunciation.
o Natural repetition of words and structures help retain language items.
o Contextualization of vocabulary and structures
o Socio-cultural elements. Songs usually reflect social or historical events as well as the attitudes or
beliefs of people of another culture.
o Stylistic effects. Many songs contain a variety of literary figures and images that can be used to
initiate students in literary language and poetry.
If songs are carefully chosen, they can help with learning and consolidating linguistic elements,
developing communicative skills, the appreciation of some stylistic features and the learning of
sociocultural elements. All these elements are reflected in our current educational system, which
emphasizes the use of authentic, motivating and familiar materials in the English class for the students
to achieve communicative competence.

1 SONGS AS POETIC VEHICLES AND LITERARY CREATIONS IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

1.1 REASONS FOR USING SONGS IN THE ENGLISH CLASS
Why use songs and rhymes in the English class? Most primary school teachers know to what extent
children enjoy music. These activities provide a link with home and school life and are often fun tasks.
Their usefulness is recognized today –they have been adopted as frequent learning techniques, and as
an integral part of language programmes. There are many reasons to use songs in FLT
Psychological reasons
o ① Children are predisposed to learning songs
o ② According to Piaget, singing resembles children’s egocentric language
o ③ Songs encourage social integration in class
Linguistic reasons
o ① Songs encourage unconscious learning of language
o ② The use of songs develops receptive skills
o ③ Songs are especially useful to learn and consolidate pronunciation and language elements in context
o ④ Songs can be used as drills, that is, for intensive practice in selected patterns, but without boredom
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Pedagogical reasons
o ① They motivate both good and weak students
o ② They create a pleasant atmosphere in the classroom and encourage learning
o ③ They develop positive attitudes towards the FL since they provide the students with fun
o ④ They offer the teacher the possibility of consolidating learning in other school subjects
Sociocultural reasons
o ① Songs develop the students’ sociocultural competence
o ② They help to develop attitudes of respect towards another culture, a different from their own

1.2 CRITERIA FOR SELECTING SONGS

As we have just seen in the previous section, there are many arguments in favour of using songs in
language teaching. Songs must be carefully chosen for our teaching purposes. They may have difficult
language, or have unnatural stress patterns, and sometimes words aren’t pronounced properly to fit in
with the tune. Here are some guidelines.
① Student’s age
The teacher must take into account the students’ age. An 8 years-old child doesn’t have the same
interests and language competence as an 11 years-old student.
② Level of vocabulary, structures and functions
The songs should not be too easy or too difficult for the student’s level of English, and the
language should be included in the course syllabus.
③ Potential for follow-up activities
The lyrics of the songs must provide a starting point for language practice, as well as the introduction
of sociocultural aspects.
④ Authentic vs adapted songs
Authentic songs are genuine songs in English, so the language hasn’t been selected or graded. Adapted
songs are specifically written for the teaching of English as a foreign language, so language has been
selected and graded.

2 TYPOLOGY OF SONGS
There are many different kinds of songs, rhymes and chants which contain different features and are
used for different purposes. Opie and Opie (1967) suggest that rhymes can be divided into two
categories: those which are essential to the regulation of games and children’s relationships with each
other and include dips, skipping rhymes; and those that are mere expressions of exuberance and include
jingles, slogans, nonsense verse, tongue twisters, scary rhymes and jokes.

2.1 CHILDREN’S SONGS AND RHYMES

When choosing a song we must keep in mind our aims and choose one that will help us achieve them.
Songs and rhymes are divided by Brewster (2002) into three types:
o
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o ① Action songs
Many rhymes are traditionally used by children to perform actions in groups, to clap together in pairs
or when skipping. Skipping, dipping, counting and finger rhymes can all be included in the action
songs.
o Counting songs. These are especially suitable for our youngest pupils, those in the First and Second
Cycles, since they enjoy counting and repetitive lyrics.
◊ There were ten in bed
◊ Ten green bottles
o Skipping rhymes. They are traditionally used by children to perform actions while they skip in
groups.
◊ Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
◊ Head and shoulders
o Dipping rhymes. They are a kind of counting rhyme. They are used to eliminate children when
deciding who is going to be “it”. Our pupils hold out their fists and the counter touches each fist on
every stressed syllable.
◊ Each Peach, Pear Plumb
o Finger songs. They involve actions just for the hand and children can remain seated.
◊ Two fat gentlemen met in a lane
◊ The finger family
② Traditional songs
These are popular songs. The teacher must choose those that fit in with certain grammatical patterns,
vocabulary items or stories that are being taught. The words of these songs mustn’t be too archaic or
too childish for the age group.
o Old McDonald
o I am a Music Man
o Three Crows
③ Pop songs
Pop songs give our students a big sense of achievement and lead to a will to exhibit their English
outside the classroom, to friends and relatives. Another good reason is that songs show English in real
use. Some teachers may argue that most pop songs bring many grammatical and vocabulary problems
since they are not specially prepared for the EFL class. That is true, but then it is the teacher’s job to
choose a song which suits the needs and level of their class.

2.2 ROUNDS
A round is a circular song. One group starts to sing; the second group starts the song when the first
group gets to the end of the first line, and so on. The song is sung continuously several times.
o London’s Burning

2.3 JAZZ CHANTS

Jazz chants have now become extremely popular in the young learners classroom mainly due to the
contribution of Carolyn Graham’s work. She puts everyday conversational English to jazz rhythms. In
her book Jazz Chants for Children (1979) she writes ‘just as the selection of a particular tempo and
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beat in jazz may convey powerful and varied emotions, the rhythm, stress and intonation patterns of
the spoken language are essential elements for the expression of feelings and the intent of the speaker.
Linking these two dynamic forms has produced an innovative and exciting new approach to language
learning’. Some of her chants have now become classic like Ernie and Shoes and Socks.

2.4 TONGUE TWISTERS

Tongue twisters have always been favourites and use alliteration which makes correct pronunciation
difficult and a real challenge.
o Dob, Mob, Cob, Bob

3 TECHNIQUES FOR USING SONGS TO LEARN PHONETIC, LEXICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS
The use of songs is flexible. A song can be used in any stage of the class: as a presentation tool, as a
controlled practice exercise or as a free production activity. It all depends on the teacher’s imagination
to devise the activities that will accompany the song. A song should be taught by hiding the nature of
exercises; making them look like fun when in reality our students are working with the language in the
way we want them to.

3.1 USEFUL TECHNIQUES

Some popular and efficient suggestions for using songs and music in class are:
Actions
While singing a song, some students who have not grasped the words well yet, will refrain from singing
it. The solution is to have your students perform actions relevant to the song lyrics. In this way, the
students who do not know the words quite well can participate by doing the actions and be part of the
group anyway. Another advantage is the relationship between the words and the actions which will
help in understanding.
Drawing
Tell the title of the song to a student and ask him to draw a picture that reflects it. It can be done on a
piece of paper or on the board. The students then try to guess the title by asking questions or just saying
the title suggested by the student’s picture.
Blanks
The most popular form of working with songs is inserting blanks in the lyrics on a worksheet. The
technique is well known and needs little explanation. What we want to elaborate about is the way we
insert the blanks in the lyrics.
Multiple choice
If your students may find the blanks too difficult, then provide alternatives for each word. Two or three
possible words for each blank will be enough. Choose words are sound alike, are written alike or
present small differences but that can be spotted only by context.
Spot the differences
Another alternative for the blanks technique is to change words from the lyrics for other words that,
even though they are grammatically correct in the context, are different from the original and must be
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spotted by listening to the song. However, before listening, the students should be challenged to try
and find the words that do not go in the lyrics.
Strips of paper
Instead of using worksheet with the lyrics of the song, cut out the lyrics into several strips of paper.
Each trip will have a line of the lyrics. Then play the song and let your students put the lines in order.

3.2 FOCUSING ON PARTICULAR LINGUISTIC ASPECTS

Among all the advantages of using songs with our Primary students, the most important one is the way
in which songs may act as efficient tools for language improvements. In this section we will delve into
those ways to achieve linguistic improvements in pronunciation, vocabulary and culture.
① Pronunciation
A song is a great tool to teach pronunciation. The right choice of song is important. We may call
students attention to certain special words and how they are pronounced. We can also call their
attention to the different accents and to rhyming sounds in the lyrics. Brewster (2002) considers that
songs can be used to teach individual sounds (segmental features) and sounds in connected speech,
comprising aspects such as stress, rhythm and intonation (suprasegmental features).
o Segmental features. Most vowels and consonants in English provide pronunciation difficulties for
Spanish speakers. Some individual sounds can be demonstrated through animal noises, such as Old
McDonald. These songs can also be used to show what happens to sounds in connected speech.
Students will also see how complicated English clusters are simplified, especially where a word
ends in alveolar sound followed by a consonant cluster.
o Suprasegmental features. Stress, rhythm and intonation can be practiced in a very natural way using
songs. English is considered to be a stressed-timed language because the accented syllables tend to
occur at fairly regular intervals.
② Vocabulary
Songs make language memorable, are sticky and contain many repetitions. Their value to extend
vocabulary and work on different semantic fields is strong. Moreover, songs may be an excellent
springboard for a discussion or debate on the topic they suggest. Also, they can be used as the
basis for a writing project or composition based on the debate.
Depending on the activity designed by the teacher, a song can serve as a good way to encourage
teamwork and collaboration to exchange, revise and extend words. Particularly relevant in order
to stress conscious memory work are accumulative, counting and action songs.
③ Culture
Songs can be used to teach not only the English language but also the culture of the singer’s country.
It is a good opportunity to teach our students about the countries where English is spoken. This will
also give a good starting point for projects on the culture of the USA, Great Britain, Australia, etc.
Sociocultural competence is part of communicative competence. We must enable our students to
discover details of life-style, eating habits, pastimes, sports, festivals, and of course, songs. Therefore,
songs may serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, we can teach our students traditional English songs;
on the other, we can use songs which convey sociocultural elements.
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3.3 HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF SONGS

We have seen that songs are a valuable teaching tool to use in the English class. But we need careful
preparation to gain full benefit from the potential of a song. Preparation includes choosing appropriate
song material, tapes, CDs, lyrics and so on.
① Pre-listening stage
This is a motivating stage in which the teacher presents the song the students are going to listen to. In
this stage:
o The teacher can give a brief account of the song
o The students can deduce the content from the title
o The teacher can pre-teach vocabulary
② While-listening
The students are now ready to listen to the song. The teacher should ensure the listening
conditions are as pleasing as possible. Our main aims should be:
o Lexical level (meaning of words). In this level the students concentrate on the meaning of words.
In the first listening, the students get the general idea of the song (extensive listening). In the
following listening, the students listen to specific words (intensive listening).
o Phonetic level (pronunciation words). Students practice recognition and pronunciation of words.
Songs and rhymes are especially useful to focus the student’s attention on the segmental and
suprasegmental features. The segmental features are: vowels, consonants and diphthongs; the
suprasegmental features are: stress, rhythm and intoation.
o Cultural level (knowledge of the cultural background). Students learn the sociocultural background
of the song: history, culture, traditions, ways of life and beliefs reflected in the song. This stage is
also useful to develop positive attitudes and values towards the foreign language and the people
who speak it. The teacher can use these resources to help students understand and learn sociocultural
aspects.
③ Post-listening
The teacher should design activities that encourage skill integration, that is, activities that relate oral
and written skills. After the students have listened to and sung the song, the focus can shift to other
skills for them to acquire higher communicative competence. Here are some examples to consolidate
written skills:
o Reading activities
o Writing activities

CONCLUSION
In this unit we have analysed the potential of songs as teaching tools. They are motivating materials
that help learners to practice the English language in an enjoyable and effective way.
If songs are carefully chosen and used, they will provide the learning of linguistic elements; the
development of communicative skills; the appreciation of poetic language and the acquisition of
sociocultural knowledge. Therefore, the effective use of songs helps to develop the student’s
communicative competence.