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Great language teaching songs 2

Second in an occasional series on trying to establish what makes a great song for language teaching, this is an oldie but goldie as they say.

It's taken from my all-time favourite collection of French language songs, Chanterelles originally published by Mary Glasgow.

The song is entitled "Pas de Problème" and relates the central character's belief that whatever he/she might not have (Je n'ai pas de ....) as long as they have music and the ability to play their guitar, then 'no worries', 'pas de problème'.

Here it is in mp3

Here is a video of a powerpoint used to teach it

 

The tune is well-crafted. It is easily memorable, it has a variety of pitch and as the pitch gets higher it emphasises the lyrics. It has a repetitive pattern that is easy to learn without being boring. It changes at the end to emphasise the central message of the lyrics, contrasting not having things v. having music to be happy. The tune shift is necessary to support that contrast.

Next, the musicianship. The guitar playing and singing are both very good and the chord patterns and picking add interest.

Next, another key element of a good song, the lyrics need to tell i) a short story ii) if possible have a central 'character' or characters at the heart of them.

I caught the end of a guilty pleasure of mine last night, the musical film Mama Mia. When I tuned in, Meryl Streep was just starting to sing, Abba's "The Winner Takes it All".

I was instantly struck by how great this song is. Within 4 short lines you are given the story and the characters involved, pulled in by a great tune and left wanting to hear the story as well as the rest of the tune.

I don't wanna talk
About the things we've gone through
Though it's hurting me
Now it's history

Notice too how the change in pitch in the tune is the perfect vehicle to convey the emotional content of the lyrics. A fairly narrow pitch range on these first 4 lines emphasise the 'conversational' style and the fact that the lyrics are stating 'I don't want to talk' , implied: "because if I do I am going to get emotional and lose it". The narrow pitch matches her desire to keep her emotions at bay.

Of course she is unsuccessful and as soon as she lets her emotions rip in the chorus, "The winner takes it all.." the pitch range has shot up.

Now, of course I'm not suggesting that only songs of this stature are suitable for language learning, just that if you want to understand what makes a song 'stick' in someone's head, learn from some of the masters.

Back to 'Pas de Problème'!

The other feature of a great song for language learning with kids is that it usually lends itself to using some actions to illustrate the lyrics.

This song is action rich. I have done it with my own made up actions for every line. This section really needs a video to demo them but I will try and share them

Je n'ai pas de yacht (hand moves horizontally across your body going up and down with the waves)

Je n'ai pas de moto (Squat down on the motorbike holding the handle bars, revving the engine by turning the throttle handle)

Je n'ai pas de voiture (turning the steering wheel)

Je n'ai pas de vélo (peddling)

Je n'ai pas de patins à roulettes (slide feet alternately to right, to left, to right as if skating)

Car je n'ai pas d'argent (mimic pulling trouser pockets out to show they are empty)

Je n'ai même pas de veste (take jacket off shoulders)

Et je n'ai pas de chance (both thumbs down)

Je n'ai pas d'ordinateur (typing on a keyboard)

Je n'ai pas de walkman (hands to ears and swaying from side to side)

Je n'ai pas de montre (point to / tap on wrist)

Je n'ai pas de banane (peel banana and quickly scratch under armpits like a monkey and make a monkey noise!)

Je n'ai pas de cassette (as you say cassette, both forefingers outstretched and making fast circular motion in opposite directions to mimic a cassette tape re-winding)

Je n'ai pas de disque (mimic a DJ, one hand held to ear, the other winding and re-winding the record in the deck)

Je n'ai pas de magnétoscope (on the 'gneto' of magnetoscope, imagine you are holding a remote control steech out in front of you towards a TV and press the button to record/play)

et je n'ai pas de chips (pull out crisps and eat from imaginary crisp packet)

For the last verse the children are primed to have all of those class objects on their desk and have to hold them up as each one is mentioned. Much hilarity ensues ...

Ecoutez (hand to ear) c'est ma guitare (strum guitar) Je n'ai pas de problème (shrug shoulders, hands outstretched, open palms facing upwards)

The last element of a good song for a language teacher is that it should teach the pupils some vocab/structure that they can take away and use instantly. In this respect apart from the obvious "J'ai / je n'ai pas de " pattern, I also like the title as the statement "Pas de problème" is a commonly heard idiom that you could easily relate to similar ones: "De rien : (Il n'y a) pas de quoi : C'est pas grave" etc. etc.

Finally, part of this last element of a good song is that it is a springboard to some creative use of the language practised.

With this one, as some of the items are no longer current, video player, record, walkman, pupils can be encouraged to come up with their own alternative verses using the central idea of "I don't have this, this and this but at least I have ...."

What do you think? Any other examples in any language that you would like to feature here? Why don't you choose the song, send me any weblinks and your comments as to why you think they it is good, and I will post it here.

Send anything to souffler(dot)uk(at)gmail(dot)com

TES forum discussion on part-time v full-time working

Just to follow up the last couple of posts, I set up a discussion on the TES forum about how the future employment status of teachers might look and how many of us might need to think of building a job+job life that doesn't rely on a single income and allows us to pursue the things we love doing.

Click this link. You will need to register on the forum if you haven't already done so.

Next post, back to my passion, using ICT tools to help you integrate music more powerfully into your lessons!

Profit from your passion

I had no idea when I began this journey that this kind of article would feature on this blog.

However I feel I have to share this as it has benefitted me greatly. 

A week ago I posted this article in response to the fact that many excellent colleagues were having to face big changes in their professional, personal and financial lives because of the public sector cuts.

Whatever we feel about the political rights and wrongs of all of this, the fact is that many people involved directly or indirectly in supporting education now find themselves scratching around for direction. If you are anywhere near my age then this becomes very problematic.

I said in that article that I could foresee a time where many educational professionals would no longer be fully state employed. Part-time work could become the norm, working 2 or 3 days a week employed by the State and the rest of the time devoted to one's own business.

Like it or not, the movement of the times is towards individuals carving out a particular 'niche' for themselves, based around their special passion and talent, becoming mini-entrepreneurs and connecting with others who compliment their skills professionally to deliver a product or who need their services. (If you want to read an excellent book about this societal shift brought about largely through the rapid expansion of the internet and social media, read 'Become a Key person of Influence' by Daniel Priestley - sneak a preview on this video)

One gift that teachers hone every day is the gift of the gab. Have you ever considered learning how to make an income from public speaking? 

Last year at this time, I attended a 1 day seminar in London put on by an Australian lady, Joanna Martin. Her particular 'niche' is that she coaches people in any walk of life, not just in teaching, how to turn speaking in public on something about which they are passionate into a significant business.

I went to this as a very sceptical Brit, cynical faculties overloaded to the max and pretty resistant to the intitial flavour of the event. I knew however that I wanted to get up in front of people and share my passion for music and learning languages. So. I persisted.

Something happened on that day. I found myself in a room with complete strangers. At one point we had to share what it was that we wanted to get out of that day to someone else in 1 minute. Then we had to listen to what they said.

I found myself sharing my passionate belief that music and singing have the power to transform the way children learn languages. I had never expressed this to anyone in this way before. In one minute I had told a complete stranger what I was going to be doing probably for the rest of my working life.

I then listened to her explaining what she wanted to do. It was very powerful. You imagine being in a room where everyone is sharing their most heartfelt desire all concentrated into a one minute speech!

Since then 1 minute has become 2 minutes and then 7 minutes at various Teach Meets around the country.Those have directly led to being asked to run 1 hour workshops. Whole day events are within my sights, and all from a 1 minute speech!

Do you realise that if you want to find out what it feels to be a public speaker, education is the only profession that provides you with a free forum to get up and share your heart with wonderfully supportive colleagues and make a complete fool of yourself, yet improve your skills! Begin your speaking journey at a local Teachmeet. Here is a link to a google map of many, many excellent colleagues who have taken part in these already.

Amazing! We are so lucky to be in a professional environment like this which is collegiate and supportive! Take advantage of it!

One thing I know from those Teach Meet events, we are an incredibly creative profession. And everyone has their own spark of genius that they share at those events. You have something that others want to know about.

It might not even be part of teaching, it might be in another area of your life where you happily spend hours pursuing a particular interest.

Back to Joanna Martin. The reason I mention her is that she is speaking again in London on these dates, Friday May 6th (I'm going to this one) Saturday May 7th and Friday May 13th. The cost for the whole day is dirt cheap for this kind of quality training. Joanna has her own products to sell, training packages and DVDs etc but this really is a fun, interesting and no pressure event. You can take or leave anything that she offers. she doesn't ram anything down your throat.

What you will get however is a much clearer idea of what it is you could do : a much clearer idea of how to structure a successful business if you have never done this kind of thing before : the confidence to seriously think about putting something into practise that you might always have thought about but never quite believed you could do it and earn a significant amount of money from it.

If you would like to know more, follow this link here.

So if you, or anyone you know has been thrown up in the air by the public sector cuts and is unsure how the pieces of your life are going to land and fall into some sort of shape, I highly recommend this 1 day event.  It certainly helped me to shape my personal, professional and financial future.

Good luck!

Here's the link again. Please pass it on to anyone else you know, not only educators, that you think might benefit.

The power of human voices singing as one

This, at the moment, has nothing to do with language teaching. I say, as yet, because in my heart I know one day it will. More on that some other time.

For the moment I want you simply to enjoy this beautiful presentation from the TED site. You, I, all of us came into this world with a voice that has a unique quality, it is designed to sing.

For some, that gift is so elevated that they can sing on their own. For the majority of us however, we are at our most beautiful best when we share what we have and join our voice to others.

Listen to this. What beautiful power!

 

Supporting Language Teachers to use Singing - a survey

This is a really important post for me. If you have benefitted from anything I have given away for free on this site please return the favour and take the time to complete the survey on this page.

'Effective use of Song, Rhythm and Music for Language Teachers'. Click here to take survey

Tweet it, blog it, email it, tell everyone! Use the 'Tell a Friend" button in the left-hand column.  

Many Primary colleagues will know of Carole Nicoll.  

Carol has produced the very successful series of songs, raps and short language sketches that she sells from her website, http://www.language-factory.co.uk

  

 

Her Français Français resource pack Won the CILT European Award for Languages in 2003.

She has since produced the Espanol Espanol, Deutsch Deutsch, Italiano Italiano and English English resource packs.

Carole has spoken at many regional training events, CILT national conferences, and presents to many EFL and ESOL institutions here and abroad.

If you don't know Carole's work, click on the image below and download some free resources from her site registration page.

I am really pleased to announce that recently Carole and I have agreed to co-operate on a number of projects that we believe will bring yet more fun and success to the wonderful work so many of our colleagues are doing.

We both passionately believe that once teachers understand clearly how to exploit the power of music, the power of rhythm, the power of song in their lessons, they will be equipped with a tool that can have a significant impact on both their enjoyment of the work they do and the progress of their students.

There is a skill to using this powerful resource effectively and at the moment it isn't explicitly taught. Pressing play and pause on the CD player is not enough!

We want to deliver a very high quality training package to support this. To help inform our thinking we really need your input.

For this reason I would be extemely grateful if you could complete the survey below and pass it on to your colleagues encouraging them to do the same.

Thanks!

'Effective use of Song, Rhythm and Music for Language Teachers'. Click here to take survey

 

Great language teaching songs

Well in the spirit of yesterday's apology, what I would like is to post an occasional series on this, the best language teaching songs as suggested by you.

I've had quite a lot of feedback from people about the songs that they like to use so hope to mention them in this series. It helps if you can tell me a source so that I can post a link.

First one up is a cracking one. I think this is great! This is from Babelzone but is hosted on the Youtube channel of a good friend of mine who did the animation, Nathalie Bonneau who is brilliant at creating funny cartoon montages for songs.  Her website is at

http://www.jeannedelalune.co.uk/about.html

and her Youtube Channel to check out some of her other work is at

http://www.youtube.com/user/jeandelalune3

I am thrilled that Nathalie has kindly interpreted one of my own songs which I hope to share with you soon on my other site.

Here is the video - when it finishes playing, you can click on the embedded link from You tube to play the Spanish version of the same song.

If you like this, leave a comment and say why. Lets try and collect a body of opinion that defines exactly what it is that makes a song one you would always have in your top 20 collection of the best language teaching songs!

Think what we could do if we brought together the best of the best in this field! We could have a BIG party!

 

Humble pie

Yesterday I put up a post about the types of songs published for language learning which I now regret. It was written in the heat of the moment in reaction to hearing one song and I apologise to anyone I might have offended.

Since I started writing this blog I have wanted to post things that encourage and help colleagues. In particular I love to encourage anyone doing anything creative with their pupils as I believe this gives us the most satisfaction in our jobs and gives our pupils some of the best lessons they could have.

Music and songs are such a personal thing. What I might dislike, others will embrace with enthusiasm and exploit brilliantly. So I apologise for implying that I had the monopoly on good taste in this regard, in fact I rather cringe that I could have implied it.

I want to applaud and support anyone using anything to further the use of music and song in language learning. Most importantly I want to work with colleagues to do this to the best of our ability.

The only thing I would gently encourage all interested in this area to consider is that I do believe the quality of the music is very important and it is a factor that hasn't really been addressed before I think.

So, humble pie amply consumed, I hope that you will bear with me and continue to share your own great ideas about how to make this work as best as we can for the benefit of language teachers across the world who kindly stop by this blog.

A pointer to the future of Languages in the UK

Update If you , or anyone you know are in this position, go to this new post

Today many colleagues who have worked tirelessly and selflessly to support language learning across the UK wake up to a day without a job. Uncertainty is an uncomfortable feeling, I know it well from when I left my former job in Secondary Education.

I am writing this short article however hopefully to re-assure you that this isn't it. It is a trite thing to say and read but it truly could be the best thing that has happened to you. I say this very guardedly because I am aware of just how much investment of themselves people have put in to their former positions, how much they cared about what they did and how much simply having that income means for the people they love and care for. To see it go is a difficult thing to stomach.

We are living in times of enormous change and the shift in how society works and functions as we adjust to this change brings with it the kind of jolts that hurt and disturb. I truly believe however that these kind of jolts can be harbingers of great leaps forward, personally and collectively.

They shake us out of our comfort zones, they spur us to re-think, they push us to imagine, to re-invent, to become creative again.

I believe every teacher should be both a public servant and a private entrepreneur. Who invented the notion that you are only allowed to be a public employee, only ever dependent upon the public purse to make your way and see your own hopes and dreams realised?

The truth is that 90% of teachers I know have within them something, some big or little idea, some passion, some area of expertise that often has the spark of 'genius' about it. The Teachmeets I go to often leave me feeling very humbled by the wonderfully creative people that share their ideas.

If they knew how to they could turn that idea into a real income that sits quite happily alongside their duties as a public servant. The sad thing is that very people know how to do this, and even fewer try.

When I was in full-time employment, the biggest thing that held me back from even thinking about leaving it was fear. I was actually yearning to have the challenge of trying to generate my own income but always chose instead to listen to those voices that whispered 'pension' 'what will others think' 'you will never be able to go back' 'you will lose your house' etc. etc ad nauseam!

Then health issues got in the way and kind of forced my hand. I got my jolt if you like. It was the best thing that happened to me. Now I am a part-time state employee, doing something I love for the schools I work in but am also building my own business pursuing my personal passions. Two jobs I love! I'm even envious of myself!

I can foresee a time when perhaps most teachers will work part-time, contracted in to deliver those parts of the curriculum that they are inspirational at delivering, free the rest of the time to enjoy an exhilirating business of their own that both feeds their familes and nourishes their soul.

Is that impossible? Idealistic? Unreasonable?

Well I for one hope it isn't otherwise I'm about to wake up from my own dream! Shame, it is just starting to get very, very exciting!

So to anyone feeling a bit down at the end of this week, please take heart. You have the most important resource you will ever have to be able to make a difference, the time to reconnect with what it is that you are passionate about. Find it, relive it and go and make some money from it!

Wishing everyone in this position a stonking future (sorry, my English deserted me!)

ps I might be looking for key colleagues to work with me! What's your big idea?

Update If you or anyone you know are in this position, have a look at this new post