Souffler - a breath of fresh air

Sylvia Duckworth's YouTube Channel - Great Language teaching songs 3

For anyone who doesn't know Sylvia Duckworth, she is a French teacher in Canada experienced in using the AIM language learning program that places a strong emphasis on using the arts to build language structure. The core philosophy as far as I understand it is that language learning needs to be given an emotional context for it to become embedded.

This is easy if you are in the country where that language is spoken, hard if you aren't.

However using visual, aural and physical expression via gestures, movement, music and song, drama, storytelling, it is possible to speed up language acquisition and present the language in a fun, engaging context. If children like it, they'll learn it. Not an earth shattering concept but harder to achieve than say!

So, I have been casting an eye over some of the songs on Sylvia's Youtube channel and am picking out some songs that I think readers of this blog might like.

A big thank you to Sylvia for doing all of the powerpoints so well and for sharing them. Thank you to the composers for allowing them to be shared.

For the full caboodle, have a look at her site! A lot of potential for fun and meaningful language learning for new learners here I think!

Jack Grunsky

http://www.jackgrunsky.com/jack_grunsky_2/home.html

Charlotte Diamond

http://www.charlottediamond.com/

Charlotte Diamond

http://www.charlottediamond.com/

Max Maxwell

http://www.aimlanguagelearning.com

http://www.charlottediamond.com/

John Demado's raps and songs for teaching at

http://www.demado-seminars.com/

Alain le Lait

http://www.yadeeda.com/alain_le_lait.htm

Juli Powers

http://www.julipowers.com/

All these songs display elements I have been trying to define that make them great songs :

1. Great tunes/music - TOP OF THE LIST!
2. A strong central idea that engages, a bit of a story not just a topic - this doesn't have to revolve around a person - Charlotte Diamond's 'Je suis une pizza' is a brilliant example! Things can be given a voice and a story too.
3. Quirky humour that children will love - Charlotte Diamond getting personally manhandled by the Queen and kicked out of Buckingham Palace for complaining about the miniscule sarnies, brilliant! IMAGINATION has to be BIG in songs for kids!
4. Seeing something from a child's point of view - John Demado's rap about feeling trapped in his house by having to do chores, the lament of countless generations of kids! Jack Grunsky writing a song based upon a single line that every parent knows, 'Look what I made for you at school today!'
5. Repetition - the opportunity for children to repeat the lines in 'Je suis une pizza', the frequent repetitions in Alain le Lait's 'En voici' song, the chorus in Max Maxwell's song 'Oh le printemps' - these repeats give an entry point into a song - you can simply ask children to sing along with these to begin with and use the rest of the song for comprehension games, hold up a card when they hear 'x,y,z' etc.
6. Use of rhythm to drive learning - Juli Power's inclusion of that part of her song where children are asked to count to 16 in time to the music. Sensing the 'pulse' of a song and keeping in time with it are essential musical skills.

For the more examples of songs, visit Sylvia's Youtube channel

Have fun!

Using foreign language songs to teach pronunciation (3)

Here is another well know Disney Song from the film Aladdin. You could use this to highlight the 'eu' phoneme.

The French and English lyrics are here.

Download Whole new world

Comparing the two helps point out how impossible it is to translate exactly when trying to make a rhyme. The French version's end of line rhymes determine the message which is slightly different.

 

 

Using foreign language songs to teach pronunciation (2)

Another example of an FL song that you can use to focus on one particular area of pronunciation, this example in French, thanks to Louis Bassoon who posted this comment on my previous post on this topic .....

I love using songs in my lessons, and looking at pronunciation in a song has proved to be a really good way of tackling certain aspects of the language. Have a look at Natasha St Pierre's song "Tu trouveras" on YouTube. I found a version with the words, got the pupils to listen and watch and write down how many times there was a word ending in s where the s was silent (and then, on the second listening, they spotted how many final s were actually pronounced). The pupils were focused, fascinated and asking to sing along after about 3 listenings. They also now have a clear impression of how a final s in French is rarely pronounced - they are now compiling a list of examples every time they spot one.

... so here is the link to Natasha St Pierre singing 'Tu Trouveras' with the lyrics hosted at Youtube.

 I think this post from Louis underlines what I was saying that you don't have to dive headlong into comprehension of the text before being able to use songs for a real linguistic purpose in your lessons.

Teaching any subject using musical support

Although most of what I do is linked to language learning, I am convinced that teaching and learning in any subject could benefit from musical support.

I came across this Youtube channel the other day and wanted to share some of the videos that they have posted. They call themselves The History Teachers. Here is a flavour of what they do.

 The French Revolution set to Lady Gaga

Alexander the Great and Macedonia to the tune of "My Sharona"! 

 Now I know that the limitations of a song's lyrics don't allow for in depth perception or historical comment, but they are a lot of fun and could be useful for introducing a topic that otherwise might leave pupils cold. Let me know what you think!

 Here's our own Henry VIII getting the full Abba treatment!

 

 

a propos of nothing ....

As a proud Dad, I'm posting a completely non mfl vid here, a collaboration between my daughter, Lucy and her musician friend Matt. Quirky and fun!

 

 

French Gypsy Manouche - Les yeux noirs & Thomas Dutronc

I have just begun to listen to this music. In France they call it Manouche, the gypsy swing guitar made famous by Django Reinhardt. This video is a fantastic showcase of some the best players of this genre and the track is "les yeux noirs". 

In a more current context, here are some other tracks in this style whose lyrics might be useable in classwork by Thomas Dutronc, son of Jacques Dutronc.

Lyrics: Comme un manouche sans guitare   Video

You could follow it up with work on other similes using

 "Comme un / une ..... sans ..."

Lyrics: Au cafe du temps perdu

Language focus: perfect, imperfect, pluperfect, past continuous tenses

Lyrics: J'aime plus Paris

The language focus here is more to do with the topic as the song lists all the reasons he wants to escape city life.

Lyrics : Jeune je ne savais rien   Video

Language Focus: perfect , imperfect tenses

Downloading web video Mac Users with Safari

If you use a Mac and the Safari browser then a simple way to download web video from Youtube is to use the activity window. This video shows you how.

To recap then the keyboard shortcuts to briing up the activity window are 

Command alt  and the letter 'a'

Thanks to Mac OS X hints  for this