STARTBODY

Teach English in Mahu Zhen - Ankang Shi

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Mahu Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Ankang Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.

One of the key factors in teaching young learners is to make the lessons interesting. Unlike adult learners, younger learners often are enrolled in the class outside of themselves (e.g. school, parents). Hence, often they have less motivation to learn as compared to adults. Similarly, they also have lower concentration, which may have been a contributed by the low motivation. However, these can be compensated by proper lesson planning and activity selection. One of these tricks is the usage of songs and rhymes in the classroom. Using songs in the classroom has many advantages. One of the many advantages of using songs is the enormous amount of resources available for songs. Whether through the internet or store-bought CDs or cassettes, there are songs for and from all ages and genders. Moreover, it is possible to also create songs as non-authentic materials designed for specific lessons (for example, a song/rhyme on the forms of personal pronouns). The overall versatility of songs makes it great for classroom use. Songs/rhymes also help with memorization. This is true especially when combined with movement (i.e. dancing) which can be a real advantage when teaching young learners. However, despite the overall usefulness of songs and rhymes, there are some factors to be aware of when implementing these in the lessons. Songs and rhymes coupled with movements (e.g. dance moves) are helpful with memorization and is especially popular with young children because it requires moving. However, with older kids, this may feel embarrassing and childish. Especially kids 13-18, who is beginning to regard themselves as adults, they may feel a sense of shame participating in activities as such. On the other hand, older children may find enjoyment in popular pop songs and such whereas the younger kids might have a harder time to understand (because of the language subject). Pop songs (and many other billboard songs) are rich in grammar and vocabulary. However, it is important to also repeatedly use these (i.e. grammar and vocabulary) also outside of the songs to help drive memorization and usage. It is also important to remember to not be too repetitive with the songs or to overuse them since it gets boring. It may be a good idea to allow the kids to bring their favorite CDs/MP3s to class to share or to use karaoke versions that can be found online and such. However, it is best to make sure that the songs being used are age appropriate and censored. Using songs clearly strengthens listening skills of the students. However, it is possible to manipulate it to also work on other skills as well. With reading skills, the teacher can present the students with lyrics and such to read or even expand and bring background information (e.g. biographies) of the artists if students are interested to read. Many song lyrics have at least simple grammatical structures especially in a way that is more common for speaking rather than writing. In terms of speaking skills, it will be better to utilize karaoke versions of the songs or to create projects/activities such as creating their own lyrics from a popular melody and to present it. Such activities also benefit writing skills. Other activities to help with listening and writing combination are activities such as lyrics training (https://lyricstraining.com), which the students listen to a song then fill blanks of missing lyrics, depending on the difficulty. These types of activity strongly emphasize listening skills and its translation into written work. All in all, songs are great tools for the language learning classroom. However, it should be used mindfully and should adapt to circumstances. Whereas it is important to have a strong rhythm (i.e. nursery rhymes) for younger children, it is better to use popular songs with older children. It is very important to always make sure that the students are comfortable with the activities that they will take part in (e.g. Having a group of 18-year-olds playing and singing “Mary had a little lamb” probably feels uncomfortable for them). And as with all activities, it is important to remember to plan the songs to the lessons instead of having the lesson adapted to fit the songs. Since the objective of a language classroom is to learn the language, not the songs, it’s important to stay on topic and mix up the activities sometimes. Songs can be great in exercising several skills but can also feel repetitive and jaded when overused. However, it nevertheless is a good tool to be used when the opportunity is right.


ENDBODY