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Teach English in Yexi Zhen - Yangquan Shi

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The use of songs during a lesson is vital in not only engaging the children by keeping their interests peaked, but I actually find it is one of the fastest and most effective ways for young children to learn. For example, if you were to play a simple English song at the beginning of every lesson, within in a few sessions they would have grasped the general gist of the song, and after a few more most would have learned the entire song. However just playing any unrelated English song for a few minutes at the beginning of a lesson is not the best way to gain the most out of this resource, therefore this essay will address a few simple methods and considerations one should utilise to achieve the maximum results. The first method I will mention is the use of actions, by using these you are adding a further depth to the learning method as well as allowing the young learners a much needed respite from the study environment. At first when the children don’t know the words to the song, they are still able to participate by attempting to do the actions, this not only maintains their concentration, but additionally links an easy to remember action to a more difficult to remember word. This movement can later act as a cue for a word if it is forgotten, allowing the student to remember far easier without having the teacher explain or translate it. Not only this but it helps build rapport with the children and is a great activity to perform during an ‘Engage’ section of the ESA class structure. If the teacher is feeling confident about the level of their students, it can also be very rewarding to allow the students to come up with the actions sometimes, which reinforces the vocabulary whilst not actively teaching it, therefore the language is developed more naturally. The next method would be to pre-teach key vocabulary mentioned in the song. I personally prefer to first play the song once, singing and performing the actions along with it, then drill a couple of the important words, before playing the song again. I also believe that it is not necessary for the children to fully learn every word during this pre-teaching phase, as this may take away from their enjoyment of the song, but instead the teacher should provide a clear example whilst letting the children practice pronouncing it without the song as a distraction. Also to consider is the careful selection of the song, such as whether it will run parallel with the coursebook or whether it will be tertiary learning, if the level and content is suitable for class, the frequency of which you play the songs, etc. I find it is most beneficial when it it related to the material that will be taught during the lesson, but this does not mean that every word should be the same as the ones in the textbook. In fact it can often be more useful to have some extra vocabulary that wasn’t incorporated in it for a more diverse learning experience. Furthermore if the content is too difficult or not relatable to the children it will have the opposite effect than originally planned, leading to boredom or simply not helping develop their language skills. Finally a teacher must also be careful with how often they play the song, once or twice a lesson is acceptable, five times is excessive. That also applies for how many lessons they listen to the song, too many and the students become bored and frustrated, too few and the content is not learned. That being said young learners are more receptible to repetitive playing, and you often find that if they truly enjoy the song, they have no problem listening to it an almost endless amount of times. Songs are a vital component of a lesson for younger learners who have a shorter concentration span, and are far more likely to improve with a funner approach to learning, as opposed to drilling vocabulary and grammar in a more analytical way. Although there are also many other methods and considerations that you should consider when utilising songs, these I feel are the most important. If a teacher can successfully incorporate all of the above techniques and ideas it will increase the speed and fluency of young childrens’ learning as opposed to an unguided playing of any song in an effort to hopefully engage the students, or even worse, reduce teaching time.


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