TEFL Church Point Louisiana

“If you want to know people's customs, listen to their music.” This is what the famous German writer, Goethe, thought many years ago. As a foreign language instructor and a musician, I could rather say that if you want to speak other people's language and get familiar with their culture, sing their songs then! A human being is sensitive to music whatever emotions it generates: sadness, happiness… Therefore, songs could also help the shy learners to get rid of their mental blocks on condition that they are not asked to sing individually. By the way, a good efl teacher should consistently bear in mind that it's not a music class, but a foreign language one before all. Focus should be on the language itself rather than on the music such as singing in any tonality or even out of tune. The goal is to make the learners use the language as much accurately as possible. Singing is a privileged and effective way to acquire a foreign language, this for adults and young learners. The issue comes down to the appropriate choice of songs in a foreign language class, as it happens english. There is a wide range of songs in the english repertoire: sea shanty (What shall we do with the drunken sailor?...), cheerful occasions (Jolly fellow…), traditional irish songs (Molly Malone…), war songs (Tiperary…)and many others. From traditional sailors' and love songs to present modern singers ones, singing helps students discover all aspects of a language while getting involved in the culture. Generally, for beginners, focus is basically on phonetics more than other linguistic areas/fields. While listening and rehearsing the words, beginner learners become imbued with the oral uses that they could apply later while using the foreign language. As for intermediate and advanced levels, songs could help defining the norms /standards and their gaps such as the contractions: is not, isn't, want to, wanna…. Besides, songs provide students with a numerous key-phrases that one could use daily. Moreover, phonetic parts that are hard to understand could be made easier through songs as the intonation and stress of a language would be practiced in an entertaining way. The least, but not last, a song is first of all a text that could cover all lesson points: grammar, vocabulary… Four language skills could be applied while choosing a song as a teaching aid. Thus reading, listening, speaking and writing activities could be inspired from a song. Finally, songs could include various linguistic registers such as: familiar, formal, friendly… Although learners attitude towards this teaching aid is most of the time positive, students will contribute and rejoice in the learning process according to the criteria taken into consideration while choosing the song(s) in an efl class. Such choice will depend on the objectives, levels, needs and preferences of the students as well as their age (kids or adults)… The selection ought to rely on the words, whether or not they are audible, the rhythm, neither too slow nor too quick, the length… Once the song is selected, the instructor could pass out its text and explore it: phonetics, grammar, vocabulary… Songs reflect culture and it is worth to be aware of the cultural background of the Anglo-Saxon world through songs that allude to historical events referring to a way of life as well as to values shared between english-speaking countries in question. Choral singing is very common and strong in Anglo-Saxon nations. One could take part in this social life while singing traditional folk songs. Worldwide celebration songs stem from the Anglo-Saxon world as well. The universal song happy birthday translated to many languages is originally sung in english. Singing in english helps a foreign learner improve his/her language while memorizing words (made easier with music), set expressions and idioms. Tune is a medium to get the stress on the words. Songs ease the understanding and learning process of intonation as well.