BUT WHICH SONG ???

When I use musical material in class for the first time, I always choose the songs I know and love myself. This enables me to be more emotionally persuasive as I expose my students to the songs and their interpretation of them. Later, while encouraging students to choose the songs for discussions, I ask them to follow the following criteria (though they are not free from being subjective):

• The song must be an example of a particular musical trend.
• There shouldn't be any form of violence in it.
• The song should contain a certain artistic image.

• Be able to select interesting texts on the topic music.
• Be able to analyze the didactic potential of a particular song.
• Know how to teach a song to the pupils.
• Critically evaluate songs with the purpose of including them in class activities.

• Study the song lyrics by your favorite group. Select those ones you believe would be effective for language teaching while discussing the topics “Friendship”, “Parents and Children”, “Love in Song lyrics and Poetry”.
• Collect interesting stories about music and musicians. Explain why these texts may be effective tools for language instruction; work out pre-reading and post-reading activities.
• Select five pieces of music that belong to different musical genres; etc.
• Listen to the song and think of the questions you could ask your pupils to help them understand the song.
• Give a two-minute introductory talk on the importance of being a careful listener.

 The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IX, No. 3, March 2003
http://iteslj.org/

---

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Orlova-Songs.html