New Teacher Tips - Using Songs to Motivate ESL Students. By Dorit Sasson

Songs for teaching might help you with the big question of how to motivate your students. Songs are fun, help relax the classroom atmosphere, incorporate both reading and listening skills, and in general, are enjoyable! When students see a teacher entering the classroom with a tape in hand, they are suddenly very motivated to learn, especially when it comes to teaching ESL.

Teaching songs should ideally follow a traditional lesson plan. Since they incorporate both reading and listening skills, ESL teachers can weave these skills into their lesson plans. By all means, this lesson plan is not exhaustive.

Lesson Beginnings (Pre)

Teaching songs must involve a purpose for listening. It is up to the teacher to create that purpose. Here are a few ideas for lesson beginnings regarding teaching songs.

1. Show a piece of art work as an example for teaching the song "Starry, Starry Night" as a lead-in.

2. Have students imagine what the world would be like in twenty or thirty years as a springboard to the song "Imagine" by John Lennon. Collect their answers by writing them on the board.

3. Give students the basic vocabulary from the song and ask them to predict what the song might be about.

Now it is time to play the song. Make sure the song is recorded on a good quality cassette. Using CD's are ultimately, much better. Have clear copies with reasonably large font. When choosing a song you yourself like, avoid singers who muffle the words and choose age appropriate themes and lyrics. Use an attractive layout to enrich the visual side of your lesson plan.

Listening to the song itself is the main core of your activity. Play the song at least twice.

Here are a few sample main activity ideas:

1. Delete every seventh word or so to create a cloze activity. Depending on the level of your students, you might want to insert a word bank.

2. Present the students the song with twenty mistakes. Have students circle the mistakes. Depending on the level, you could ask them to correct the mistakes or give them a word bank and have them choose the right word.

3. Give students envelopes with sentence strips. Have them read and if possible, put the sentence strips in the correct order. (The chorus should be in one section) Students check their answers while and after listening to the song.

4. Song Bingo. Have students choose nine words from the song. They mark an X when they hear the word being sung.

Lesson Endings (post)

1. Have students write their own 'imagines' in relation to John Lennon's song "Imagine." Encourage them to share with the rest of the class.

2. Students prepare a memory game based on the words they learned from the song.

3. Students can reflect on how the song made them feel and jot down any random thoughts or feelings for a further classroom discussion.

The most important thing is to have fun!

To receive your free ebook, "Taking Charge in the Classroom" and your free weekly ezine containing tips, news and in-service training sessions for teachers, visit the New Teacher Resource Center at http://www.newteachersignup.com Dorit Sasson is a freelance writer, educator and founder and director of the New Teacher Resource Center. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dorit_Sasson