So why does it help to sing songs when learning a language?
“Learning English through songs provides a non-threatening atmosphere for students who usually are tense when speaking English in a formal classroom setting.”
– Lo and Fai Li
- Songs offer a change from routine classroom activities
- Songs help to develop students abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing
- Songs can be used to teach a variety of language skills such as sentence patterns, vocabulary and pronunciation
- Songs can give insight into culture
- Songs are highly memorable
- Songs are motivating
- Songs help teach the prosodic (speech rhythms) features of the language such as stress, rhythm and intonation.
- Songs help teach English grammar e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.
The English Language
Interesting Facts:
- It has a total of 1,025,109.8 words (This is the estimate by the Global Language Monitor on January 1, 2014).
- 2,000 words make up 90% of most speech
- 400 words make up 65% of most writing
- The alphabet has 26 letters and only 44 sounds
- 50% of the words are phonetic e.g. bat 50% are not phonetic e.g. once
- There are only 70 main spelling combinations
- It’s an official language in seventy-nine countries and territories.
Hello Song Lesson Plan
Learning Outcome
Children will:
– Learn the English words and meaning associated with the song
Focus On
– Skills
– English greetings
Elements
– Good morning
– Good afternoon
– Good evening
– Hi
Preparation
– Teacher should be familiar with the song and the actions
Keywords
Hello, nice day, run, play, talk, dance, sing, jump, swing, laugh, poke a face, friends, place
Teaching/Learning Sequence
Warm Up
Singing Name Game
– Children sit in a circle
– Each child has a turn to sing his/her name to a tune of their choice e.g. My name is Tessa
– All the other children echo by singing back – Your name is Tessa
New Song
– Listen to the Hello Nice Day
– Children join in with the ‘echo’ part
– Children join in with the actions
– Children face a partner and sing and dance the actions
Questions/Assessment
In the song lyrics what activities do the children like to do together?
Extension Ideas
Ask children
– Do you have a friend?
– What is your friend’s name?
– What do you like about your friend?
– How does your friend make you feel?
– What does your friend look like?
– What activities do you like to do with your friend?