TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH SONGS Andreea STĂNCULEA Liceul Național de Informatică Arad In the school setting teachers focus their attention on two… [607132]

TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH SONGS

Andreea STĂNCULEA
Liceul Național de Informatică Arad

In the school setting teachers focus their attention on two important things: teaching and
learning. They have to make sure that at the end of the class the student s will have acquired certain
knowledge. In order to make learning successful there should be a match between the teaching style
and the learning style of each student.
Teaching English is a challenging task as it means not only developing the communicativ e
skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking but also teaching grammar rules and improving the
students’ vocabulary.
Vocabulary involves far more than looking up words in a dictionary and using the words in a
sentence. It also consists of lexical chunks which behave like single words and are acquired as single
units. Lexical chunks include phrasal verbs ('put off’, ‘drop in‟), idioms and sayings (‘as right as
rain’), sentence frames (‘would you mind if…?’), social formulae (‘enjoy yourself’), disco urse
markers (‘all things considered’, ‘what is more’) and collocation (‘take a picture’).
How do children learn new words? According to Thornbury there are three ways of
acquiring words: labelling, categorizing and network building. Labelling means ‘mappi ng words on
concepts’. Categorizing means that the child is able to ‘extend the concept of a word’. Thus, the
child understands that the word dog includes ‘other people’s dogs, toy dogs, and even pictures of
dogs’. Network building means ‘constructing a co mplex web of words so that items like […] family
and brother are interconnected’ (Thornbury, 2002).
Music is usually associated with lei sure-time and entertainment but there are many
advantages to using songs in the classroom. The contemporary approach to language teaching
stresses the integration of form and meaning. Nowadays, the tendency is to present vocabulary in
texts. Lyrics can be considered short texts, either in spoken or written form. The fact that words are
in context helps learners not only to understand the meaning but also the typical environment of a
word or phrase, such as the associated collocations or grammatical structures. In lyrics, words
usually appear in context; the new words are easy to remember along with the melody of the song
and, by listening to the songs, students are exposed to the new words many times. In addition, the
rhythm, rhyme and other repetitive patterns make words more memorable.
It is also important that teachers use authentic materials as often as possible. Songs al most
always prov ide authentic, natural language. They are rich in contemporary vocabulary, idioms,
phrasal verbs, expressions and slang which cannot be found in textbooks but which are important in
real life communication .
There are many different kinds of tasks that teachers can use to help learners remember new
words. They vary in difficulty, some of them being more cognitively demanding than others. They
can be divided into decision -making tasks and production tasks. (Thornbury, 2002)
Decision making tasks are receptive tas ks in which learners make decisions about words
and can be divided into the following types: identifying, selecting, matching, sorting, and ranking/
sequencing tasks.
a. Identifying words means finding them in texts. Students can be as ked to work with the lyrics
(written text) or simply asked to list words while listening to the song.
Example: Listen to the song and write down the adjectives you can hear:
‘As the snow flies / On a cold and gray Chicago mornin' / A poor little baby child is born/ In
the ghetto / And his mama cries / 'cause if there's one thing that she don't need /it's another
hungry mouth to feed / In the ghetto ’ (Elvis Presley – „In the Ghetto‟)

b. Selecting tasks are more complex than identificatio n tasks. T hey involve both recognizing
words and making choices between them.
Example: Choose the correct word:
Every little thing that you say or do
I'm hung/ fed/ caught up on you
Waiting for your call
baby night and day (Madonna – „Hung Up‟)
c. Matching tasks involve firs t recognizing the words and then pairing them with a visual
representation, a translation, a synonym, a collocate or a definition.
Example: Match the two halves of the sentence and listen to the song and check your
answers:
I asked her to stay befor e I had the chance to say
She left that were broken
The words that would mend the things but she wouldn't listen
(Maroon 5 – ‘Won’t Go Home without You’)
d. Sorting activities require sorting words into different categories. The students can be
asked to organize words in groups, under proper headings or to create spidergrams.
Example: Listen to the song „I Just Called to Say I Love You‟ (Stevie Wonder) and list the
words which fit the categories:
Days and special events
1.
2. Months of the year
1.
2. Seasons of the year
1.
2.
Production tasks require students to incorporate the newly studied words into speaking or
writing activities. They can be classified as completion and creation tasks.
a. Completion tasks are tasks which ask students t o fill in gaps or to create complete
sentences from the prompt words given. Then they listen to the song and check their
answers.
Example : Create complete sentences:
Sunny/ yesterday/ life/ filled/rain = Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain
Sunny/ you/ smiled/ me/ eased/ the pain = Sunny, you smiled at me and really eased the pain
(Bobby Hebb – „Sunny‟)
b. Creation tasks require students to create contexts for given words, contexts which can be
either sentences or texts.
Example: Work in pairs. Look at the song lines, choose a person you would like to
interview, and write questions to which the following lines are the answers :
1. Words don ’t come easy to me
2. Let it be, let it be
3. The answer my friend is blowing in the wind
4. Yesterday, all my trou bles seemed so far away (from Tim Murphey, 1992)
A wide variety of useful vocabulary can be acquired through songs. When learning foreign
language , the most successful students will be those who are able to interact with the native
speakers . Since songs are usually directed to native speakers, the vocabulary they provide will
enable students achieve proficiency.

BIBLIOGRAFI E

Krashen, S ., Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition Pergamon Press; Oxford, 1982
Murphey, T., Music and Song , Oxford University Press , Oxford, 2002 ;
Thornbury, S., How to Teach Vocabulary , Pearson Education Limited Essex, 2002 .