Saturday, September 28, 2013

Songs for Grammar

I've always been a fan of using either songs or movie clips so show language in context. If you can use clips that relate to your learners' own lives (e.g. movies or songs suggested by them) then it adds even further interest and motivation to the learning of language/grammar. However, one of the big obstacles with using songs is of course the difficulty in actually 'hearing' the lyrics. We've all heard those songs in which we mishear lyrics - Hendrix: "Kiss this guy"... Therefore, lyric videos are a great way to overcome this as they display lyrics within the video. If you search Youtube for "official Lyric Video" you can find some amazingly produced example of lyric videos. Anyhow, here are some great examples I've found and the grammar/language they could be used to highlight:

 The Summer Set, Boomerang - Second Conditionals

 Tegan & Sara, I was a Fool - Simple past

 P!nk, Just Give me a Reason - Present Perfect / Present Perfect Progressive

 Taylor Swift, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Past tenses, Present Progressive

 I've used such videos to do the following:
  Focus on Changing Tenses - for example, in the song "We Never Ever Getting Back Together", have students focus on why the tenses change (i.e. showing how past actions can affect present states)
  How many? - Have students spot incidences of target language (i.e. how many times are 2nd Conditionals used in "Boomerang"?)

 Larry Ferlazzo's great blog also had a post on Lyric Videos