TEMA 17.

LA CANCIN COMO VEHICULO POTICO Y COMO

CREACIN LITERARIA EN LA CLASSE DE INGLS. TIPOLOGA DE
CANCIONES. TCNICAS DEL USO DE LA CANCIN PARA EL
APRENDIZAJE FONTICO, LEXICAL I CULTURAL.
Unit 17. Songs as Literary and Poetic creations.
1. Introduction.
As way of introduction we can say that children enjoy singing very
much. Songs and rhymes provide an enjoyable change of the routine in the
classroom.
Songs and Rhymes provide relaxation and variety, but we have to be
careful because an excessive use of them can make children to get bored.
Taking this fact into account, we can say that songs are a good
resource to teach vocabulary, practise the language orally, improve
pronunciation and intonation and also help children to know the culture of
the foreign language.
2. Songs as Literary and Poetic creations.
2.1. The importance of music in the language teaching.
Many of us know how quick students are at learning songs. For a
variety of reasons, songs stick in our minds and become part of us.
1. It is easier to sing a language than to speak it.
2. Music is around us: radio, television, theatre, etc.
3. Songs work in our short and long-term memory.
4. Songs use simple, conversational language and repetitions.
5. Children enjoy hearing themselves (Piaget: egocentric language).
6. Songs are relaxing, fun, etc.
7. In practical terms, for language teachers, songs are short,
repetitive, and easily to handle in a lesson.
2.2. Characteristics of songs and rhymes.
Their main characteristics are:
1. They provide a link with home and school life.
2. Help children to develop positive attitude towards language
learning.
3. They provide an enjoyable alternative in presentation of the
language.
4. They reinforce lexical items and structures.
5. They play an important role in pronunciation, intonation and
rhythm.
6. They are used to reinforce listening that leads to speaking,
reading and writing tasks.
7. They are used to reinforce other subjects.
 8. They reflect customs and traditions associated with Anglo-Saxon
culture.
2.3. Reasons to use songs in the classroom.
The main reasons to use songs are:
1. Motivation: songs easily motivate children to use the foreign
language.
2. Change in the routine.
3. Cultural importance: they reflect the foreign culture.
4. Reinforcement: they provide a meaningful way to repeat different
items in order to reinforce the learning (pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary, etc.).
3. Types of songs.
It is essential to select carefully the songs we are going to work with
in class.
What we must bear in mind are the features of the students we are
working with at that specific moment: their age, interests, likes and
dislikes, and of course, their knowledge of the foreign language.
We already know that the foreign language is introduced in the
second cycle of Primary Education, that is, children from 8 years to 12.
- 2nd Cycle of Primary (8 to 10).
It is the first time the foreign language is introduced in class. It is
one of the best didactic moments because children are very receptive and
interested in everything.
- 3rd Cycle of Primary (10 to 12).
At this age their interests begin to change. So that, teachers have
to take these changes into account and adjust the teaching practice to the
new needs and interests of the students.
The majority of the students think that songs are childish; they feel
shy singing and so that, it is difficult to make them sing aloud in class.
However, they enjoy music very much but their interests are
different. So that, we have to find songs that they enjoy and are suitable
for our purposes too.
We as teachers must select the most suitable songs depending on
the level of our students, on their interests and their needs.
The following are some examples of types of songs we can use in
class at these stages.
3.1. Songs for occasions.
Songs that make reference to anything that happens to them in daily
life: Happy birthday or Auld Lang Syne (New Years Eve).
 3.2. Topic songs.
Songs that deal with a specific topic. We must bear in mind that the
topic the song deals with must be interesting for the children. For example:
Colours- The colours or animals- Old Mc Donald
3.3. Songs with actions.
Songs that are related to the old technique of representing what we
are saying: total physical response (James Asher): If youre happy or
These is the way.
3.4. Round songs.
A round is a circular song. One group begins singing, then the second
group begins the song when the first group gets to the end of the first
line. The third group begins when the second group gets to the end of the
first line and so on. When the singers get to the end of the last line they
continue singing from the beginning again, so the song becomes circular. For
example: Three blind mice or I hear thunder.
3.5. Dialogues songs.
This type of songs is very useful. They are very easy to sing and at
the same time they require more attention on the part of the children. For
example: I spy or I am a music man.
3.6. Traditional songs.
These songs will not probably known by the students, but they must
learn them because they belong to the new culture they are studying. For
example: Oh, Susanna, London Bridge or Yankee Doodle.
Furthermore, there are songs that we sing at a specific time of the
year like Christmas Carols: Merry Christmas or Jingle Bells.
3.7. Other songs.
There are other songs for children which are more difficult but
which are also good to work with them in class. For example songs in all
Walt Disneys films. A good idea to develop them is to watch the film at the
same time we sing the song. For example: Hakuna Matata or Fly, fly
(Peter Pann).
3.8. Traditional rhymes.
Rhymes can be used in the same way as songs. This could be easier
for those students that are a bit shy. Some traditional rhymes to be
mentioned are: One Potato or Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.
4. Techniques: Types of activities.
There are many different activities that we can do working with
songs, depending on what we want the students to practise and to learn.
These can be summarized as follows:
- Activities to communicate new information.
- Activities to understand the social meaning of a song.
 - Activities to learn the way language works without paying
attention to the meaning.
As we have mentioned before, the activities with songs we can do in
class are very varied. The following are some examples of these activities,
which may be done with different songs, according to the interests and
needs of our students:
a) Invention: the children invent a new song with some music they all
know and with some vocabulary that we may give to them.
b) Stories: the students tell the story of the song.
c) Discussions: use songs to introduced a topic that may be discussed
afterwards.
d) Fill in the Gaps: fill in the gaps they find in the lyrics of a song
with the words previously given.
e) Write in Order: write in the correct order the sentences of a
song as they listen to it.
f) Singing Competitions: divide the class into groups. Each group
chooses a song or rhyme from the songs worked in previous lessons
and perform it to the rest. After all the performances, the class
votes their favourite.
g) Whats the missing word: divide the class into groups. Each group
chooses a song and performs it for the rest of the class. However
they miss out the last word in each line. The rest of the class has
to call out the missing word.
h) Rounds: (point 3.4)
i) Videos: to watch musical videos. The images help the students to
understand what the song is about.
j) Song dictation: to do what the song says. Colour, write, etc.
k) The Picture song: the children try to make up a new song, taking
some pictures as the basis.
l) Fill and draw: two different sheets of paper. One has some draws
explaining what is happening in the song; the other has the lyrics.
They must try to fill in.
5. Conclusion.
There are many activities that we can do in class with songs.
However, it is going to depend on our students interests, needs and, of
course, linguistic level. It is up to us to select the work and ht songs we are
going to work with.
The possibilities of the songs are directed to develop the four
linguistic skills: oral and written comprehension and oral and written
expression. But, we may say that the most basic ability to use songs in class
is oral comprehension.