We Have Song, We Have Fun!

How can ELT be made enjoyable and effective? One feasible pedagogical application is to integrate English songs into ELT. Being a combination of music and lyrics, song possesses many virtues such as kaleidoscope of culture and themes, idiomatic and poetic expressions, and therapeutic functions which makes it an invaluable source for language teaching. This idea of language teaching and learning is adapted by a web tool called Lyrics Training.

Link: http://www.lyricstraining.com/

General Description

Lyrics Training is a website utilizing imbedded YouTube music videos of popular songs to provide language learners with a fun way to practice language skills. Users can choose from six languages (English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Dutch) and videos are categorized into three levels of difficulty (beginner, intermediate, advance). Users can look up for their preferred music videos by artist name or song title using the search function. Once a music video has been selected, they can begin a game. In the game mode, users need to complete a gap-fill activity that differs between different levels of difficulty. Beginner level will have 10% of text blank, intermediate with 25% blank text, and advance level with 100% blank text. The following screen shot shows an intermediate level game for the song Baby by Justin Bieber.

Try it out:  http://www.lyricstraining.com/play/6271/justin_bieber/baby

Level and Age

Lyrics Training is suitable to be applied for students at all levels of English proficiency (beginner, intermediate, and advance). This is because the content can be adjusted through different levels of difficulty available on this tool. Therefore, the feature also makes suitable to be used by both primary and secondary school students since ranging from the age of 10-17. Nevertheless, the adult learners can also use this web tool to improve their English skills.

How To Use The Tool For Teaching English?

Lyrics Training can be used in the listening activities. For pre-listening stage, teacher can either play music videos without any lyrics (play button) or with the full lyrics (karaoke button). In while-listening stage, students need to complete the gap-fill activity according to their mastery level. However, teachers need to devise their own activities for post-listening stage since the site does not provide any. As a suggestion, teacher may create a forum where students can discuss the meaning of the song.

In addition, this tool can be utilized as a writing activity. Teacher can set a task in which students need to listen carefully to the song and then write a short summary about their opinion on the song. Besides, teacher can use Lyrics Training as medium for enriching students’ vocabulary. Teacher can highlight some important vocabulary used in the songs and then elicit and explain the term and its usage.

Moreover, it can also be used in speaking activity. For example, teachers can set a task in which students in pairs need to share their ideas about the song theme in the pre-listening stage. Furthermore, by listening to the music videos, students can also improve their pronunciation in second or foreign language. For this purpose, teachers can play the role by giving explanation about the varieties of English accent.

Evaluation

Advantages:

1. Lyrics Training provides learners with material which is authentic, current and interesting. Song is one of the sources of authentic text. Authentic texts are “real life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes” (Wallace, 1992: 145). Authentic materials enable learners to interact with the real language and content rather than the form. Learners feel that they are learning a target language as it is used outside the classroom. It is beneficial to use this type of material because it contains the language learners will encounter in the real world. 
2. In addition, Lyrics Training makes it easy for learners to adjust content to their ability level. This is due to the categorization of music videos into three difficulty levels as well as two additional modes of game play (‘play’ and ‘karaoke’ buttons). These features are parallel to the idea of scaffolding language learning. For instance, in order to stimulate students’ schemata, scaffolding can be given to the students by playing the music video with full lyrics before they proceed with main task. For learning to take place, learners should be provided with “contextual supports for meaning through the use of simplified language, teacher modeling, visuals and graphics, co-operative learning, and hands-on learning” (Ovando, Collier and Combs, 2003: 345).
3. Feedback is provided at the end of the lesson with an easy to understand scoring system. This information is important because it informs learners where and how their learning and performance can be improved. Giving learners with feedback on their learning leads to significant improvement in achievement rates. 
4. Lyrics Training provides a context for learning. This supports the idea of language acquisition in which learners acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are unaware of grammatical rules. In order to acquire language, learners need a source of natural communication (for instance: song). The emphasis of language acquisition is on the text of the communication and not on the form. Therefore, learners will use the language to learn it rather than learn it to use it.
5. Besides, this tool is free to use without registering an account. However, it is better to create an account in order to keep track of students’ progress and to add additional videos to the website.

Disadvantages:

1. Effective materials should draw students’ attention to particular language forms (Chapelle and Jamieson, 2008). This should be considered when choosing song lyrics because most song lyrics contain reduced forms (for instance: wanna and gonna) as well as unusual syntax. These could be confusing to low level students without adequate explanation.
2. Lyrics Training only uses the material for a single purpose which is gap-fill exercises. It might be beneficial if students could be given additional ways to use the materials on the site. For example, a comment section can be created for students to discuss a song’s meaning.

References:

Chapelle, C.A. and Jamieson, J. (2008). Tips for teaching with CALL: Practical approaches to computer-
    assisted language learning. New York: Pearson-Longman.

Ovando, C., Collier, V., and Combs, M. (2003). Bilingual and ESL Classrooms: Teaching
    Multicultural Contexts. 3^rd ed. Boston: McGraw Hill.

Wallace, C. (1992). Reading. Oxford: OUP.