Grammar through Music Jolene Jaquays Teaching Tip March

Grammar through Music Jolene Jaquays Teaching Tip March 14, 2019 1: 10 – 1: 30

Overview ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ Background What Who Why When to incorporate How Where Examples Caveats Summary

We Can Teach… • Vocabulary • Idioms • Writing • Speaking • Listening • Figurative language • Reading • Pronunciation • Culture • Pragmatics • Grammar …with the help of songs.

Who? &

▶ Songs can be an effective, engaging way to introduce or reinforce a grammatical point. Beyond captivating students’ attention, the repetitive nature of song lyrics provides opportunity for students to encounter grammatical features multiple times within a two to four-minute window. Folse, K. S. (2009). Keys to teaching grammar to English language learners: A practical handbook. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Music is a universal language that can be instrumental in second language teaching and learning (Gardner, 1985)

“. . . grammar in a first or second language is acquired through the learner’s repeated and meaningful experience with contextualized discourse, in which grammar is a structural resource that may or may not get explicitly analyzed by the learner as she or he observes and/or engages in meaningful interaction” (121). Marianne Celce-Murcia (2002)

Neurologists have found that musical and language processing occur in the same area of the brain, and there appear to be parallels in how musical and linguistic syntax are processed. (Maess & Koelsch, 2001) Lems, Kristen. Using Music in the Adult ESL Classroom. ERIC Digest. https: //files. eric. ed. gov/fulltext/ED 459634. pdf

Educator Tim Murphey conducted an analysis of the lyrics of a large corpus of pop songs and found that they have several features that help second- language learners: They contain common, short words and many personal pronouns (94% of the songs had a first person, I, referent and are written at about a fifth-grade level); the language is conversational (imperatives and questions made up 25% of the sentences in the corpus); time and place are usually imprecise (except for some folk ballads); the lyrics are often sung at a slower rate than words are spoken with more pauses between utterances; and there is repetition of vocabulary and structures. These factors allow learners to understand relate to the songs (Murphey, 1992).

Why Music? ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ Helps with motivation / high interest level Provides authentic context Adds variety Has a positive effect on atmosphere Lowers affective filter Easily accessible and adaptable Popular Integrates language skills

When to incorporate? ▶ Warm-up / transition (earworm effect) ▶ Before – to encourage noticing (inductive) ▶ During – for practice and to see it in an authentic context ▶ After – to practice the concept ▶ Review – bring it all together ▶ Testing – test how you teach

Types of Activities • Word choice in lyrics (sing/sung) ● Cloze • Categorize / sort ● Gap fill • Create original sentences following ● Dictation ● Fill in the blank ● Matching • • • pattern Create original lyrics / verse / alternate ending Write questions about lyrics Karaoke Watch video Song Bingo Write original statements/questions using the focus grammar

Where can you find materials?

Go to youtube. com Type in grammar point and “song examples” i. e. prepositional phrases in songs

non authentic songs - created for language teaching

▶ “Authentic” song examples Made for teaching

http: //stickygrammar. blogspot. com/search/label/Gerunds%20 and%20 infinitives

http: //azargrammar. com/

Lyrics and Music Pearltrees

Google by topic ▶ Prepositions ▶ ▶ https: //www. fluentu. com/blog/english-prepositions/ Subjunctive ▶ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=c 6 -Iu. SGf 09 M&list=RD 8 Qqlvg 2 Lf. OQ&index=6

Fluency MC

“Lemon Tree” – simple present vs. present progressive; stative verbs

“I Did It My Way” – direct objects (words, phrases, clauses) ▶ What is a direct object? ▶ What part of speech is a direct object? ▶ What is the typical sentence structure when there are direct objects in a sentence/question?

Humble and Kind imperative, adverbial clauses http: //viewpure. com/awz. NHu. Gqo. Mc? start=0&end=0

Review Discuss the following pre-listening questions a. Have you traveled on a jet plane? b. How did you feel when you were leaving? c. Did you make plans for your return? d. Do you know anything about the late singer John Denver? e. Are you familiar with any of his songs? Have students discuss the following questions with partners: a. Who is the singer? b. To whom is he singing? c. What is their relationship? ▶ Live - with background info: d. What is his overall message? https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=v. LBKOc. Ub. HR 0 ▶ Visuals with lyrics: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=H 9 qvj. RVty 7 Q

Verb Structure Chart Structure Present progressive Future Simple past Present perfect Imperative Infinitive phrase Passive Modal verb phrase subject + verb

Impossible by Shontelle • Words you’ve never seen or heard before: • Are more of the nouns abstract or concrete? • Are there any proper nouns? • Divide the pronouns: subject, object, indefinite • Look at your “common endings” handout. Which adjective endings are represented? • Verbs 1. Simple present: 2. Simple past: 3. Future: 4. Imperative (command): 5. Present perfect: 6. Modal: 7. Infinitive: 8. Gerund phrase: 9. Verb phrase : • Noun clause: • Adverb clause: • Prepositional phrase: • Past participle used as adjective

Review: Parts of speech Impossible noun pronoun adjective verb adverb preposition conjunction interjection

Impossible by Shontelle I ________ years ago Someone ________ me I _______________ Caution when it ________ to love I did, I did And you ________ strong and I was not My illusion, my mistake I was careless, I forgot I ________ And now when all is done There is nothing _______________ and so effortlessly You ________ You can go ahead tell them Empty promises ________ I know (I know) And now when all is gone There is nothing to say And if ________ with embarrassing me On your own you can go ahead tell them CHORUS: Tell them all I know ________ it from the roof tops ________ it on the skyline All we _______________ gone now ________ them I was happy And my heart ________broken All my scars ________ open ________them what I _______________ Impossible, impossible ________ of love is hard Falling for betrayal is worst Broken trust and broken hearts I know, I _______________is there ________ on love and words Empty promises ________ I know (I know) And now when all is gone There is nothing to say And if ________ with embarrassing me On your own you can go ahead tell them

Song Bingo

Caveats ▶ Know your target audience ▶ Preview lyrics and videos prior to sharing ▶ Use songs for more than one purpose ▶ Give students the opportunity to suggest songs ▶ Have a backup plan in case your technology doesn’t work ▶ Eliminate advertisements on youtube videos http: //viewpure. com/ ▶ Be Flexible ▶ Encourage students to watch for errors in mechanics (spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, word choice, etc. ) which may appear in the lyrics ▶ Have Fun!

Any Questions?

PPT and materials can be found at jjaquays. edublogs. org Jolene Jaquays jjaquays 2005@yahoo. com