Use of Songs, Karaoke & Internet in foreign language learning

Method for motivating language learners created by European partnerships within three projects: “Languages and Integration through Singing” (LIS) “French and Spanish language competence through songs” "Find A Delightful Opportunity to learn Portuguese through Internet and songs”

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Didactic & Socio-cultural aspects

The “musical” approach

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increases learners’ motivation and interest

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improves acquisition of language skills

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allows cross cultural understanding

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allows to include in the learning process the most diverse groups of students: - age - ethnic or national origin - social status - education level

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

"Music is for the soul what a gym is for the body.“ Plato (427-347 a. C.)

Why to use songs in the classroom

(Griffee 1992) Positive environment.

Student interest

Linguistic Input Cultural Input

emotional potential

relationship between rhythm and speech

social information.

Authentic texts

in the target language.

Complement other teaching materials .

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Classification into three groups

Songs Lyrics Narratives

Situational

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Neuro-linguistic aspect

(Isabelle Peretz & Robert Zatorre - 2002)

Intuitive and conscious processes in the acquisition of language skills 3 components of the song guarantee that the language patterns are transferred to the long-term memory Language (lyrics) Rhythm Melody

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Use of both hemispheres of the human brain: memory, emotion & language exist together in a song Real learning takes place when there is a switch

Positive effects from using songs on learners’ linguistic and intercultural competences:

   

songs in the language classroom liven up listening activities; they enable teachers to teach grammar and vocabulary in an entertaining and relaxing way;

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the vocabulary of songs often extends beyond everyday language; it is a great way to practice pronunciation and intonation; a memorable melody imprints linguistic patterns, grammar structures and vocabulary;

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through songs learners learn about culture and people, which also inspires various interesting topics for discussion.

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

• • •

What song to choose?

It is important to keep in mind three factors: Learners’ profile

: age, interests, level of language competence;

Suitable language material

: lyrics should be clear /acquaintance with idiomatic & colloquial expressions is useful and fun, but they should not prevent understanding of the songs/;

Cultural context

: through songs, we can learn a lot about the country, culture, history, behavior patterns of people of the particular country or historical period.

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Songs’ selection criteria for the classroom Needs and profile Learning objectives functional and pragmatic level lexical-semantic level morphosyntactic level phonological level expressive resources register changes

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

sociocultural value

Structure of a Teaching/Learning Unit in the concept of the LIS approach

• • • 1 phase:

approaching

which comes before the real work upon the text (Pre-listening activities & First listening); 2 phase:

analysis

aiming at understanding how the text works and at studying morphological and syntactic rules; 3 phase:

synthesis

- new listening to the lyrics, going back to the text to check its assimilation and to extend it to aspects of culture and civilization With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Internet, Youtube & karaoke

 Great diffusion of the Internet and Youtube, especially among youngsters;  Linguistic education and digital competences are transversal (they are two of the 8 key competences!) and besides interact with each other in the curriculum;  Schools in Europe are facing up to an ever growing number of immigrants. This new situation requires new didactic and methodological answers and at the same time the use of new proper technologies for the target groups With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Starting from these considerations … FENICE + 8 institutions (6 countries in total) submitted 3 projects of European partnership aimed at spreading a method for teaching/learning a foreign language based on the use of videos, karaoke and songs. Result:

www.languagesbysongs.eu

a website containing teaching materials that can be used by teachers of IT/RO/RU/FR/ES/PT interested in using songs in their classroom, by their pupils who wish to practise at home and, finally, by autonomous learners .

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

To the musical approach the LIS method adds 2 more elements to acquire language skills: video and karaoke

• • • • •

Karaoke is didactically very effective because: music and verse help one’s memory (the text often has rhymes); singing the songs students learn language patterns and expand vocabulary ; listening to the songs students develop the ability to understand; by singing students practice their pronunciation; as they read the lines and sing, pupils demonstrate their ability to understand a written text.

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Teaching and learning resources on www.languagesbysongs.eu

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Teacher’s Guidebook: theoretical fundamentals of the approach, lesson structure, practical hints on how to create one’s own teaching material Didactic handouts present TLU examples elaborated upon a number of songs (now 115) Key to exercises are addressed to learners and allow the use of handouts for self-study Lyrics : texts of the songs used in the handouts Video and karaoke for songs used in the handouts - means to support language learning via Internet

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

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Prerequisite : To use the materials at their best students should be at least at the A1 level of the Common European Frame of Reference

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Testing : The learning materials for Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian and Russian have been tested on the whole by 78 teachers and trainers belonging to 12 countries (IT, ES, FR, GR, LT, MD, RO, BG, SK, SV, BR, USA) on 1963 students of various ages, a number significant enough to give acceptable results.

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

• •

Project results Looking ahead: community of language teachers using songs in their teaching practice Diffusion: on the basis of ShinyStat statistics, the website has been visited 21.202 times 93 countries . by people from This is the visit list of the first nine countries at the 30/11/12: Country Italy Romania Slovakia Bulgaria Spain USA UK Portugal Germany Visits n ° 6249 5957 2480 1495 1419 385 292 270 230

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

FENICE

’

s partners

E-KU Institute of language and Intercultural Communication - Slovakia (Nitra) Escuela Oficial de Idiomas - Spain (Malaga) EUROINFORM Ltd – Bulgaria (Sofia) Fundatia EuroEd – Romania (Iasi) University of Bucharest – Romania University of Porto Faculty of Arts – Portugal IES “Ribeira do Louro” - Spain (Porriño)

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

Thank you for your attention!

Giampiero de Cristofaro E - mail:

[email protected]

www.fenice-eu.org

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership