Tag Archives: songs

The #1 Second Language band …..

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Number One** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1.

                                                       Outlandish

 

I spent part of the day with my Second language singer playlist playing in the background as I walked along and worked at my treadmill desk. My favorite group and by far the best representation of a multinational group singing in English is Outlandish.  So inspiring to our students!

Outlandish

The group consist of a Moroccan, a Pakistani, a Honduran, all singing in English while based out of Denmark. A plus is that their songs are about global issues, issues people around the world face. They get my vote by far! The greatest Second Language Singing Group (SLSG) ever.  Here’s a short interview with them.

Checkout the others I recommend and the songbook for teaching on the Second Language Singer page. Enjoy this fine example from Outlandish!

Songs with lyric sheets

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I just spent an hour or two tagging all the songs on EFL Classroom that have lyric sheets. Wow! Didn’t know we had so many. Find them here. Look below the video for links, many with ppts too. Plus, see our International Second Language Singers collection for many more. Also, many in our lyric sheet resources.

To celebrate this “new” or rather, “renewed” resource, I’ve made a nice lyric sheet and worksheet to go with one of the most popular songs for teaching – Mr. Morton is the subject of the Sentence. Get more Schoolhouse Rock songs HERE.


Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

Kinetic Typography for teaching English

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kinetic-textThe last 3 weeks, when I could spare a moment, I’ve been learning how to make a Kinetic Typography style video.   I think this technology offers great “power” for contextualizing and presenting language for learners.   For a long number of years – I’ve been a karaoke fan, producing thousands of karaoke files for learners/teachers. Not anymore! It’s going to be all KT. The world moves on and I must with it…..

What is it? – in a nutshell, it is “moving type”. However, it is a lot more. It allows one to control the display of text and even insert images.   Here’s an example.  Or try the original and what started it all – The Girl Effect.

How do you make one? – well it ain’t easy! You’ll need Adobe Illustrator and After Effects and a lot of time! This tutorial and also this one – are both good places to start.  However, many have been made already so you don’t need to make one, just borrow one.

Where do I “borrow” one? Do a search on video sites. But I’ve really done the curation work and have two pages of what I consider the “best” out there.  Go HERE or HERE on EFL Classroom 2.0. Or just search some examples with materials in our video player.  You can even download these examples for use offline (through our supporters A/V player - click the arrow).

How do I teach with this? Well, many of the KT made videos are songs (see my fav. example below with foldem lyric sheet). So use them as you would any song.  Lastonestanding is a great game. As a listening activity (cloze). Etc …..  Also, many of the pre-made KT videos are movie clips. Dialogues from movies. Students could try to reproduce the dialogue and use it as a script to learn the intonation/pause/voicing of the speech.  Give separate videos to different groups and have them perform the dialogue.

Vocabulary/Grammar: Find a video that highlights a grammar point or vocabulary set you are teaching. Use it to illustrate the usage, “in situ”, in action.

For the most part, KT videos will be used as “engagement”. Meaning, at the beginning of a lesson to prime the students minds about a topic and grab their attention.  They work wonders this way – introducing a lesson topic/focus.

This example is over the top! What’s your favorite KT style video?

Ok its alright with me – Eric Hutchinson lyric sheet.


Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

Making a Karaoke file

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Microphone-SizeKaraoke is a great tool for teachers and students that I’ve been promoting for ages. Lots of posts on here about it. It is great for both controlling audio and text, contextualizing audio and listening/reading skills coupled with phonemic awareness. It is multimodal and really has the WOW factor.

I finally updated the tutorial on how you can make your own karaoke file. Watch – it really is simple. Also, in the first part , I outline the resources available for instant addition to your library and meeting your classes’ needs. One great thing about crowdsourcing and teachers sharing these great resources.

PS. I didn’t mention but with the editor, you can download any song and then in the editor, copy the lyrics, paste and print for a transcript for your students. That’s a pretty cool backdoor!

The #1….(song activity)

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Number One** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1.

Last One Standing

lastonestandingThis game is fantastic! I’ve done it in countless teacher training sessions and with students. It’s gotten so that other teachers when they see another teacher doing this with their students – tell me they know they must have been to one of my training sessions!

It’s easy to do. Select some vocabulary from a song your student’s enjoy (select words that repeat a lot). Then, ask them to choose and write in large letters, one of those words/phrases. Divide the students into groups. The students stand up showing everyone their word and holding it high.
Play the song and students must sit down when they hear their word. Stand up again when they hear it again. Last one standing wins and the group with the most standing wins too!
Lots of variations, students can decide to begin sitting or standing and that gives an element of chance.
See many examples in ppt HERE. Or go to the video examples HERE.

This example is also wonderful!


Top 10 Young Learner’s Songs

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Here is my list of top 10 songs for Young Learners and suggested teaching points. Please comment and add any other suggestions.

Most are found on our Kid’s Karaoke page or by searching in our videos…. ) Not surprising that many of these songs are also chants! This one, is my personal fav. but it didn’t make my Top 10.

1. Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes – body parts
2. If you’re happy and you know it – possibility, commands
3. Old MacDonald Had a Farm – animals / animal sounds
4. He’s got the whole world in his hands. ‘s got / to have
5. 5 in the bed / 10 little Monkeys – counting and numbers
6. The Wheels on the Bus – actions
7. B-I-N-G-O – spelling, pronunciation and rhythm
8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom – alphabet / letters
9. Do The Hokey Pokey – directions / prep of movement
10. There was an old lady who swallowed a fly – animals


[special mentions to One of these things is not like the other / There’s a hole in the bucket / Skinnermarink / Rubber Ducky and Barney’s – I Love You songs….


Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

Traditional Songs for teaching/learning

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I really believe in using the students’ own cultural knowledge and “aspect” when teaching English. I’ve elaborated on this notion of CSC (Culturally Specific Content) on a number of occasions. There can be no more powerful cultural component than traditional song and music.





Arirang is the most famous Korean traditional song. It has countless variations across the nation, north and south. It also has countless translations. Here is one I made for use in class.

See the video below for a full explanation as to the meaning of the song. It basically is a song of “longing” and sadness. Not only of love but on many levels.

One great idea for your students would be to get them to make their own “Arirang” lyrics. Use this cool modern version of the song to get them inspired. They just fit the lines to the music! I’ve included some audio files of the song for your use in any lesson about “Arirang”.

What is the traditional song in the part of the world where you teach?




아리랑

아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요…
아리랑 고개로 넘어간다.
나를 버리고 가시는 님은
십리도 못가서 발병난다.

아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요…
아리랑 고개로 넘어간다.
청청하늘엔 청 별도 많고
우리네 가슴

Arirang.MID

arirang.kfn

Gosing – Another Karaoke option…

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I’m really proud of the karaoke on EFL Classroom! We have so many options for teachers – see this post for how to get these and set up the player and make your own karaoke.

However, often not mentioned, is a cool alternative, Go Sing.

Go Sing is a traditional karaoke player that is in the public realm. You can’t edit and it just has a standard karaoke background music. So it is different from the Karafun player here. Yet it does have its strengths.

You can get many songs on the Go Sing site but if you want to avoid a lot of time downloading all of them individually, just Go HERE and download. Thousands of songs to save you time! Install the player and right click the screen. You can change the main picture – a picture of your class/school works wonders! Using the arrow keys, you can scroll your library and even fast forward through parts of the song.  See the screencast below for a nice visual run through of what to do….

Go Sing is a great tool for learners, especially for parties and less formal learning environments. Give it a try! (also, make sure you get a microphone for your class!).


Karaoke to teach English!

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We have LOADS of karaoke for use in the classroom here. See the links assembled below.

Karaoke is a great tool for any language teacher. It really helps with phonetic recognition (connecting text to speech – reading) and highly motivational. It also is adaptable and you can vary the speed, the context (pictures) , the presentation and even have students record.

Visit this discussion to get Gosing – where you can instantly have a very basic, traditional Karaoke player in your classroom.

The Karafun player is superb. Download it free HERE. Once installed, you have both A PLAYER and an EDITOR. Use the player to play files (.kfn) and the editor to make files. See this presentation and watch how I make a file with; A) an mp3 B) a transcript/lyrics C) a photo (s) . It really isn’t difficult! If it helps, here is a short How to make a Karafun Karaoke file (short).docand a long How to make a Karaoke using Karafun.doc

If you are concerned about royalty free images and don’t want to “google” – use Pics4Learning

On EFL Classroom’s Karaoke page, you can download hundreds of pre-made karaoke files. Also see resources on my institutes site where I have a Making a Karaoke page.

Also, there are many more places to get karaoke videos and learn about karaoke:

1. Discussions about Karaoke

2. Main Karaoke page

3. Karaoke video examples

4. Quick Karaoke

5. Kids Karaoke Korner

6. News articles in Karaoke

7. Elementary Songs for the Korean Textbook

8. Mixtube lyrics/songs

9. Go Sing player and songs

10. Karaoke in the classroom group

11. Karaoke Videos on EFL Classroom 2.0

12. Karaoke Dialogues

13. CantandDing  – online karaoke site

Kid’s songs with hand movements – Cullen’s ABCs

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I really love Cullen’s ABCs! If you teach Young Learners, you have to watch her Youtube videos where she instructs teachers how to do the motions/hand movements for many songs for young learners.(along with SuperSimpleSongs, she’s the next best! I came to know about her after using a video of hers for a Project Peace song – I’ve got Peace like a River.

Her site is a wealth of “how to” resources for teachers teaching young learners. Lots of free stuff on how to teach songs to young children. Please take a look, a remarkable example of a teacher “paying back” and doing a great job to spread learning and happiness! I really like her use of puppets to do the “5 Little Monkeys” song. She sometimes goes on about “christian” themes but I take that along with all else…..

Don’t forget to see our own Children’s Karaoke Songs in Video!

Interested in Young Learner’s Websites? Visit our Bookmarks!

Mix Tube – An easy way to “gather” your Youtube videos

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MIX TUBE

Mixtube is a really simple way for teachers to make a list of their favorite Youtube videos You simply put in the url/address of the video and it will be added to your list. You can “borrow” a list of others and use it as the foundation to build your own. (just go to the bottom of the list and select – “create your own playlist based on this”. It is really simple! VeeWow is another option but Mixtube is even more user friendly.

The music industry is making it VERY hard for teachers to use music in their classrooms. They are the “Nazi’s ” of the Net. Mix Tube came about as a solution to the trials of Muxtape – a great site that now is limited and on Vimeo (a great place to find new artists/bands). Also, we know well what happened to our beloved MixWit! (see an example here – our past contest winner Justinnoxxi , we preserved this one!)

Here’s a huge one of great songs for the EFL classroom that have subtitles. No need to scour youtube for this anymore. Just go there and practice. You can also just use it for background music and shuffle it……. (Also see our Dizzler or Jukebox for the same thing!) If you want to add subtitled music videos, please do so and submit the new url to me! I’ll update for us! Can you help us build this great playlist? Let’s go!