Teaching English through songs, rhymes and chants(I)

广东外语艺术职业学院 冯冰清

Objectives

By the end of the session, you will be able to:– be clear about the difference between English

songs, rhymes and chants– understand why songs, rhymes and chants ca

n be useful in language teaching– understand what they can be used for– know how to teach songs for language learnin

g purpose in an English class

Warming-up

• Enjoy an English song, a chant and a rhyme

• London bridge is falling down

• Ten fat sausages

• Skip and drip

Skip and Drip

• With a rope I skip, skip, skip.

• In the pool I dip, dip, dip.

• I jump and turn a flip, flip, flip.

• Water comes down drip, drip, drip.

Difference among English songs, rhymes and chants

• Task 1 Discuss about the difference among English songs, rhymes and chants

Difference among English songs, rhymes and chants

• A song is singing with music.

• A rhyme is a short poem which has very similar sound at the end of each line.

• A chant is a word or group of words that is repeated over and over again(often spoken with rhythm).

Reasons

• Task 2 Group discussion:

Why songs, rhymes and chants can be useful in language teaching?

Reasons

• Songs, chants and rhymes are natural language behaviour.

• They provide a natural context for language use.• They make language easy to remember. • They allow children to pick up chunks of language.

• They encourage all children, even shy ones, to pa

rticipate and to speak in class.• They are fun!

Purpose

• Task 3 Pair work:

What purposes can songs, rhymes and chants serve in children’s language learning?

purpose

It is generally agreed that songs, rhymes and chants can be used in the classroom:

• to activate children

• to review what has been learned

• to introduce new language when teaching songs, rhymes and chants

• to practise the target language

• to change the pace

What’s a good song,rhyme or chant?

• Task 4 Group work:

What makes a song, chant or rhyme suitable for your students? Brainstorm suggested answers.

Checklist to decide a song, chant or rhyme

• 1) Length • 2) Level • 3) Repetition • 5) Relevance • 6) Actions • 7) Context • 8) Catchiness •

Checklist to decide a song, chant or rhyme

• Choose a song, chant or rhyme from the collection in this chapter. Using the checklist, decide how suitable it is for a class you teach.

Teaching English through songs

• Video time

• Task 5 Watch a video clip and identify the teaching steps.

Three steps:Pre-singsingWhile-singsingPost-singsing

Five little Monkeys

• Five little monkeys jumping on the bed,One fell off and bumped his head.

Mama called the doctor, and the doctor said,“No more monkeys jumping on the bed!Four little monkeys…

Three little monkeys…

Read the following teaching plan for Five Little Monkeys

• Teaching objectives

• 1) understand the chants

• 2) be able to read the chant with right tone and pronunciation.

• 3) be able to act out the chant with peers

Teaching steps1 ） Teacher plays the chant and make students h

ave the first listening to the chant. 2 ） Teacher explains the meaning of the chant

sentence by sentence with body language and pictures.

3) Makes the students follow the teacher to practice the chant for several times.

4) Asks the students to practice in groups and get preparation to act out the chant

5) Asks the students to act out the chants in groups

6) Teacher evaluates the students’ performance

教学目标• 能正确理解歌谣意义• 能用正确的语音语调朗读歌谣• 能与小组组员合作，通过动作表情演绎歌谣• 熟练掌握相关的数字、以及动作的词汇。• 通过教学，培养学生关心他人，帮助他人的

好品质。

歌曲教学步骤 Pre-singsing• 设计帮助学生将注意力集中到歌曲歌谣主题的活动 • 设计帮助学生理解歌词歌谣的意义的活动 • 设计活动整体呈现歌曲或歌谣 While-singsing• 教师示范演唱歌曲 • 教师再次示范演唱歌曲，学生跟着做动作。 • 学生边听录音边做动作

歌曲教学步骤

Post-singsing

• 通过游戏或 TPR 活动让学生记忆歌词 • 学生小组练习 , 为表演做准备 • 邀请几组同学站在讲台前表演 • 教师对学生的表演进行点评• 设计后续活动，以拓展学习内容

Read and evaluate

• Task 6 Read the teaching plan for “Rain, rain, go away” and try to judge if it’s proper in terms of teaching objectives and teaching design.

Teaching English through songs

• Task 7 Work in groups.

Make a plan of how to teach the song Old Macdonald Has a Farm. Decide the teaching steps in your group.

Old MacDonald Has a Farm

Pre-singsing:• 1. Introduce the activity.

• 2. Show children a picture of a farm

• 3. Show children a picture of a duck

• 4. Show a picture of Old MacDonald

• 5. Narrate the song with actions

Old MacDonald Has a Farm

• While-singsing:• 6. Sing the song with actions.• 7. Sing the song again and invite children to sin

g the E-I-E-I-O and the “quack”/”moo” parts. • 8. Invite children to sing along. (Do this twice.)• 9. Ask children to sing the song with actions. • 10. Divide children into groups to sing different

parts of the song.

Old MacDonald Has a Farm

After-singsing:• 11. Get the children to act out the song

• 11. Get children to think of more animals and the sounds they make.

• 12. Get children to think of new verses for the song and sing their new verses.

A collection of songs

• Teaching alphabet

1.The Alphabet Song

2. Bingo

• Teaching sound

1.Rain, rain, go away

2.Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

3.There is Thunder (Are you sleeping?)

A collection of songs

• Teaching vocabulary1. Ten little Indians

2. Clap, clap, clap your hands

3. This is the way

4. I can sing a rainbow

5. Old MacDonald has a farm

A collection of songs

• Teaching grammar

1. The more we get together

2. This is the way we wash our clothes

3. If you are happy

4. Teddy bear