Can students learn pronunciation and spelling through songs?

[Syl]

Yes, it's possible!

I would like to recommend an interactive site, which I created strictly for educational and non-commercial use no financial gains with all sorts of fun activities.

The address is: http://www.ginnegar.0catch.com

Creating a story, games, riddles, jokes, songs and their lyrics - it's known that following a text while listening can improve: reading, writing: creative/spelling, and speaking by absorbing the different structures and patterns; listening to a favorite song while following the words is an enjoyable way to achieve the same goal - quizzes, and even a possible interaction with other pupils in schools abroad (forum, chat, email forms).

There are many different types of learners and every student has different learning needs. There are native speakers who can't read or write, there are kids with learning disabilities or highly gifted pupils. The site is accessible, reachable to all of them, a "corner" on the web with the purpose to give students all over the world the opportunity to enjoy the language, communicate in English, and get real motivation in learning it.
The site can implement two objectives:

1) An after school environment or beyond the learning framework, being exposed to the language as much as possible, and also producing language, in a willing way; to provide this contact with English regularly, which is different from watching movies or MTV, or listening to their favorite pop artists in a CD.

2) If teachers have the opportunity to take their students to a computers' classroom, there are several activities with different purposes that can assist improving their skills in the language. For example: activity in pairs - funny pictures page, pupils write captions or dialogues, or whatever their imagination might create, sending the result of their work through the email to the webmaster that will have it published in the site. What better motivation can there be?

You can visit the site clicking here

[stephania]

Good day Syl,

For me students can learn pronunciation and spelling through songs because when in singing you need to pronounce the world will and if somebody ask the lyrics then you will give it and then you need to particular for the spelling.

Songs is one way of learning correct pronunciation.

[shine_core]

Students can indeed learn English pronunciation and spelling through songs. And it can improve students listening which is needed in learning English. Through songs students can experience new techniques in teaching, they could even self study. Just like in http://www.mingoville.com a free site that contains a number of fun exercises in reading, spelling and writing; grammar, games, songs, mobile fun and many more. It works for adults too...

[eslkorea]

it is possible but remember that not all songs are written with the correct grammar..

[liezl]

Not all songs are helpful for english students, grammar is sometimes incorrect and some singers tend to omit some words while singing in order to cope with the melody.

[sebadicba]

Well, I believe they can...Especially when the songs are played with activities that encourage students to sing and practise pronunciation. During my English course in London in Twin we used to practise our English a lot, singing very popular songs from English singers. This particular school, check their site http://www.englishcentres.co.uk/centres ... index.html uses very modern teaching techniques...

[Syl]

Thank you for all your answers, guys!

Now, answering liezl, you are absolutely right. Many songs are written in such an awful way that I myself have some difficulty understanding what they say. But unfortunately that's the way it is, pupils are exposed to songs in their everyday lives; today they have access to websites with lyrics, or others with video clips, and it goes without saying the exposure regarding TV channels, etc.

Anyway, my experience tells me that despite all this, the students' reading improves enormously when following the words while listening to their favorite song.

Syl

[Hugo]

Teaching kids ESL, songs are especially useful as they provide a fun way to learn, memorize and practice the pronunciation of vocab. I've seen students working their way mentally through songs to remember a vocab item they wish to use. Haven't tried, but I guess the same system could be applied to adults classes.

[shelleyvernon]

Songs are very effective because they can be catchy and stick in our heads - just what you want for language learning.
Students can certainly improve not just pronunciation of individual words but also the natural rhythms and stresses of English through songs.

Here is a fun free song for you. It's very simple as it's written for young ESL beginners. This is the kind of song that is helpful for that age group. The words are repetitive, there aren't too many of them and the words are clear. The song also has some humour with the lion scoffing all the food. There's a free story to go with that song if you want it from the same site.

All the best
Shelley
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/3-5/freesong.htm

[Syl]

Yours is a very good site, Shelley! way to go!

Mine has a different rational, but the purpose is the same (although mine is free)

It's important to create sites that can be useful in our profession.

Nice work!

Syl