Lessons to Learn From: Music in the English Language Center Classroom

In the first edition of “Lessons to Learn From,” we explore the work of professors in Georgetown’s English Language Center who creatively integrate music into their lesson plans.

Professor Glen Penrod’s Lessons for Teachers of English:

Professor Glen Penrod is particularly fond of using classic American ballads when he instructs visiting Chinese teachers of English as a Foreign Language to use best practices in their classrooms back home. According to Penrod, “I use a three-step method to teach listening [comprehension] through songs: (1) Listen for the main idea, (2) Listen for details, (3) Review and reinforce what you have learned.”

One great example is “Don’t Expect Me to Be Your Friend” by Lobo. Penrod starts by asking students to guess whether the overall tone of the song is happy or sad based on slides with images from the song. Then they are encouraged to listen to “answer the ‘main idea question’: Happy or Sad?” The students usually become very engaged in this journey of understanding and many realize they’ve been fooled into thinking it is a happy song when it is actually melancholy. After this, students listen to the song a second time and fill out a worksheet with blanks for missing keywords to reinforce what they learned. Sometimes students ask to play the song yet again in order to sing along with the subtitles!

The “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin is another favorite for teaching Chinese students. According to Penrod, a fluent speaker of Chinese, “this is a great song for teaching stress and intonation patterns in English. It especially works well with Chinese students, who come from a more syllable-timed language background.” Students learn by clapping or tapping out the stress patterns to indicate which words are stressed (and, by contrast, unstressed) in the song.

Professor Andrew Screen’s Knocking on Heaven’s Door Lesson:

Professor Andrew Screen uses the song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” to raise students’ awareness of negative language transfer, which means “individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings of their native language to the foreign language” (Lado, 1957). According to Screen, “One of the most interesting things about this teaching point is when there is a student who knows and likes the Bob Dylan song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” and yet she/he says, “knock the door” because of negative language transfer, or translating from their native language into English. “Knock the door” provides a great opportunity for teacher-student dialogue to talk about what is happening in the brain. This is where music can enhance learning. If a student can connect “knocking ON heaven’s door” to real life application of knock-ON-the door, music has done its job.”

Professor Sharla Rivera’s Real/Unreal Conditionals

According to professor Rivera, “I love using the song “If I had a Million Dollars” as an awareness-raising activity before I teach real/unreal conditionals. Before I even tell students what grammar point we’re studying, we all listen to the song and write down everything the [band] Barenaked Ladies would do with a million dollars.” Then, she continues, “as a class, we discuss what WE would do with that money. Finally, I ask them if anyone actually has a million dollars (and if I could borrow some–which usually gets some laughs) and we discuss the grammar of something being possible or impossible when it comes to conditionals. (ex, “If it rains, I’ll drive home” is a possible situation because it could rain, but “If I had a million dollars, I’d buy you a fur coat” is an impossible situation because I don’t have a million dollars. They use different verb tenses to show the possibility/impossibility.)”

Professor Donette Brantner-Artenie: Present Progressive Verb Tense

Professor Brantner-Artemie reports that she has used the late 1980s song “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega to teach the present progressive verb tense. The song’s lyrics are essentially a narrative in which the singer describes what she and other people are doing one rainy morning at the diner (local restaurant). According to Brantner-Artemie, “I have students listen and identify as many actions as they can. I also ask them to tell why the singer uses the present progressive tense (e.g., current, ongoing actions, especially at the moment of speaking) and why she doesn’t use it in other examples. We review how to form the progressive and then, for comparison, I have them come up with a list of actions someone might make if he/she stops by the same diner every morning (use of simple present tense verbs). Because of its catchy beat and the way Suzanne Vega sings the song, it’s also a nice example of sentence rhythm.”