The Language Teacher
06 - 2003
Minishare
Finding Mistakes in Songs
Heidi Evans Nachi
Kwansei Gakuin University, School of Policy Studies
QUICK GUIDE
Key Words:Listening, songs, identifying mistakes
Learner English Level: Any
Learner Maturity Level: Youth to adult
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Activity Time: About 30 minutes
Materials: Recorded music, handouts
Many teachers and students alike enjoy listening to music, and using songs in the classroom can provide a nice break from the typical listening lesson. The following activity can be used to raise students' awareness of lexical and grammatical errors, build vocabulary, and teach word collocation.
Procedure
Step 1: Locate a copy of song lyrics. Shorter songs with lyrics that are easy to understand are generally more successful. To reduce preparation time, download lyrics from the Internet as an alternative to typing lyrics yourself. Typing song lyrics into any search engine will yield many lyric sites including Complete Album Lyrics www.completealbumlyrics.com, which contains over 80,000 songs, searchable by artist, lyric text, or album or song title. The site also allows you to select print versions of song lyrics or buy the CD.
Step 2: Insert a variety of mistakes, such as words that rhyme with the original words but are wrong, words that collocate correctly but are wrong, words that have similar meanings but are wrong, extra words, incorrect verb tenses, missing or incorrect prepositions, or subject-verb or singular-plural agreement mistakes. Limit mistakes to the lexical or phrasal level.
Step 3: Pass out lyrics before listening and give students a chance to identify mistakes. To focus their search, tell students the number of mistakes and types of mistakes (i.e. words with similar meanings but are wrong, words that sound the same but are wrong, grammar errors, extra words, or any other categories you have selected.)
Step 4: Listen to the song and have students circle mistakes. After listening students can correct the mistakes and then check their efforts during a second listening. Encourage peer work. Step 5: Proceed by eliciting mistakes or showing the original lyrics for students to self-check. Give students a chance to listen with the correct lyrics.
Extension: Personalize this activity by asking students to download lyrics of their choice and create their own handouts (and music) to bring to class.
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