See You !

Nos mudamos. Nos vemos en un nuevo blog.

A partir de ahora estaremos encantados de que nos sigas en “English @ Edrissis” (http://englishedrissis.blogspot.com). Seguiremos allí la andadura que aquí iniciamos, con la música en lengua inglesa que escuchamos tod@s a nuestro alrededor como telón de fondo, y con la idea de constituir un claro ejemplo de integración de las TIC en nuestras clases.

Esperamos que lo que se empezó en “Let the music play… in our Classroom”, y ahora proseguiremos en “English @ Edrissis”, sea de utilidad para los que decidan asomarse a esta nueva ventana. Ese, al menos, es nuestro único y humilde propósito.

                                                                                                                                                 See You !

Nos vemos, pues, en “English @ Edrissis”

 http://englishedrissis.blogspot.com

A Xmas Classic

The best Christmas song ever written is "Happy Christmas", by John Lennon (at least, in my opinion). Without any doubt, a great song from a great singer.

 I hope you enjoy it !

If you are interested in this song, you can find many videos on YouTube on this christmas song, written and sung by John Lennon. The next one is simply an example of them all, produced a couple of years ago.

"Happy Christmas"

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so Happy Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

Just to compare it with a more modern version, you can liten to Celion Dion's version of the same song:

Which one do you like most? Why?

Could you find some different versions of the same song on YouTube?

 I wish you all

A Very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year

Jesús

First Steps

The crucial importance

of the first steps

As we all know, Music is not really one of the conventional categories of language study we are required to work with according to the curriculum (grammar, vocabulary, language skills, sociocultural aspects, etc), but it can be the content matter of any of these categories and we can focus on any, or many, of these areas when using songs (with a little adaptation - perhaps).

The key isue, in my opinion, is the very beginning of the whole process. In other words, we cannot take for granted the crucial importance of the very first step: The selection of the music/song.

To begin with, let us just reflect on that. We have to pay special attention when we decide on material which satisfies the interests and needs of your students and yourself (as a teacher), decide which methods of exploitation seem most relevant, and provide/adapt activities or tasks that fit your teaching situation.

The selection of the most appropriate song can be time-consuming, but -without any doubt- it will be worthwhile.

                                                                  ... Don't you think so? 

Just a phone call !

A few days ago I phoned a friend of mine, who is now living in Canada, to let her know simply that I have created this new blog:

                                                  "Let the music play
                                                   ... in our Classroom"

                                                                                   
                                    ... Would you like to know what happened?
* Guess what ?
(before watching the video)

                                     ... After my phone call and hearing the news,
                                      everyone kept on having their lunch happily.

                      By the way, ... Merry Christmas to you all !!

                                                              With love,
                                                  Jesús

                                      PS. Could you tell me what you can see in her red scarf?
                                                 (Answer in the video: seconds 0:30 - 0:40) 
                                                                                                                                                         

St. Andrew

November, 30th

St. Andrew -

Patron Saint of Scotland

Let me pay homage to that wonderful land, sharing with you some Scottish music.
(Don't worry about the Scottish accent... It is just instrumental music. No lyrics !!)

            I hope you like it.

No awa' tae bide awa'

Scotland , ...

A Place Worthwhile visiting

USING MUSIC...

In relation to Language Learning, the use of music and songs offers two major advantages: Music is both highly memorable (1) and highly motivating (2). As a consequence, It would be unwise to ignore this flexible and attractive resource. Without any doubt, it has a lot of potential. So, ...

                           Let us take advantage of it!!

Using music in our English Language Classrooms, no matter the level of proficiency in such a language of our students, have a number of obvious advantages. Let me name just a few of them, to illustrate and contextualize this new blog. It is worthwhile pointing out that by means of songs, we can simply:

-          Raise our students’ interest, when teaching foreign languages

-          Increase their motivation

-          Break the routine

-          Provide a real language in a real context

-          Assign meaningful /communicative tasks easily

-          Use them as a springboard to deal with all the language skills

-          Integrate English Language Teaching/Learning and Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

-          And, in short, take the English Language out of the Classroom. (Consequently, We pay attention not only to “formal” learning, but also to both “non-formal” and “informal” learning.)

But, as we all know, just listening to and singing songs will not make students able to communicate in another language and will not teach them how to use the target language appropriately.              

In order to bridge the gap, we should keep in mind the twofold major goal of this blog:

• To provide a repertoire of songs (selected by the students and the teacher), taking into account the language used and the thematic content in them, and
• To show how to use songs and music as enhancers, reinforces, or as centre-pieces for communicating in the classroom.

FOR TEACHERS:

Why ?

Have a look at some reasons for using music in the classroom:

“Integrating Music into the Classroom”

“… because in songs language is presented in a stimulating and engaging manner.”

How?

Have a look at some ideas about how to use songs:

“Music In the classroom” (part 1)

(For some more ideas, check parts 2, 3 & 4.)

FOR STUDENTS:

Using music in our English classrooms is just …

A wonderful way to expose our students to different English accents in an attractive – and funny, sometimes- way.

“Voice Recognition Elevator”

                                                 (a situation comedy by Connell & Florence)

To have a laugh:  

Go to the website of the Burnistoun boys, Iain Connell and Robert Florence (www.connellandflorence.com)

"THERE IS NO HUMAN SOCIETY WITHOUT ITS MUSIC"



“There is no human society    
without its music"    



This quotation by Alan Maley & Tim Murphey can be regarded, to some extent, as the rationale behind these lines, taken from “Music & Song” - Resources Books for Teachers. Oxford University Press. (A worthwhile and suggested reading.)

Music is all around. It is everywhere. All our students have their own musical tastes. As we all know, they are really interested in the music they like. So, ...

Why don’t we use music in our classroom as a mere pretext to present the English Language?