Creative Ideas for Using Songs in

the EFL Class

A collection of ideas to use songs in your classroom
submitted by teachers from around the world.
The aim of this presentation is to create an idea
bank full of creative activities to use songs in our
English class.

Would you like to contribute?
Add your activity, include the age range the activity
is suitable for, level, objectives and a short
description which helps other teachers to use it in
their lessons.
Thank you!

ACTIVITY 1: A STORY BEHIND THE
LYRICS
Age group: teenagers, adults
Level: intermediate / advanced
Objectives: - for students to improve their writing and speaking skills.
Contributor(s): Inma Alczar ( @inma_a) from Spain.

Description: Choose a song wiith a story, for instance Another Day in
Paradise by Phil Collins . Divide students in groups of three people and
provide them just with a few or four lines of the lyrics. Ask them to
deduce what they think the song is about and write the rest of the song.
Ask them to report their findings and tell their stories to the rest of the
class. If they do not have time to do the last part of the activity in class,
it would be a great idea that they use voicethread to record their song-
story and receive feedback from their classmates.
ACTIVITY 2: BACK TO THE START
Age group: teenagers, adults
Level: upper-intermediate / advanced
Objectives: for students to practise how to express wishes, make
speculations about the past and use Type III conditional sentences.
Contributor(s): M Jess Garca San Martn (@mjgsm) from Spain.

Description:browse Youtube for the videoclip entitled The Scientist by
ColdPlay. Play it in class in one go and prompt the students to make
comments using clauses that express what would or would not have
happened if the singer had been able to go to the start.
Write these helpful tips on the board: If ... If only ...
Had I/she/he/we/they ... I wish ... Even if ... Even though ...

ACTIVITY 3: EXPLOITING A SONG
Age group: teenagers
Level: intermediate / lower intermediate
Objectives: make students aware of the problem of child abuse and
neglect, revise tenses, and increase vocabulary.
Contributor(s): Carolina Conejero from Spain.
Description: Choose the song My Name is Luka by Suzanne Vega
and play the video. Ask the students what the song is about (who is
Luka? who is he talking to); they can choose from a variety of topics
having to do with social issues. Exploit the song by using its lines and
revise some important grammar and vocabulary points, for example,
verb tenses (fill in the blanks with the biography of the singer, identify
different tenses in the song); types of word (classify words from the
song into noun, verb or adjective); increase vocabulary (find synonyms,
revise compound words, complete a text about child abuse and neglect
with words having to do with this topic).
ACTIVITY 4: SONG RACE
Age group: teenagers
Level: Any
Contributor: Mrcia Lima( @bamarcia) from Brazil.
Description: Choose some word from the song you'll use, prepare
cards and stick them on the board. Pre-teach/work on vocabulary, if
necessary. Divide class into teams. Ss stand in lines, facing the board. T
plays the song. The first student on the line from each team races to the
board to get the word card. First Ss go to the end of the line. Game
continues until all words have been removed from the board. Ss are then
given a worksheet with the lyrics and blanks (the words from the word
cards) to fill in.

Adaptation: If the song is short, you can have the lines of the song on the
board for the race. Or, with adults, who might not enjoy the race, on a table so
they pick the one they hear.
ACTIVITY 5: LILY ALLEN - THE FEAR
Age group: Teenagers (17-18)
Level: Intermediate
Contributor: Paco Gascn ( @pacogascon ) from Spain.

Description: Activities attached were designed for 2 Bachillerato
students (pre-university stage). As students are to sit a written test
before starting college, this stage is normally aimed at training them into
exam strategies, and oral skills are often disregarded. So, this set is
meant to compensate for this (it includes both spoken comprehension
and production), but, at the same time, it includes activities that focus on
vocabulary, use of English and reading comprehension that may come
in handy for the Selectividad test.

Worksheet: http://bit.ly/yC1hAb
Song: http://bit.ly/wTMX1k
ACTIVITY 6: WORKING WITH THE
TEXT OF SONGS
Age group: teenagers, adults
Level: Intermediate, Upper Intermediate
Contributor: @Mapartapa, Argentina

Listen to a song and work on the lyrics to check for
understanding.
Provide true or false statements about the text of the song.
Students must answer true or false and justify their
answers by choosing synonyms or antonyms from the text
of the song.

ACTIVITY 7: EYE OF THE TIGER
Age group: teenagers, adults
Level: upper-intermediate / advanced
Objectives: for students to practise vocabulary regarding sports and some
idioms.
Contributor(s): M Jess Garca San Martn (@mjgsm) from Spain.

Description: follow the instructions and see full activity on this blog entry.

ACTIVITY 8: JOBS - VOCABULARY
Age group: 9 / 10 years old,
Level: elementary
Objectives: learn jobs, listening activities, spelling

Contributor Olinda Lima, from Portugal.

Description:
http://www.learningchocolate.com/content/jobs
Step 1: Go through each one of the following exercises: practise
text to sound, text to picture, sound to picture, spelling and
dictation.
Step 2: Listen to the song here:
Step 3: Sing along.
Optional:You can also have a gap filling activity to check the
vocabulary about jobs.
ACTIVITY 9: ADJECTIVES
Age group: 15 to Adults.
Level: Intermediate
Objectives: Introduce and reinforce adjectives. Talk about love.
Contributor Eva Ramos, from Panama.
Description:
Step 1: Divide the class in groups of two. Cut out the following words
from the song and give them to each pair of students. Do not tell them
the name of the song yet. Words: heartbreak, cry, goodbye, love,
feeling, impossible, kiss.
Step 2: Match five (5) of the previous words with pictures that best
represent their meanings.
Step 3: Discuss with the students the meaning of all the words. Ask
them to predict what is the song about, using the words. Ask them to
create a title for the song.
Step 4: Give the real title to the students. Students listen to the song:
This Kiss by Faith Hill to confirm their prediction about the song.
Step 5: Students to circle the words given to them in step one. They
listen to the song again.
Step 6: Students underline all the adjectives in the song and talk about
their first love.
ACTIVITY 10: PHRASAL
VERBS
Age group: 15 to adults.
Level:Intermediate.
Objectives: Introduce and reinforce PHRASAL VERBS (give in, give up,
let me down, coming around, messed up etc.. Talk about
CONTRACTIONS, SHORT FORMS, REDUCED FORMS AND
EXPRESSIONS(Gonna, wanna, gotta, wansta, hansta, gimme, lemme
etc).
SONG: WHATAYA (What do you want from me) by ADAM
LAMBERT/PINK
Contributor: STARRR7, from BRAZIL.
Description:
Step 1: Search the lyrics here (http://letras.terra.com.br/adam-lambert/1586051/traducao.html) Cut out the following words
from the song and give them to each student.
Words: give in, give up, messed me up, step away, slip away, coming around, let you down, working it out, whataya, gonna,
gotta, wanna and others you want to work with this song.
Step 2: students match all the verbs with the correct preposition or adverb to form a PHRASAL VERB.
Step 3: Students find the meanings of the PHRASAL VERBS shoed in the song
Step 4: Students discuss the meaning of all the words. Ask them to underline all expressions and SHORT FORM (DIDINT,
DONT, ITS etc) in the lyrics. They must to write the complete form of each SHORT FORM they find on the lyrics.
Step 5: Students must write what is the meaning of the song. They must write a version for it in their own language.
Step 6: Students listen to the song: WHATAYA ADAM LAMBERT/PINK to fill the gaps with all PHRASAL VERBS.
Step 7: Students find other songs with more PHRASAL VERBS AND PRESENT THEM TO THE CLASSMATES. They write
on the board all the Phrasal verbs they can collect in other songs.
Step 8: Students write the meaning of each Phrasal verb they find in other songs and present the video clip or the audio MP3
to other students explaining the meaning of the song to other students.
ACTIVITY 11: FROM ME TO YOU - BEATLES
Age group: Teens
Level: Basic
Objectives: Listening practice
Contributor: Luciana Caldeira (@luthcal)
Description:
I've used that song, but you can use any other.
1. Stick the words you find useful (worksheet1) on the board. Ss are going to
listen to the song once or twice and write the words they hear.
2. Give each student (depending on the number of students you have) 1 or
two lines (worksheet2)of the song without the words you have put on the
board, so that they listen to the song again and fill in the blanks with those
words.
3. Now, Ss are going to listen to the song again and order the lines on the
board (or floor).
Worksheets: Lyrics
Vocabulary