Songs connected with culture

[Natalee92]

I am preparing a presentation about teaching through songs. I have read in books that one of the advantages of using songs in language teaching is that they help students expand their cultural knowledge. In what ways can this happen? could you give me an example please?

 

[probus]

I would be glad to learn why that is better. I would have used what the OP used.

 

[Tdol]

If you play songs, students will acquire some sort of knowledge of the culture behind the songs, though I can't see this happening unless you play a lot of songs.

 

[Raymott]

I think they're implying that the songs should be English songs about Anglophone country behaviours, not about Poland.

 

[JoshEsl]

Hi, this is a very interesting topic.



To answer your question - I would say the first thing you need to do is to decide what element of culture you are trying to teach? Are you trying to teach about an actual event (e.g., American Pie (1971) by Don McLean about a plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and several other musicians), a movement (e.g., Bob Dylan = peace and anti-war movement), or even music as it has helped shape culture (e.g., Elvis, Michael Jackson, or Jazz).

Once you have decided the angle you wish to take it could be wise to select songs that are both age and level (English level and school level) appropriate. There is no use using a song where the students don’t actually understand the importance of the message even if they understand the English (e.g., is there any value in teaching, say, young Korean EFL students about Live Aid/ Live 8 when they have no concept of economics, poverty, or protest movements?)

Right, now we have made appropriate choices it is time to engage the students. Get them to relate the song to their beliefs or culture etc. Get them to play with the new words and metaphors etc. Get them to engage with the song by singing, dancing, or acting out the story.
Culture is alive – so teach it like it is alive.


I hope this helps,
Josh

 

[Rover_KE]

Josh, please read the following forum rule and act upon it before posting again:

Profile names should be real names or avatars, not advertisements. If your profile name is either a web address or the name of a product then this equates to it being an advertisement and you will be required to change it. You request to change it by following the FAQ entry called 'How do I change my username?'. If you refuse to change it you will be banned for attempting to spam our forum.

I have not deleted your post as it contains advice which will be useful to the OP.

 

[Paul78]

Songs are definitely part of culture. If you listen to music from some country you automatically become more familiar with its culture.

 

[emsr2d2]

Songs are definitely part of culture. If you listen to music from [STRIKE]some[/STRIKE] a country, you automatically become more familiar with its culture.

Note my correction above. We don't use "some country" in this way. If you want to use "some", you could have said "some countries" and changed "its" to "their". However, that changes the meaning because the reader will assume that there is a pre-defined list of countries for which this is true.

I disagree with the general sentiment too. You could listen to hundreds of British pop songs without getting any information whatsoever about British culture.