I learned about a fascinating site called SingShot from two different blogs on the same day — Language Labs Unleashed and Mashable.

With SingShot you can first pick any of a zillion popular songs.  Then, the site will play the instrumental music and show the lyrics on the screen.  Each word is then highlighted during the appropriate time in the recording to sing it.  Next, you sing it into a microphone on your computer and it’s recorded on the site.  You can email the url and post it on a teacher’s webpage.  Students can sing it alone or in a group.  If you’re ambitious, you can create your own slideshow that goes with the song.

Even better, though, instead of showing a slideshow with the song, when others play your recording the screen can then show the words that are being sung.

If you don’t have a mike, or if students are feeling a little shy, they can also just listen to the other karaoke recordings made by others.  They can listen to a person singing and see the lyrics on the screen.

The extraordinary benefit to English Language Learners is incredible.  They can practice pronunciation in the less threatening vehicle of a song; they can do it in a group if they want; and they can listen to other native speakers singing it as a comparison.

The songs on the site range from nursery rhymes to popular music, so even students with low-levels of English can participate.

The only issue I have relates to privacy.  It appears to me that all recordings are available to anyone who wants to listen to them, and then make comments.  This might be a intimidating to some shy students.  Many other Web 2.0 sites have a privacy option where you can limit access to your creations.  I’m assuming this site also has that option, but I just couldn’t figure it out.  I’ll post when they respond to my question about it.

This site will definitely be one of my Top Ten sites of the month.  I can’t wait to try it out with my students.

I’ve placed the link on my Examples of Student Work page under Student Songs.