Comments on: Intriguing Music Tool, But Only For Adult Learners (And Even That’s a “Maybe”) http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/18/intriguing-music-tool-but-only-for-adult-learners-and-even-thats-a-maybe/ ...For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:53:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Chris Cotter http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/18/intriguing-music-tool-but-only-for-adult-learners-and-even-thats-a-maybe/#comment-1981 Chris Cotter Tue, 20 May 2008 04:07:45 +0000 http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/05/18/intriguing-music-tool-but-only-for-adult-learners-and-even-thats-a-maybe/#comment-1981 I like the idea, and it could be a unique and creative project. As an EFL teacher, I have a different concern. The songs are familiar because I grew up with them, heard them on the radio, TV, and in movies, and so on. I can identify different songs with different periods in my life. But for non-native speakers with different cultural backgrounds, they grew up with different music. English-language songs might not be as familiar. I think the idea can easily be adapted. Students select an important event from their lives, and find an appropriate song on the site. They then give a short presentation about the event and the reason for selecting the accompanying music. As they are focused on only one event, they have a more narrowly-defined goal in which to search through lyrics. Alternatively, they could choose a song from their native country, and do the same activity. But they then would give additional background about the song selected. Thanks for the site, Larry. I like the idea, and it could be a unique and creative project. As an EFL teacher, I have a different concern. The songs are familiar because I grew up with them, heard them on the radio, TV, and in movies, and so on. I can identify different songs with different periods in my life. But for non-native speakers with different cultural backgrounds, they grew up with different music. English-language songs might not be as familiar.

I think the idea can easily be adapted. Students select an important event from their lives, and find an appropriate song on the site. They then give a short presentation about the event and the reason for selecting the accompanying music. As they are focused on only one event, they have a more narrowly-defined goal in which to search through lyrics.

Alternatively, they could choose a song from their native country, and do the same activity. But they then would give additional background about the song selected.

Thanks for the site, Larry.

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