English through music: effective CLIL lessons for young learners

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English through music effective CLIL lessons for
young learners

• Jane Willis
• (ELT specialist)
• Anice Paterson
• (music specialist)

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OVERVIEW What potential does Content Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL) have for language
development? Why is music particularly suited to
CLIL? What kinds of musical activities are there?
(with brief demonstrations of some of them) How
can you ensure these music activities fulfil
conditions that are likely to promote language
learning? What about another Content area?
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Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

• Learning a subject through English provides
• young learners with
• exposure to spoken English
• a clear purpose for listening to English and
  trying to understand
• a context for using English
• a reason for reading and writing

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Music through English?or English through
music?Why music and English together?
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(No Transcript)
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Singing

• is an excellent way for children to
• learn and memorise words and phrases
• develop familiarity with the sounds, rhythms and
  stress of English

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Songs, rhymes and rhythm activities

• help children to
• learn to listen carefully with a real purpose
• respond to the ranges in tone, pitch, and
  expression in the voice
• concentrate hard on small details of
  pronunciation, stress and rhythm

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Musical pictures and musical stories

• help children to
• experiment and use the qualities of sounds
  effectively
• express their feelings
• recognise the structure of stories and poems and
  to sequence ideas
• talk about what they are doing and why
• tell and perform their own stories

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Rehearsing and giving musical performances

• provides children with a real purpose for
  developing and practising their English
• helps children to develop self-confidence
• - in using English in a range of contexts
• - in performing with control and expressiveness
• keeps children motivated and excited by their
  experience of making music
• Also, NFER has evidence of beneficial effects on
  general behaviour and learning skills

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A giant
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The giant story

• Recorded in a class of 9 year-olds who
• have various sound-makers
• listen to the story, bit by bit, and suggest
  sounds for each action
• perform the whole story, with sounds
• create variations
• CD 55

1. First of all, I want you to imagine that theres
   a huge giant and hes eating his dinner at his
   table. Can you make eating sounds?
2. And on the door theres a tap tap tap tap Can
   you repeat that rhythm for me? Keep it going
   tap tap tap tap
3. The giant stands up and slowly walks to the door

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The enormous carrot Teacher with five-year-olds
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So what are they learning?

• Musical skills
• Experimenting with sounds
• Creating sound patterns
• Remembering a sequence
• Performing a piece
• Creating variations

• Language development
• Exposure to story text
• to teacher talk that engages attention
• (imperatives, repetitions,
• on-going commentary)
• Opportunities for participatory use of language

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(No Transcript)
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What kinds of music activities are there?

• These activities cover musical objectives that
  appear in any typical music syllabus.
• A Warm-up activities
• Listen and Do physical and vocal exercises
  to prepare children for music making and to
  develop their co-ordination, voice control, and
  pronunciation.

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Physical warm-ups

• Some examples (all on CD)
• Stretch, shake and wiggle
• Pat your head and rub your tummy
• Baby 1, 2, 3

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Vocal warm-ups

• Breath control snakes, bees, humming
• Musical vowels sirens, scales
• Consonant patterns slow - ping pong
• fast - ch ch ch ch
• Voice expression Boom chicka boom

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B Listening and experimenting with sounds

• Hands and feet CD15
• (Body Percussion)
• Lets make a band
• (Sound-makers)

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(No Transcript)
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Action songs rhymes

• Section C (minimal language)
• The Rocket Rhyme
• Count down, count down,
• rocket leaving soon
• Count down, count down,
• leaving for the moon
• 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
• Blast off!
• Section F (more language)
• Theres a tiny caterpillar on a leaf

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• A Rhythm Grid
• Some very small creatures
• OK, Lets start with a steady beat..
• a very quiet beat.. Keep it going Now listen

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(No Transcript)
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D Rhythm games patterns

• Clap it back (fruit, vocabulary sets)
• Pop
• Spider Ant (small creatures, party food)
• Language and music aims
• Syllable stress in words and phrases
• Performing layered patternings (in parts)

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E Listening and responding to music

• How long does it last? (instrument sounds)
• I like it (different styles, images, moods,
  countries) CD 40
• Lets dance
• Children hear about where the music is from,
  think what it could be about, express how the
  music makes them feel...

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(No Transcript)
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Composing and performing class music

• G Story-based music
• Musical books (any story)
• The giant
• The enormous carrot (growing food and farm
  animals)
• H Musical pictures
• Rainstorm (tropical climate)
• Where shall we go today? (zoo, market)

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(No Transcript)
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Activity Page

• LANGUAGE
• MUSIC
• RESOURCES AND PREPARATION
• TIME GUIDE AGE
• Activity (numbered steps and suggestions for
  what to
• say in English).
• Variations (ideas for other similar musical
  activities)
• Language extensions

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Language extensions

• Suggestions for building on the language used in
  the activity
• same music aims but new context or song
• mini-dialogues for intonation work
• games for vocabulary revision e.g. miming
• tongue twisters
• follow-up chats / discussions
• mini-projects with cross-curricula links.

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Questions

1. How does this fit my English syllabus?
2. Are the activities graded?
3. How to use the CD?
4. Musical expertise? Teacher support?

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What language learning opportunities do these
CLIL lessons provide?

• Four main sources
• 1. general classroom management and instructions
• 2. the language used to introduce the topic, to
  set up the music activity itself,
• to attain the music aims lead to a musical
  performance

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What language learning opportunities do these
CLIL lessons provide?

• 3. the words and phonological features of the
  songs, rhymes, chants, stories, and
  mini-dialogues,
• 4. further development of specific language
  features and topic themes

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And finallythe three most important things

• use the musical activity to generate
  opportunities to interact with the children in
  English
• encourage childrens language and music
  development by being positive
• make sure you all enjoy making music.

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English Through Music Anice Paterson Jane
Willis OUP 2008 jane_at_willis-elt.co.uk