Using Songs with Older Children

Our youngest learners will sing and dance all day long, all the while picking up vocabulary, grammar, and the rhythm of English naturally and easily. And when they go home at the end of class, the songs that they sang and played with in class will still be bouncing around in their heads. Songs are uniquely effective learning tools in that way.

However, as students get older, songs and chants often become less and less a part of the classroom. That's a shame. We know that input is critical to second language learning, and few learning tools are as effective as songs at providing lots and lots of meaningful, comprehensible input.

Older children still enjoy songs (we all do!), but if we introduce songs to them the same way we introduce songs to young children, we often find them reluctant to participate. Once our students reach 4th or 5th grade, they become more self-conscious about singing or dancing, and, understandably, don't want to be treated like toddlers. Don't let that discourage you from using songs in the classroom with older children. We simply must change the way we introduce songs.

Here is a five step plan for introducing songs to older learners. As a sample I'll use Topic 21 of the Longman Children's Picture Dictionary (LCPD).