Audience: Teachers of middle school, high school, or adult ESL

Have you ever wanted to teach your students what clichés are? Recognizing and understanding clichés can improve English communication and cultural familiarity. Why not make it fun and teach them through popular music? The following tips are for teachers interested in incorporating “top 40” songs into their lessons in order to make a connection between commonly overused phrases and today’s popular music.

Many teachers have at some point used music in their lessons, but sometimes it may be difficult to make the connection between your English classroom and popular song lyrics. There are many benefits of using music to teach various aspects of the English language. According to Abbott (2002), one motive for utilizing music is that “song lyrics use rhyme, and rhyming is fun. Therefore, singing, performing, and listening to music are often associated with play, happiness, and relaxation. Evidently then, music activities have the power to move, excite, and soothe learners in the language classroom” (p. 10).

If you enjoy pop music, you can take advantage of its predictability by teaching lyrical collocations. We often hear the same groupings of words in pop songs. This can be used to the advantage of your students. Being able to anticipate what the next words will be can help them sing along with songs, while also practicing pronunciation, listening, and prediction skills.

Here are some suggestions to incorporate the lyrics of top 40 songs to teach collocations:

Step 1: Provide Examples

Provide students a list of common song collocations. Some examples include:

girl/world
fine/mind
beat/feet
high/sky/fly
seem/dream
baby/maybe/crazy
friend/end
see/me
heart/apart
all/fall

Step 2: Present Songs

Present examples of these collocations being used in top 40 songs. Some recently popular examples of top 40 hits are:

Taylor Swift: “Shake It Off” (feet/beat; stay/say)
Maroon 5: “Maps” (all/fall; you/do)
Coldplay: “A Sky Full of Stars” (heart/apart; you/view)

Step 3: Activities

• Create a cloze activity in which students anticipate the possible collocations. This can be done with songs that students have heard of, or some that are new to them.
• Play a game where students listen to a song, pause the song after the first line of a set of lines, and then guess whether or not the artist will use the second part of the collocation or if they will use another word.
• Have students be creative and write their own song lyrics using the common song collocations listed in Step 1.
• Use students’ L1. Have them translate common English collocations and lyrical rhymes into their first language and compare.

Reference

Abbott, M. (2002). Using music to promote L2 learning among adult learners. TESOL Journal, 11, 10–17.

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Clarissa Codrington and Trisha Dowling are recent graduates of the MA TESOL program at Eastern Michigan University. They are currently teaching adult ESL at Language Center International in Southfield, Michigan. Both Clarissa and Trisha have experience teaching adults and adolescents in Michigan and abroad.