Use of Songs, Karaoke & Internet in foreign language learning

1. Use of Songs, Karaoke & Internet in foreign language learning Method for motivating language learners created by European partnerships within three projects: “Languages and Integration through Singing” (LIS) “French and Spanish language competence through songs”  "Find A Delightful Opportunity to learn Portuguese through Internet and songs” With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

2. Didactic& Socio-cultural aspects With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership The “musical” approach • increases learners’ motivation and interest • improves acquisition of language skills • allows cross cultural understanding • allows to include in the learning process the most diverse groups of students: - age - ethnic or national origin - social status - education level

3. "Music is for the soul what a gym is for the body.“ Plato (427-347 a. C.) Why to use songs in the classroom (Griffee 1992) • Positive environment. • Student interest emotional potential • Linguistic Input relationship between rhythm and speech • Cultural Input social information. • Authentic texts in the target language. • Complement other teaching materials. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

4. Classification into three groups With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

5. Neuro-linguistic aspect (Isabelle Peretz & Robert Zatorre - 2002) Intuitive and conscious processes in the acquisition of language skills With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

6. Use of both hemispheres of the human brain: memory, emotion & language exist together in a song Speech center Art & Music Creativity Writing Fantasy Logic Memory Emotion Real learning takes place when there is a switch from the left to the right hemisphere of the brain With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

7. Positive effects from using songs on learners’ linguistic and intercultural competences: • songs in the language classroom liven up listening activities; • they enable teachers to teach grammar and vocabulary in an entertaining and relaxing way; • the vocabulary of songs often extends beyond everyday language; • it is a great way to practice pronunciation and intonation; • a memorable melody imprints linguistic patterns, grammar structures and vocabulary; • through songs learners learn about culture and people, which also inspires various interesting topics for discussion. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

8. What song to choose? It is important to keep in mind three factors: Learners’ profile: age, interests, level of language competence; Suitable language material:lyrics should be clear /acquaintance with idiomatic & colloquial expressions is useful and fun, but they should not prevent understanding of the songs/; Cultural context: through songs, we can learn a lot about the country, culture, history, behavior patterns of people of the particular country or historical period. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

9. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

10. Structure of a Teaching/Learning Unit in the concept of the LIS approach 1 phase: approaching which comes before the real work upon the text (Pre-listening activities & First listening); 2 phase: analysisaiming at understanding how the text works and at studying morphological and syntactic rules; 3 phase: synthesis - new listening to the lyrics, going back to the text to check its assimilation and to extend it to aspects of culture and civilization With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

11. Internet, Youtube & karaoke • Great diffusion of the Internet and Youtube, especially among youngsters; • Linguistic education and digital competences are transversal (they are two of the 8 key competences!) and besides interact with each other in the curriculum; • Schools in Europe are facing up to an ever growing number of immigrants. This new situation requires new didactic and methodological answers and at the same time the use of new proper technologies for the target groups With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

12. Starting from these considerations …   FENICE + 8 institutions (6 countries in total) submitted 3 projects of European partnership aimed at spreading a method for teaching/learning a foreign language based on the use of videos, karaoke and songs. Result: www.languagesbysongs.eu a website containing teaching materials that can be used by teachers of IT/RO/RU/FR/ES/PTinterested in using songs in their classroom, by their pupils who wish to practise at home and, finally, by autonomous learners. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

13. To the musical approach the LIS methodadds 2 more elements to acquire language skills: video and karaoke Karaoke is didactically very effective because: • music and verse help one’s memory (the text often has rhymes); • singing the songs students learn language patterns and expand vocabulary ; • listening to the songs students develop the ability to understand; • by singing students practice their pronunciation; • as they read the lines and sing, pupils demonstrate their ability to understand a written text. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

14. Teaching and learning resources on www.languagesbysongs.eu Teacher’s Guidebook:theoretical fundamentals of the approach, lesson structure, practical hints on how to create one’s own teaching material Didactic handouts present TLU examples elaborated upon a number of songs (now 115) Key to exercises are addressed to learners and allow the use of handouts for self-study Lyrics: texts of the songs used in the handouts Video and karaoke for songs used in the handouts - means to support language learning via Internet With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

15. Prerequisite: To use the materials at their best students should be at least at the A1 level of the Common European Frame of Reference • Testing: The learning materials for Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian and Russian have been tested on the whole by 78 teachers and trainers belonging to 12 countries (IT, ES, FR, GR, LT, MD, RO, BG, SK, SV, BR, USA) on 1963 students of various ages, a number significant enough to give acceptable results. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

16. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

17. Project results • Looking ahead: community of language teachers using songs in their teaching practice • Diffusion: on the basis of ShinyStat statistics, the website has been visited21.202 timesby people from 93 countries. This is the visit list of the first nine countries at the 30/11/12: With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

18. FENICE’s partners E-KU Institute of language and Intercultural Communication - Slovakia (Nitra) EscuelaOficial de Idiomas- Spain(Malaga) EUROINFORM Ltd – Bulgaria (Sofia) FundatiaEuroEd – Romania (Iasi) University of Bucharest – Romania University of Porto Faculty of Arts – Portugal IES “Ribeira do Louro” - Spain (Porriño) With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

19. E - mail: fenice.eu@libero.it www.fenice-eu.org With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership Thank you for your attention! Giampiero de Cristofaro