We all know from experience that music helps us learn language. I still remember the Spanish words and meaning to La Bamba, by Ritchie Valens, from high school Spanish, and that was longer ago than I care to admit. Neurological research tells us that music activates more and different parts of the brain than speaking alone. When I teach with songs, I will often hear students singing those songs in the hallway, and other teachers tell me that they hear the students sing as well. That means that they are actually practicing the language outside of the classroom! Using a melody can also help students learn how to "feel" the language when speaking.
My wife had a teacher who taught her English by bringing in several English songs when she was a student in secondary school. That experience helped her to enjoy English, so she continued her study in university. From there, her proficiency helped her to get jobs working with agricultural exports and then in Australia, where her English became fully proficient. That English skill is what allowed us to communicate and resulted in our marriage and two daughters.
That's something to think about. One teacher who helped my wife to learn the language in an enjoyable way has led to so many new opportunities and eventually even shaped who her (our) children would be. That's the amazing power we have as teachers to positively shape the lives of our students.
This lesson can be done in a single hour if the students pay attention well. If you want to split it into a couple class periods, then sing the song a couple times before getting into the vocabulary and side conversation slides that start at slide 3. In my experience, students love to sing and will be happy to spend a little extra time doing so.
For singing, you can either bring in recorded music, or an instrument. I have been trying to focus on learning how to play guitar again (so I can sing songs with my 2 daughters) and deciding to make playing the songs part of the lesson gives me extra motivation to practice daily. I am just a beginner, but the music to this song is very, very simple, and can be learned well enough to play in class with just a few days of practice. Bonus: If you have younger learners, the music to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is also the same tune for the ABC song.
Here's a Google Slides presentation that I made for a conversation class using "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." At most schools where I've taught, the school personnel are happy to set up a room with A/V equipment for lessons like this. As a bonus during the extra hot season in SE Asia, if you use the Slides presentation for your class, the A/V equipped rooms all have air conditioning. There is a link to the presentation under the embedded presentation at the bottom of this blog post.
I hope this presentation is helpful for teachers. I have had a lot of fun with it. Please let me know what you think or if you use it in the comments below. If you have an idea for another song, you can recommend that in the comments below too. I am currently working on "On Top of Spaghetti" for the next song. I have also started "Yellow Submarine: and "Hey Jude" by the Beatles.
Notes:
Editing: I have a presentation link at the bottom set so that you can edit it in case you want to change the few non-English words to the native language where you teach. (Or if you want to add content slides and expand the lesson.) If you want to edit, please click: File>Make a copy, and edit the copy. That will give you a personal copy of the presentation to use. It will also prevent your changes from being lost if someone else makes changes!
Technology: I have a remote presentation control with a laser pointer in it for presentations like this. It allows me to do the presentation without being confined to a desk. It cost about $20 USD and was worth every penny. Another option is to have a student click through the slides for you when you snap your fingers. If you are like me and don't like to sit while teaching, that works fine too.
Tech Note 2: As ESL teachers, we cannot really communicate with the parents, unless we are fluent in the learner's native language. With a song, you can take a video of the students singing and post it to YouTube for the parents to see. This is a way for us to communicate to the parents that we are working to give our students quality learning experiences. Most kids have access to the internet at least through a smartphone. They also seem pretty eager to show their parents the video of them singing in English. Also, department heads like this because it shows that we are really trying to be great teachers for our students.
At my school last year, I had Google Classroom. All Google applications are connected through a Gmail account. Last year, I posted the song videos to the YouTube account that I got through the school Gmail that they set up for me. (If you don't have that, then I would take 3 minutes and make a new Gmail account just for teaching use.)
I tell the students to show their parents the video. (You could make it an easy-points homework assignment by having parents sign a paper saying that they saw it if you can get that translated.) At the next class, I ask students if they showed their parents and what their parents thought. The responses have been very positive.
Socratic Method/TPRS: This is a TPRS-inspired lesson. I highly recommend reading
Fluency Through TPRS (available through the link) if you'd like to improve your ESL teaching skills. It is a combination of every effective teaching skill I accidentally stumbled upon in my first few years teaching plus a few others, and it is all combined into a comprehensible teaching system.
According to the work of Dr. Stephen Krashen, listening to comprehensible input is necessary for language acquisition. Let them hear understandable language first, and the speaking will come more easily and naturally. TPRS takes these findings and applies it in a way that really helps students learn the language.
TPRS means Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. TPRS is normally done through simple stories. In this lesson, I am adapting the great teaching skills from TPRS to a song. I'm no TPRS expert, so I will humbly call this lesson TPRS-Inspired.
In these TPRS-Inspired lessons, I ask simple questions, have the students respond with a word or two, and then repeat their answer in a full sentence for them to hear. (E.g.: Is the star big or little? Students respond "little." I repeat the answer with a full sentence, "Yes, the star is little.") Students with higher skill levels will, of course, answer more completely or with full sentences. There is a method for questioning and answer repetition that is part of TPRS teaching that works great for helping students learn.
Lesson Plan.
Note: I try to not have my students speak in their native language if possible. If they do, I often say (in my very limited Thai), "No, no. Teacher is very stupid. I speak very little Thai," and repeat the question "what is _____?" I do this with a little smile and students quickly figure out that this is like a little game. Students quickly learn to communicate by pointing, using gestures, drawing pictures, etc.
Students like this because (1) it forces the language level a little lower and helps them comprehend the topic, (2) it is fun for them to think of different ways to communicate, and (3) it takes the pressure off of them to try to speak when they don't have all the language skills to do so. It lets the students creatively communicate with the skills they have while developing the target language skills. This also really helps to keep lower skilled students engaged.
Slide 1: Introduction.
I first ask the students if they like to sing.
Tip: If older students seem a little reluctant with this song, I tell them that I use it because it is pretty and that they can sing it to their little siblings or cousins, or to their own kids in the future. That usually gets buy-in easily.
Slide 2: Pronunciation Practice. I always want my students to speak in class. Mere repetition is not a great way to learn, but I briefly use this to help focus on problematic pronunciation areas like consonant clusters ("tw-" in twinkle, "-tl-" in little, etc.), the digraphs (th, sh, ch, ph, etc.), and non-native sounds (like "v" for my Thai students.) Just a short time focusing on those problem areas really helps the pronunciation. That helps keep them from getting tripped up when we sing the song later. I only spend a few minutes on this.
[
Option: If students really want to sing or you want to extend to a couple class periods, you can have them sing the song once or twice at the beginning of the class. Otherwise, go directly to the next slide.]
Slide 3 - 4: Twinkle.
Here we begin to work on vocabulary. I will point to the pictures and ask the students what they see. The left-hand picture usually gets a response of "star." For the switch, I say "on-off". I gesture up and down with my thumb and ask students which is on and which is off. They usually get this pretty quick.
Then I ask "what is 'twinkle'?" I gesture with my hands, opening and closing them and spreading my fingers apart, and then point to the on/off switch. That's usually not enough to convey "twinkle," so we go to the next slide to help solidify the concept.
I first ask what the pictures are. Students will usually say "sun" for the left hand one, and sometimes "fire" or "candle" for the right hand one. I then have them practice pronouncing the words and ask "Is the sun bright or dim?" Then I ask "Is the fire/candle bright or dim?" Then, "Which is bright/dim, the sun or the candle/fire?"
Once they understand bright and dim, go back to the hand gesture saying "twinkle - bright - dim". That usually gets the concept across.
(Note: these are the best copyright free pics I could find to help convey the twinkle concept. I'm trying to get a decent video of some twinkling lights to add into slide 5. Once that is there, the teacher can ask questions like "What color are the twinkling lights?" and use TPRS questioning skills to further practice a mini-conversation.)
Slide 6: Little.
I use this slide as a side conversation focusing on comparatives (-er) and superlatives (-est). Since "littler" is a rarely used word*, I use small-smaller-smallest, but also will change from smallest to littlest with my questions.
I gave the fish names, and use this to ask questions. These are common nicknames here in Thailand. You can get a copy of the editable version below and change the names if you'd like.
In the first round, I ask which fish is the biggest, the smallest, and which is the one in the middle. If the students have a higher skill level, you can also insert questions about who eats who, who runs (or swims away) from who, etc. Once they have heard and answered several questions with me using the size comparatives and superlatives, then I switch to gap-fill questions like "Fanta is the _____?" (use a hand gesture or write a line on the board to explain that students should give the missing word). This gets them speaking the target words.
* Littler is a word, but it is nearly obsolete in American usage. (It's also, apparently, controversial to use. Who knew?) I switch to the 'smalls' because it is understood by both British and American speakers, and the "l" and "r" sounds in a single word are big stumbling blocks for many learners. Just the two "l's" are enough.
Slide 7: Star.
The right-hand picture is a ha dao (5-Star) chicken stand. All Thai students know this, but you may want to change the picture. I will point to the chicken stand and ask "how many stars?" The teacher can also do a little side conversation and ask students if the like 5-Star chicken, where is the nearest, etc. (I do this because those are questions that even lower skilled students can normally understand, or I can at least translate for them. This is to keep the lower skilled students engaged.)
Slides 8- 9: Wonder.
For these two slides, I grabbed a translation of 2 different definitions of wonder. The Wonder Woman movie came out a couple days before I made this presentation, so I thought it would be a nice little side conversation. I also included a picture with Superman to give content that will keep the boys interested. This gives an opportunity for a nice little side conversation. Here are a few possible questions that I've used: Is WW strong/smart/kind? (You can repeat for Superman too.) Who is WW's friend? Etc. Most kids know these superheroes, and can probably answer more detailed questions. (I just don't know that much about them.)
Slide 10: Preposition Practice.
For my Thai students, prepositions might just be Kryptonite. I use this as a quick sidebar to practice prepositions. I begin asking what the different objects (Earth, monkey, tree, chicken) are, then go to prepositions questions. I often combine prepositions as well. E.g.: Is the chicken up high in the tree, or down below it? Is the monkey up above the chicken or down below the chicken? (Remember to repeat the answers in full sentences.)
Slide 11: Diamond.
Continue with questions using the pictures. The teacher can ask if a butterfly flies, and then ask who else flies, and do a callback to Superman & WW.
Slide 12: Finish.
Students should now know all of these words. The teacher can begin to sing them, ask questions, or simply have the students practice speaking one more time before singing. At this point, I have the class sing.
Slide 13: Jewel.
Here's a rendition of the complete Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by American singer Jewel. (I never knew that it has 3 verses!) She did such an amazing and beautiful job that I had to include it. I let students listen to at least the first verse if the class has time.
Original (view only): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SDclZCi56Gu7co_QVRoSr6jRKYL0sSxkaWOrYrfVBdc/edit?usp=sharing
Editable version:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1z5EpKYypba9cvvVxJlPFVQbCmBh_-NXzPVNRHTmnmJw/edit?usp=sharing
