Mr. Al Shamali Presenting his Paper

Part of the Conferencse

     Mr. Faisal Al Shamali, instructor at DU, presented a paper in “Shaping the Way We Teach English: Successful Practices” in a conference in Amman, Jordan. The paper was about using songs in teaching English language. It discussed the several reasons why teachers use songs in language teaching. One of the main reasons is the friendly atmosphere songs create in the classroom. A teacher of English needs to be imaginative, creative and innovative and songs in English Language Teaching (ELT) can certainly assist to make the process of teaching and learning more interesting and effective.
Then it explained the hundreds of ways to exploit songs in ELT. Teachers can get students to listen to songs that describe people, places or emotions. Young learners can write stories or poems of their own. Teachers can ask students to put lines in order or simply to fill the text with single words or phrases that are missing. They can also ask students to listen to a song and predict what the title might be or to tell the story described in the song in their own words.
After that, it discussed how teacher could pick up their songs. This was probably one of the most important issues; first of all you (teacher) always want to make sure that the singer has a nice clear voice. No matter what their level of English, learners are easily frustrated when they cannot understand a word. The recording should also be of a good quality. A studio album would be a better choice than a concert version of a song. A CD can obviously give much better sound than a cassette. Another very important point was whether or not the language and also the subject matter are of suitable and appropriate level of difficulty. It is a good idea if you ask your students what types of songs or favorite artists they like at the beginning of a semester.  
The researcher claimed that songs can serve as a stimulus not only to increase students’ interest, motivation and self-confidence in language learning, but also to maximize their involvement (involving themselves in classroom activities), interaction (talking to each other), and production (using their own language). Using songs has always been the researcher’s passion and he has always been happy as both a learner and a teacher take the challenge of working with songs whenever possible. He would strongly recommend using songs in ELT as he knows students also enjoy them a lot!
Good luck and have fun!