Teaching a second language with music and games in primary education.
Several studies have revealed evidence of a
relation between music and language. Both language and music have perceptually
discrete elements organized into hierarchically structured sequences (Mokari, P.G. and Werner, S., 2018; Patel 2003;
Sloboda 1985).
In this blog I propose to talk about the use of music and games for learning a second language in school in primary education.
Previously, I told you that I did my placement at Howell's School. I have been learning how to give my mother tongue, Spanish, that is, a second language for the students.
first of all, a curious fact that seemed to me at school, is that in primary education, they give as a second language Spanish and French, but only give half an hour a week. This schedule makes the students not able to learn much in the sense of grammar or as in a normal class perhaps. Since it is such a short time, the teacher is also not allowed to send exercises so that the students are doing so as not to lose what they have learned. And for half an hour each week it doesn't make any sense to teach them Spanish or French grammar as such, because being languages that don't resemble English at all, you can easily forget what you learned from one week to the next.
A second language for a child is a new world in which he has never moved. Entering a child in a completely unknown place opens his eyes and mind to try to capture as much information as possible. This is a signal to the teacher that he should make the class as interesting and as easy as possible, since they have to start at least to understand the basis of the subject being taught.
In this case, at Howell's School, the way it is used to teach the students and most of the children is through games and songs, as it is the easiest way to learn and memorize as many things as possible. For example, from year 1 to year 6 all the students knew a song of the alphabet, which they repeat every week so that they do not forget and can be able to spell at least and know how to pronounce each word and even know new letters, which in the English alphabet do not appear.
Another kind of game, are by means of technology, for example, the use of Ipads. These are games created by the teachers themselves. They are games similar to Kahoot but more childish. It consists of asking a series of questions with four choices and tries to make sure that the students are the ones who choose the right option. There are many of these types of games, it's just a matter of getting the right one and knowing that it works.
Through these games we get students to focus and enjoy more of a subject different from the others. Being something completely new and/or different, the teacher in my opinion has to be a person who manages the class in a dynamic way. The use of technology in the classroom is now becoming very well known, basically because children live with it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But this can also create bad habits, is that they get used to receive the computer or ipad every day, when they may do the same at home. The best thing is to try not to abuse it and make the children see that the use of technology is for a different and enjoyable learning and that it is not all monotonous.
To sum up, a comment
that I usually hear when I talk to people, is that I am often told that English
people envy internationals, this is because everyone is able to speak
something, even if it is the basics of their language and looking at it from
the other point of view, they feel like “failures"; for not being able to
know a language as well as some of us are able to speak. They say it's
comfortable but there are times when they feel bad and jealous for not having
taken advantage of the time to have learned a language. This is changing little
by little as students are learning mostly Spanish and French which are the
relatively most spoken languages after English. It is true that knowing more
languages enriches more the learning and knowledge of the child but in the
future that serves to move easily where he or she wants.
In this blog I propose to talk about the use of music and games for learning a second language in school in primary education.
Previously, I told you that I did my placement at Howell's School. I have been learning how to give my mother tongue, Spanish, that is, a second language for the students.
first of all, a curious fact that seemed to me at school, is that in primary education, they give as a second language Spanish and French, but only give half an hour a week. This schedule makes the students not able to learn much in the sense of grammar or as in a normal class perhaps. Since it is such a short time, the teacher is also not allowed to send exercises so that the students are doing so as not to lose what they have learned. And for half an hour each week it doesn't make any sense to teach them Spanish or French grammar as such, because being languages that don't resemble English at all, you can easily forget what you learned from one week to the next.
A second language for a child is a new world in which he has never moved. Entering a child in a completely unknown place opens his eyes and mind to try to capture as much information as possible. This is a signal to the teacher that he should make the class as interesting and as easy as possible, since they have to start at least to understand the basis of the subject being taught.
In this case, at Howell's School, the way it is used to teach the students and most of the children is through games and songs, as it is the easiest way to learn and memorize as many things as possible. For example, from year 1 to year 6 all the students knew a song of the alphabet, which they repeat every week so that they do not forget and can be able to spell at least and know how to pronounce each word and even know new letters, which in the English alphabet do not appear.
Another kind of game, are by means of technology, for example, the use of Ipads. These are games created by the teachers themselves. They are games similar to Kahoot but more childish. It consists of asking a series of questions with four choices and tries to make sure that the students are the ones who choose the right option. There are many of these types of games, it's just a matter of getting the right one and knowing that it works.
Through these games we get students to focus and enjoy more of a subject different from the others. Being something completely new and/or different, the teacher in my opinion has to be a person who manages the class in a dynamic way. The use of technology in the classroom is now becoming very well known, basically because children live with it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But this can also create bad habits, is that they get used to receive the computer or ipad every day, when they may do the same at home. The best thing is to try not to abuse it and make the children see that the use of technology is for a different and enjoyable learning and that it is not all monotonous.
Reference list:
Mokari,
P.G. and Werner, S., 2018. Perceptual Training of Second-Language Vowels: Does Musical
Ability Play a Role?. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 47(1),
pp.95-112.
Netten, A., Droop, M. and Verhoeven, L., 2011. Predictors of reading
literacy for first and second language learners. Reading and writing, 24(4), pp.413-425.
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