Rhymes, Stories and Songs in The ESL Classroom
Rhymes, Stories and Songs in The ESL Classroom
Rhymes, Stories and Songs in The ESL Classroom
Joy L. M. Brown jmbrown [at] una.edu University of North Alabama (Florence, Alabama)
NurseryRhymesandSongs
Nursery rhymes and songs may be used in pronunciation practice. Sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," for example, to practice the "L" sound or "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to practice the "R" sound. The rhymes can also help a student compare how the words may not look the same but are still homophonic. Twinkle, twinkle little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. These lyrics show how 'star' and 'are' rhyme and how 'high' and 'sky' rhyme but the words do not look the same. Songs and rhymes can also build vocabulary while using a form of TPR (Total Physical Response). Games like "The Hokey Pokey" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", for example, teach the vocabulary for body parts.
VocabularyandLanguageDevelopment
The repetitive nature of most children's songs and rhymes help students learn vocabulary and the rhythm of the language. "Old MacDonald had a Farm" is an example of a song that repeats itself. The type of animal and the sound each animal makes changes but the rest of the lyrics remain the same. Anyone learning the song should be able to memorize the lyrics very quickly. To make a lesson more challenging, a copy of the song or rhyme with words missing can be given to the students. The song can be played and the students can fill in the missing words. This helps with listening comprehension, writing, reading and spelling. The words the instructor chooses to leave off the page may change depending on the lesson. If adjectives are the topic of a lesson, the adjectives may be left out of the song or rhyme so a student can fill them in when it is played for the class. The difficulty of the lesson can be changed by the type of song or rhyme chosen and that words are omitted.
CreatingLessonswith MusicandRhymes
The lessons on songs or rhymes are easy to create. Lyrics can be found on the Internet and sometimes on CD covers. Educational authors have seen the demand for rhyme-type lessons to build pronunciation and vocabulary skills and have published several books on the subject.
TongueTwisters
Tongue twisters, which can sometimes fall into the category of rhymes, make great pronunciation exercises. If a student is having trouble pronouncing a specific sound, the sound can be isolated with a tongue twister and practiced. "She sells seashells by the seashore" is a good example of a tongue twister to practice the "S" sound. Many of the rhyming words in a tongue twister show how some words can sound the same but be spelled very differently. "Which witch wished which wish?" shows students that which and witch have similar pronunciations but are very different in meaning. Therefore, it becomes necessary for the pupil to use context clues to decide which witch is which. When the regular lesson is complete but there is still some time left at the end of class, tongue twisters can be a fun activity . They are also good for vocabulary lessons. "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers," for example, may
prompt the reader to ask, 'What is a peck?' The answer is two gallons but new cultural information would not have been revealed if the tongue twister had not been used.
BuildingLiteracySkills
Fairy tales and children's stories can create good introductions into more difficult reading and writing lessons. Rewriting the endings, reading aloud and acting out scenes from the stories are all good language skill builders. Some children's stories have alternate versions based on the original story that tell the story from a different point of view. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, for example, is the story of the Three Little Pigs as told from the perspective of the Big Bad Wolf. The story portrays the wolf telling his side of the story, claiming himself as an innocent who just wanted a cup of sugar for his dear old granny's birthday cake. This story can be used to help students understand point of view, and they can practice their writing skills by choosing other children's stories to rewrite from a different perspective. Students can also bring in fairy tales or other stories from their own culture to share with the class. The stories shared by the ESL students may be similar to fairy tales found in the United States or may be very different. The story of Cinderella may be interpreted in many different parts of the world including Egypt, China, Vietnam and Korea but each version is different relative to the culture of the country in which it originated.
Conclusion
Fairy tales, nursery rhymes and songs are not just for children. They belong to the whole culture and are an integral part of society. Using them to teach ESL students can be fun and educational for everyone involved. Vocabulary, intonation patterns, sentence structure and many other things can be taught in addition to giving ESL students another way to understand the new culture in
which they live. From preschool to adult education, fairy tales, nursery rhymes and songs are an asset to any ESL classroom.
WorksCited
Scieszka, Jon. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. New York: Viking Children's Books, 1989. Shrek. Dir. Andrew Adamson. Perf. Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy. Dreamworks, 2001. Star Trek V - the Final Frontier. Dir. William Shatner. Perf. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy. Paramount Pictures, 1989. www.tennessee.gov: The Official Website of the State of Tennessee. (n.d.). Tennessee Symbols. Retrieved August 5, 2003 from http://www.state.tn.us/education/websymbs.htm The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XII, No. 4, April 2006 http://iteslj.org/ http://iteslj.org/Articles/Brown-Rhymes.html