Dr. D. Fergal Kavanagh

British Council en Italia

 FASE TEÓRICA:

Fechas:

Jueves, 08 de Enero de 2009 (16:30 - 20:30 H.)

 EXPOSICIÓN Y EVALUACIÓN DE TRABAJOS: No Presencial

Viernes, 23 de Enero de 2009

Lugar:

Aula de Grados, Facultad de Humanidades

Nº Plazas: 30 c/grupo

This talk looks at exploiting one of the most widely available resources to teachers – pop music. I have used this resource as a successful teaching tool for over ten years, in schools of all levels.

The benefits of using songs are manifold, and I begin the presentation by examining these. For students songs are Meaningful, Motivating and Memorable – they are part of their everyday lives – and in this talk I demonstrate examples of Vocabulary, Grammar and Pronunciation activities through songs, before examining why songs work as a language teaching tool.

I then look at which kind of songs are the best to choose for classroom exploitation, using the example of a song about recycling, reflecting a current social problem.

Songs are almost certainly the most widely available source of authentic material for teachers in any part of the world, and are flexible, being easily adaptable to all levels of students. This method of teaching also involves “both” brains, the left, analytic, hemisphere (responsible for language acquisition) and the right, creative, hemisphere (responsible for musical capacities).

By using practical examples throughout the talk, and involving participants, thus creating a positive learning environment, I demonstrate how motivating this method of teaching can be.