This document discusses using songs in the primary English classroom to motivate students and reinforce language learning. It provides examples of songs from the LearnEnglish Kids website that can be used to practice grammar points, vocabulary, and listening skills. Tips are given for introducing, singing, and following up on songs in class. Songs are recommended for building confidence, memory, and a sense of community among young learners.

1. There are many activities which you can use with your learners to exploit songs in the classroom. They can
be used with specific teaching points in mind or just for fun to motivate children.
On the LearnEnglish Kids website, you can find a wide range of both modern and traditional songs to use
with your students (http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs) together with accompanying
worksheets written by our young learner specialists and aimed specifically at children learning English as a
second or foreign language.
Why use songs in the primary classroom?
Songs tend to repetitive and have a strong rhythm. They are easily learnt by primary children and quickly
become favourites because of their familiarity. They are fun and motivating for children. They allow
language to be reinforced in a natural context, both with structures and vocabulary.
All songs build confidence in young learners and even shy children will enjoy singing or acting out a song as
part of a group or whole class. This also develops a sense of class identity. Children are often proud of what
they have learnt and will like having the opportunity to ‘show off' what they have learnt to friends or
family.
Many songs can help develop memory and concentration, as well as physical co-ordination, for example
when doing the actions for a song. For the teacher, songs can be a wonderful starting point for a topic and
can fit in well with topics, skills, language and cross-curricular work.
Here are some tips for using and exploiting songs in the classroom.
1. For reinforcing grammar points

2. Some songs lend themselves naturally to teaching or reinforcing grammar points. They may be integrated
into lessons with a particular grammar focus and provide much-needed variety, while contributing to the
overall aim of a lesson. Particularly at lower levels when children are still learning basic key grammar
patterns, songs can play a role as input.
On LearnEnglish Kids there are several songs which can be used in this way. For example the song ‘Quiet,
please!' is useful to practise the structure ‘Can I have...?' and to practise other phrases typically used in the
classroom. You can listen to the song on the website, or print the lyrics to sing:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/quiet-please
The song ‘Over the mountains' provides practice of the present continuous in the context of travelling. The
chorus refrains e.g. ‘I'm driving in a car' are repeated several times and children can produce their own
sentences afterwards: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/over-the-mountains
2. Teaching vocabulary of a particular lexical set
Research into child language acquisition has shown that lexical items may need to be repeated many times
before they are internalised by the child. Songs provide an excellent means of repeating and reinforcing
vocabulary and are suitable for children of all abilities. For example, a song like ‘Pizza and chips' follows a
very simple repetitive format and teaches days of the week. This song could be used with very young
learners for reinforcing days of the week and as a basis for further work:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/pizza-and-chips
Songs are easy to fit in with a topic-based or thematic approach. The topic of animals forms part of most
young learner syllabi and there are several songs which could be used for this topic, such as the traditional
song ‘Old Macdonald had a farm’ (http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/old-macdonald-had-
farm), which also has lots of related games to help support learning:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/category/topics/old-macdonald
‘People work’ is also a catchy song for teaching jobs vocabulary and has a fun element in that the names of
the people rhyme with their jobs: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/people-work
3. Developing listening skills
Longer songs with a wider variety of structures and vocabulary are more suitable for the development of
overall listening skills. For example, the song ‘The ballad of Lisa the lemur’ is a story based on the topic of
the rainforest, and endangered animals and the environment in general. Although quite long, the tune is
folksy and catchy and you'll find an activity worksheet to download and print:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-ballad-lisa-the-lemur

3. Some songs are linked with stories which your students may already be familiar with, for example the
traditional story of Goldilocks and the three bears. The song ‘The Goldilocks song’ is a song based on the
story: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-goldilocks-song
4. Singing
Many of the songs on LearnEnglish Kids are suitable for singing in class or for an individual child to sing
along to. Community singing in class brings the benefit of total participation from all students, especially if
accompanied by actions or mimes. The total physical response (TPR) approach is particularly suited to
younger learners.
Children enjoy singing along and it can really improve motivation. Singing can also improve the
pronunciation and intonation patterns of the students, especially younger children. At primary level,
vocabulary teaching tends to concentrate on single word items, and songs allow learners to learn ‘chunks’
or meaningful phrases of language rather than single words, as well as to learn about how sounds connect
and run together. For example, children can become of aware of using contractions and weak
forms.Traditional songs are particularly useful for developing pronunciation and acclimatising young
learners to the sounds of the language.
Simple songs are very repetitive and good for singing along. For very young learners the ‘The alphabet song’
is a good starting point for singing and reinforcing the alphabet:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-alphabet-song
Before they listen:
It is a good idea to warm up for a song by providing some input. You could do this by using visuals of the
main vocabulary items, or using realia. For ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ for example you can practise animal
vocabulary with flashcards or small toy animals. For ‘The Goldilocks song’ you could provide some
household items, e.g. 3 bowls and cutlery.
Children could predict or guess words from a song, for example predict the animals in ‘We're going to the
zoo’: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/were-going-the-zoo
They could try to guess the missing words in a gapped song.
They could try to put the jumbled lines of a song in order.
They can circle or tick pictures of what is included in the song – see the worksheet for ‘A bear named Sue’
for an example: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/bear-named-sue
They could be asked to order or sequence pictures or words as they listen.
They could complete the gaps.

4. They could sort out jumbled lyrics.
They could be asked to match half-lines.
The teacher could give true/false statements.
While listening
When you introduce the song allow the students to watch and listen to the song a couple of times to
become familiar with the tune. Explain the meaning of unfamiliar words to the children using the visuals in
the flash animations. Ask children to point to any visuals or items of realia as they listen. Children usually
start to sing along naturally without much prompting from the teacher. Performing actions to accompany
the song is a good way to encourage this. The song ‘If you're happy and you know it’
(http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/if-youre-happy-and-you-know-it) is a fun action song
to get children used to joining in this way. For most other songs, actions can be invented for almost any
word or line – ask students to help you invent actions for songs!
After listening
Many of the songs on the website have a topic or theme and therefore act as a natural stimulus for
subsequent reading and writing activities, for example changing the words or adding verses. Many of the
songs have worksheets which support children with this, such as ‘What can it be?’:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/what-can-it-be Or, for ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’, the
lyrics could be adapted to ‘Old MacDonald had a zoo’.
Many of the songs also lend themselves to creative arts and crafts activities. For example, with ‘Old
MacDonald had a farm’ you could make a classroom wall display of farmyard animals. Or for ‘The scary
skeleton’: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-scary-skeleton children can make a
skeleton using the 'Skeleton' craft activity: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/craft-
downloads/skeleton
Some songs provide opportunities for drama and acting out narratives, for example ‘The Goldilocks song’:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-goldilocks-song. You can download masks to use
for acting out both the song and the story: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/craft-
downloads/goldilocks-play
But best of all,they can listen and sing again!