I hope I'm not the first person telling you that music helps with the process of learning a language. A lot of teachers include them in their lessons but songs are not always used properly. There is no point in just hearing music, you have to see them as a tool so you will learn everything that you can from them.
In this post, I'm going to do an introduction that will be useful as a guide to work in every song I'll give you and the ones that you prefer. Of course, I've chosen the songs according to the level and my own taste in music but I'm sure you can learn too using your favorite music.
The simplest thing you can do is listening music, not hearing music, listening it. When we are doing something with background music like studying or cleaning we are getting used to English and some accents but that's not really a big thing. But if you have no time to sit down and listen a song working on it, try with different situations of your daily routine. For example, I discovered that I can concentrate on music while I'm driving and when I'm drawing/painting. Maybe it works for you while you are cooking or doing the laundry. Then you can do exercises one and two because they should be done before seeing the lyrics. But for the rest of them you will need to focus on the song and sit down with a paper and a pen. I will upload a PDF with everything you will need to study from the songs I've chosen but feel free to try and do one by yourself. Just prepare de document and do the exercises few days later, otherwise you will remember the right answers. You can also ask a friend to do it for you, the best thing you can do is finding some one who is learning English and start helping each other.
You don't have to do all of them, just the ones that you prefer, remember that the most important thing is having fun with it. Maybe all of them it's too much and some of them could be too easy or too difficult for you, forcing yourself to do every exercise will not be a big help in your learning. After doing 1 and 2 don't worry about the order.
The simplest thing you can do is listening music, not hearing music, listening it. When we are doing something with background music like studying or cleaning we are getting used to English and some accents but that's not really a big thing. But if you have no time to sit down and listen a song working on it, try with different situations of your daily routine. For example, I discovered that I can concentrate on music while I'm driving and when I'm drawing/painting. Maybe it works for you while you are cooking or doing the laundry. Then you can do exercises one and two because they should be done before seeing the lyrics. But for the rest of them you will need to focus on the song and sit down with a paper and a pen. I will upload a PDF with everything you will need to study from the songs I've chosen but feel free to try and do one by yourself. Just prepare de document and do the exercises few days later, otherwise you will remember the right answers. You can also ask a friend to do it for you, the best thing you can do is finding some one who is learning English and start helping each other.
You don't have to do all of them, just the ones that you prefer, remember that the most important thing is having fun with it. Maybe all of them it's too much and some of them could be too easy or too difficult for you, forcing yourself to do every exercise will not be a big help in your learning. After doing 1 and 2 don't worry about the order.
- Listen carefully and try to get as many words as possible. This simple exercise will help you getting used to the accent of the artist, start concentrating on English and will be the first move to do exercise 2. You don't need to understand every word, with few of them and one or two sentences is enough. If you don't understand anything, don't panic, that's because it is not time for this song. Leave it and go back to it other day, maybe it was too difficult. Look for a slow song, with a different accent, without loud instrumental music... If you are sitting down try to pick a paper and write them down, because it is easier to learn new words if you read and write them. That also could be as a points board so you can listen it again and try to improve yourself getting more words than before.
- Try to guess the topic. What are they talking about? Is it a love song? Is it talking about politics? Some songs tell a story about someone and they are great to learn English because they are easier to understand and they provide good and useful vocabulary. That's not about understanding every word, if you got the main idea that's great! There is nothing worst than setting too high goals while you are learning a language, if you do it you'll be on the way of frustration and ineffective learning.
- Fill in the gaps. It is a typical exercise but it is really effective. You'll lean vocabulary and you will improve your hearing skills because you will leave every contest and concentrate and what you really care. I always give my students a box with all the missing words so they will see the spelling and they can cross out the ones they used. But if it makes it too easy for you, fell free to cut this part of the paper out before starting. It will be more difficult and you will practice vocabulary and spelling.
- Verse puzzle. Divide the lyrics in parts and try to put them back in order while you are listening the song again. You will concentrate on the pronunciation of the first words on each verse to find it but you'll also have to be quick and work with your memory or you'll be lost. ¡Don't cheat! You can never stop the song, if you are lost just keep ordering the last ones leaving some space and then listen again the song to complete the missing parts. If it was too easy maybe you should cut the pieces of your puzzle to make them smaller. Sometimes grammar will help you to find the second part of a sentence.
- Forbidden words. Choose some easy words from the lyrics and change them without loosing the meaning of the sentence. How would you say it? Re-write the song on your own style! That sounds easy but it's not if you choose the right words. That's one of my favorite exercises to get fluent in a language because I'll tell you a secret: Do you know someone that seems to know every word and never gets stuck speaking a second language? Most of them don't know every word, maybe you are even better than them in writing but they can move the conversation to their comfortable zone. They goes around the words that doesn't know so quick that you will not notice that they got stuck. So work hard on synonyms and vocabulary and stop trying to translate what you are thinking (in your own language) word by word.
- Work on the lyrics. Read slowly and carefully the lyrics. Try to translate it. You don't need to write it down but if you are not in a library or with more people around, try to read it out loud. You will learn the vocabulary and grammar collocations while you improve your pronunciation. You can use them also while you play again the song and pretend you are in a karaoke. Sometimes artists say something wrong according to grammar rules just to keep the rhythm or getting a rhyme. If you feel that a verse is wrong don't learn it as a rule! Ask someone before you study it, don't think it is right just because the Beatles or Adele sing it like that. It would be also useful to check exercises number 3 and 4.
- Tell me a story. Add an end to the song. If the story of the lyrics finish in a way that you can not add anything else, change the end for a better one. You don't need to write an essay, with few sentences is enough. If you can, ask someone to have a look at it to check your grammar and spelling but even if no one will review it playing with English and your imagination is always useful.
- Become a poet. Choose few verses and change the rhyme. It has to keep a meaning with the first verse but don't worry about the whole song. It is more complex that you may think, so if you can't find a word that rhymes with the first one use a rhymes dictionary and concentrate on making the sentence. I found this one but there are plenty of dictionaries online: http://www.rhymezone.com.
- Quiz. Skip this exercise if you are the one preparing it. Believe me, even if you leave few days in the middle, you will remember the answers. This quiz is just a test to check your reading/listening comprehension. So forget about the grammar and vocabulary and prepare for the real meaning of studying a language: understand what someone is telling you. You will also train your memory that is an extra point to learn a language. The answers will be in the next page. Don't cheat!
- Look for the grammar. In every song you have plenty of examples that you could use in a grammar book. Choose a topic and review the theory. There is nothing better to study grammar than being motivated with a good song. Sometimes if you learn something with a song that will came to your mind whenever you have this doubt again. I recommended the song Live your life (Mika) to an student that was mixing live and life every day and now it comes to my mind every time I have to explain it to another student.
- New words. If you worked on the song properly you will have a list of new words to learn. I will give you few of them that seems difficult to me, but feel free to add as many as you need. Write the meaning next to it in your language and make a sentence, that always helps.
- Listen the song again. There is nothing better after the hard work than listening the song again and discover that now you can understand almost everything. You will not learn much more this time but it will give you the self-esteem you'll need to be proud of your effort and star with the next song. And remember that we need this happy moments to keep going.
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