Using songs in Kindergarten class

 
THE USES OF SONG
 
I.THE IMPORTANCE OF USING SONGS IN LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Songs can be used for a number of purposes and there are many reasons why songs can be considered a valuable pedagogical tool.
1.      Listening
Songs can help to improve listening skills because they provide students with practice listening to different forms of intonation and rhythm. English has a stress-timed rhythm, for which songs can help to establish a feeling (Millington, 2011).
2.      Speaking
Songs can allow young learners to practice a new sound. Songs also have a natural rhythm with a recurring beat that is similar to the stress patterns of spoken English. These patterns make some songs useful for practicing rhythm and stress (Millington, 2011).
3.      Vocabulary
Songs can provide the opportunity for vocabulary practice. Most children’s songs are characterized by monosyllabic words, many of which are frequently repeated. This repetition offers greater exposure to these words and can help to improve vocabulary acquisition (Millington, 2011).
4.      Sentence structures and sentence patterns
Many children's songs have a simple sentence structure or sentence pattern that can become set in the mind of the learner. Songs could be used to reinforce questions taught in the classroom. The length of a phrase in a typical children’s song is short and often uses simple conversational language (Millington, 2011).
5.      Enjoyment
Songs can help to create a relaxed and informal atmosphere that makes the classroom a non- threatening environment. By reducing anxiety, songs can help increase student interest and motivate them to learn the target language (Millington, 2011).
6.      Movement
A natural partner to music is movement. Movement is a nonverbal response for children who do not yet have language ability. Movement and rhythm stimulate the frontal lobes, important in language development. This portion of the brain grows between the ages of two and six.
 
 
II. SONG USING GUIDELINES
1.      Pre-teaching
·         The teacher should use the “Song Using Planner” (in Point III) and “Musical and Motor Skills
Tracker” (in Point IV) as a guide. If a class is taught by two teachers, theyshould work together on the planner. The planner could be checked by the English coordinator.
·         The teacher has to learn how to sing the song properly. The teacher is required to remember the lyrics, music and planned movements to be able to sing the song confidently for the students.
·         For action songs, the movement guidelines are mentioned in the syllabi.
2.      While-teaching

a. Toddlers
Step 1: Theteacherintroduces thesongin an excitingway. Theteachercouldsay“Now let’slearn a song named.../ Now let’s sing the song …”
Step 2: The projector must be turned off. The teacher sings the whole song to the class (with the planned movements).
·         In the introductory lesson, the students don’t necessarily follow the teacher’s movements exactly. The teacher should let them enjoy the song by singing and dancing freely.
·         In the practice lesson, the teacher sings the song line by line (with the movements). The teacher encourages the students to copy each line like an echo.
·         In the review lesson(s), the teacher sings the whole song with the students. The students are expected to be able to sing along and (follow the movements).
Step 3: The teacher praises the students. Along with positive comments (e.g., "Great job!"), the praise statement should give specifics about the behavior the kids demonstrated (e.g., "I’m so proud of you for your nicemovements!").

b. Kindergarten
Step 1: The teacher introduces the song and tells the students one interesting fact about it in an exciting way. The teacher could say “Now let’s learn a song named.../ Now let’s sing the song … The song is about …/ You can find (see) … in this song”
Step 2: The projector must be turned off. The teacher sings the whole song to the class (with the planned movements)
·         In the introductory lesson, the students don’t necessarily follow the teacher’s movements exactly. The teacher should let them enjoy the song by singing and dancing freely.
·         In the practice lesson, the teacher sings the song line by line with the movements. The teacher asks the students to copy each line like an echo. The teacher could say “Now sing along with me”. If the song contains difficult words, the teacher can begin byteaching the words only using the rule of 3, then teach the song.
·         In the review lesson(s), the teacher sings the whole song with the students. The students are expected to be able to sing along and follow the movements.
·         Follow-up activity can be added to the review lesson(s). The teacher should use one of the purposes in the planner to design or to choose the activity from the syllabus accordingly.
Step 3: The teacher praises the students. Along with positive comments (e.g., "Great job!"), the praise statement should give specifics about the behavior the kids demonstrated (e.g., "I’m so proud of you for your nicemovements!")