Has teaching and learning through memorization and drilling had became one very common and boring process in the classroom? Well, i guess is time for a twist in teaching the students English using a very interesting method- Lyrics and Music. People may be guessing what an odd way to teach students using music, but Lyrics Training has made this unique yet wonderful activity a fun activity to be done in a classroom, or as game during bored times at home.
Students nowadays have taken music as one of the important part in their way of life. There is a increase of music listening as radio gained popularity and music videos are inserted to make music. Hence, by using music's fame, we teachers and this magnificent can use music as one of the medium to teach students English in a more motivating and fun approach. In Lyrics Training, music users just have to choose a YouTube-hosted music video and select one of the three mastery levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Expert. As the video begins to play, the lyrics of the song appear.
The link is as below and a picture upload to show the example of the website:
Below is a picture when the activity is been done in the intermediate level.
As the video begins to play, the lyrics surface up. The students need to re-write the original lyrics as the words will be left out as they are sung. The song will repeat the same line of lyrics until the students are able to fill in all the missing words. However, students need to fill in as fast as possible as Lyrics Training will keep track of the time spent in completing the whole song. In other words, this activity may not only serve as a webpage to teach English, it too can be a competition for students to achieve the highest score for playing the game. And this may increase the motivation and interest of the students to learn English through music.
Level and Age of Students
For this activity, students as low as beginners level and as high as advance level can make use of this web site to learn English. This is because there are different levels of mastery for different level of students to choose from to play. The age of the students usually begins from primary schools and can be as matured as college students. This is because music is such a powerful trend in today's society that any student of any age may have the interest to learn when it comes to music. Hence, this activity may just prove to be one of the most efficient yet exciting tool to teach English.
Advantage
Through the thorough explanation above on the website, teachers should be able to see the benefits through using Lyrics training as the medium to teach English in the classroom. Nevertheless, i will try to voice out a few advantages, so that readers will be able to understand more why i have chosen this website as one of the activities in teaching English. There are a few advantages using Lyrics Training as one of the activity in the classroom to teach English. Advantages are as below:
It's lots of fun.
Increase the interest and motivation of the students to learn.
Learning new vocabulary
Promote autonomous learning
Students are required to use different skills, such as listening and cognitive skills.
Spelling training
Teachers able to monitor students in doing the activity.
However, there is a few disadvantage of this activity, in the sense of utilizing it or reaching the aim in learning English. Here are some of the disadvantage:
Disadvantage
Schools need to provide internet connection and also computers, which may prove as a nuisance to rural schools.
Speakers of the computer need to be fully functional as students get the answers through listening skills.
Students may not learn important part of acquiring English such as grammar and sentence structure.
The Movie Making engine Educates English (Dvolver Moviemaker)
English learning in this current society has expended to a certain limit that English learning is possibly through variable ways. One of the biggest contribution towards English teaching is via technology. No one can doubt that technology now may act as a necessity in one's life, compared to as a luxurious service.So, today, i will introduce a website that, in my opinion that will sure come in handy in language teaching and also learning. The link is as below:
Here is an example of the main page of the website
A brief explanation on Dvolver Moviemaker
Dvolver Moviemaker is an interesting website in enabling users to create their own movie. Well, isn't movie making a complex process? The process will include selecting the characters, the settings of the movie, the dialogue, and etc. However, as complex as it may sounds, this superb website intelligently provide step-by-step processes in creating a fun and creative short movie to be presented in class or simply as a homework to be sent to the teacher via email (provided at the end of the movie making process).
Level and Age
This movie maker is an excellent tool for teachers to teach English in various levels. Students as low as primary school or as high as college students, in learning English, will certainly find this website useful and simple to use. Well, teachers should expect the levels of English in the dialogues to differ, as students of levels such as primary school will create a movie with a more simple context, and the expectations may grow as the age of every students increases. Nonetheless, regardless of any age or levels of English the students have, this movie maker will be an enjoyable activity to be done in the classroom or outside the classroom.
The above short movie is a movie made using Dvolver Moviemaker. It may look complicated, as there are dialogues, characters and also music inserted into that short movie, however, the steps are as simple as 1,2,3. Below are ways on using the online media:
Advantages and Disadvantages:
Dvolver Moviemaker has taken English teaching and learning to a whole new level, as compared to the traditional English teaching methods, such as drilling, communicative language teaching and etc. All this methods has its own strong and weak points. Hence, what are the strong points of using Dvolver in teaching an English language classroom? Here are some key points which may prove the importance of adapting technology into English language teaching.
Advantage:
Students are able to express freely their thoughts and ideas in English.
This activity will build up interest among the students, as this activity is fun and enjoyable
It focus more on the language used compared to traditional grammar.
Teachers are able to monitor the progress of the students while they are making a movie.
With these advantages, teaching and learning English in a language classroom not only will be efficient, it will to be an enjoyable and fun class. Nonetheless, there are walls that stands between these so-called 'advantages'. Below are some of the important factors that may prevent this activity from proceeding or back-firing the main aim of the activity.
Disadvantages:
Students may apply inappropriate language in the dialogues as students are granted the freedom to insert any form of dialogues.
Time consuming
Not every students or schools are provided with computers or internet, especially rural areas.
The knowledge in using technology between a teacher and students may differ vastly.
cognitive,language focused,listening,Music,technology
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