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Christmas carols
Teacher:
Yeslen Camacho Hernandez
Date:
1.1. BACKGROUND
WORD ORIGIN
The word carol or carole is a medieval word of French and Anglo-Norman origin, believed
to mean a dance song or a circle dance accompanied by singing. Broadly defined, carols
express religious joy and is often associated to the Christmas season. Carols are also used to
describe late medieval English songs on various subjects with a verse and refrain. Often the
verse
and
refrain
(also
called
burden)
alternates.
HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS CAROLS
It is unclear when the first carol was written but it is believed that circa 1350 to 1550 is the
golden age of English carols and most of the carols followed the verse-refrain pattern.
During the 14th century carols became a popular religious song form. The theme often
revolved around a saint, the Christ child or the Virgin Mary, at times blending two
languages such as English and Latin.
By the 15th century the carol was also considered as art music. During this time, elaborate
arrangements were made and carols were considered an important contribution to English
medieval music.
The Fayrfax Manuscript, a court songbook featuring carols, was written by the end of the
15th century. The songs were written for 3 or 4 voices and themes were mostly on the
Passion of Christ.
By the 16th century though, the popularity of carols faltered, almost disappearing entirely if
not for the revival that happened by the middle of the 18th century. Most of the carols we
know today were written during this period.
1.2. JUSTIFICATION
THE IMPORTANCE AND THE ROLE OF SONGS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING
In our time, it is hard to escape music and song as it occupies ever more of the world
around us: in operating theatres, restaurants and cafs, shopping malls (muzak), at sports
events, in our cars, and literally everywhere. It would seem that the only place music and
song is slow to catch on is in schools (T. Murphey, p. 4). And it is exactly schools, that
could use the best and the most the immense potential a song disposes. Songs have a place
in the classroom for helping create that friendly and co-operative atmosphere so important
for language learning, but they can offer much more, claims D. T. Griffee, and I will try to
complete his idea by giving other instances of the importance songs have.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
In the previous chapter we referred to the cultural significance of some songs in the past.
However, it is also the present culture in more modern songs that has its meaning. To sum
up: Bringing a song into the classroom entails bringing the culture of the song in with it.
And thus songs can be used as a way of looking at a culture and comparing it with other
cultures (D. Griffee, p. 5). From this point of view, it can be perfectly used as a crosssectional topic. I would like to add to this contemplation about the importance of cultural
background of songs in language teaching Dale T. Griffees statement. Songs are part of
what makes a generation a generation and the current generation is a global.
THE HELP OF SONGS WHEN LEARNING PRONUNCIATION
Songs can be very helpful as far as learning pronunciation is concerned. They provide the
authentic language with all its traps (such as connected speech, different pronunciation of
the same sound, or difficult pronunciation of some words) laid for learners, who should be
exposed to it as much as possible to strengthen their ability to understand it. In the
following subsections we will concentrate on three areas of difficulties in pronunciation
(sounds, words, connected speech), and on explaining why songs can be useful when the
learners are caught into these traps of language
In short words. Music improves listenings students and it makes them understand words at
the moment of listening, so this thing make students be ready for the real live in a real
contexts where culture and listening take an important place to communicate each other.
For this reason this Christmas carols project pretend use the previous knowledge that
students have and combine them with a new vocabulary and new expressions (idiomatic
expressions) that only English speakers have.
1.3.1 DISTRIBUTION
GRADE AND GROUP
ST
1 A
1ST B
2ND A
2ND B
3RD A
3RD B
CHRISTMAS CAROL
The Little Drummer Boy
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Rudolf The Red Nosed Render
Silent Night
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Jingle Bells
1.3.2. EVALUATION
Each Christmas carol is going to be evaluated taking into account, the abilities that each
group show, attitude to the activity, organization, Christmas carol learned, Pronunciation
and fluency, rhythm and choreography, clothing.
Evaluation
Christmas carol learned
20%
Pronunciation and fluency
20%
Attitude to the activity and organization
20%
Rhythm and choreography
20%
clothing
20%
Total
100%
The evaluation is going to be given by a judgment, which is going to grade each point of
the evaluation, they are going to show who is going to be the winner as: 1 st, 2nd and 3rd
place. Based on the evaluation sheets that they are going to have and a copy of the lyrics of
each Christmas carol.
Note: the judgment and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place are going to get an acknowledgment of
participation.
1.3.3. TIMETABLE
It is pretend that the event stars 5:10 in order to put in order all the elements that this event
require, such as: judgment table, audio testing, materials, etc.
At 6:00 the event is going to taking place and so on each group will have the enough time
to present their Christmas carol.
TIME
6:00 pm
6:10 pm
6:20 pm
6:30 pm
6:40 pm
6: 50 pm
7:00 pm
1 A
1ST B
2ND A
2ND B
3RD A
3RD B
Judgement
VO.BO
EL DIRECTOR
CHRISTMAS CAROL
The Little Drummer Boy
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Rudolf The Red Nosed Render
Silent Night
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Jingle Bells
Results
ELABOR
___________________________________
_______________________________________
PROF.
APPENDIX
10
Silent Night
11
12
Jingle Bells
13