Language development through songs and poetry

Nor Azizi Bin Abd Rahman Muhammad Yazid Bin Ghazali

Teach sound system, vocabulary and grammar

Sound system

If you've ever recited a nursery rhyme, played "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" or sung "If You're Happy and You Know It," you've been preparing the student for learning to read. Familiar songs and poems can strengthen a childs ability to hear the sounds of a language - a skill that will serve him well when he learns to connect sounds with letters (phonics) in school.

Learning how to make music and keeping rhythm are important listening skills.
Teachers can : Create a noise routine that can be choreographed into a favourite song. Make it into a rhythmic pattern using claps, knocking, stomping and mouth noises. You can also help children invent their own musical instruments by building objects out of things like boxes, strings, and pebble shakers. Have the child play with all of the made-up instruments to explore the different sounds.

Besides that,
Nursery rhymes are especially powerful, because they are so memorable.

Songs with rhyming lyrics are also terrific devices for teaching your child about the patterns of sounds.

Combine rhyming with rhythmic clapping or movements.

To teach sound system & pronunciation.

A Rum Sum Sum A rum sum sum, A rum sum sum, A rum sum sum. Guli guli guli guli guli rum sum sum. A rafi, a rafi, Guli guli guli guli guli rum sum sum.

1. First sing the song. Give emphasis to the sound-system. 2. Then change the tune to some of your favourite tune. Sing again. 3. The students are of the ages 11-12, communicative speaking activities can be carried out. 4. Give students plenty of pre-reading activities. 5. Play some background music to create the atmosphere.

6. Show some pictures to introduce the topic, and then get students to think about their personal knowledge or experience related to this topic. 7. They then talk about the poem, first with a partner and then in small groups, perhaps coming together as a class at the end to share ideas. 8. Give brief feedback on language used and note any language problems to be dealt with at a later date.

9. Prepare worksheets for pre-reading speaking activities which might involve a quiz, a questionnaire, sentence stems to be completed and discussed. 10. The students might predict endings to verses, the whole poem/song, or events occurring after the end of the poem. 11. Later, the students could talk about their personal response to the poem/song, discuss the characters and theme or debate the moral issues.

Vocabulary
Students will learn new vocabulary through activities such as word maze, crossword puzzle and jumbled up words. The nursery rhyme Baa baa Black Sheep teaches the students new vocabulary and this can be done through the usage of a crossword puzzle.

Baa Baa Black sheep Have you any wool? Yes sir, Yes sir, three bags full One for my master and one for the dame And one for the little boy Who cries down the lane!

For example

Grammar
Grammar can be taught through filling in the blanks or word scrabble activities. For example, based on the rhyme Baa Baa Black sheep, questions such as Baa baa Black sheep, have you any _____________? can be asked. Words like black can be scrambled to lbcka and the students can be asked to unscramble them.

Other types of activities :

- Listen to songs, rhymes - Listening for specific reasons eg. for words, letters, pronunciation - Sing along ( individual) - Choral / Chorus / small groups singing - Guided singing eg. with lyrics / music - Changing or adapting lyrics - Changing tones, pitch etc. - Dramatization / Role play