Judy DeFilippo supervises student teachers getting their MATESL degree at Simmons College and is an ESL (English as a Second Language) specialist. She has authored and co-authored numerous textbooks for ESL students including So to Speak 1 and 2, Grammar Plus, and Great Dictations. All her books are available on Amazon.
Over the years, Judy and I have been in contact for various events. Her knowledge of ESL fascinates me, and her interest and desire to integrate her practices with music is wonderful. Today, I bring to you some correspondence I have had with Judy on some of the ways music and literacy is connected to English language learners.
Developing listening skills with ESL students
There are connections between listening to language and listening to music. If you think about how we first learn our native language, it is through the sing-song voice of our mother. We learn the sounds of our language before we write them down, we hear the intonations of letters and syllables before we learn to read them. Dictations are a very important part to learning and practicing a language, just as listening to music is key to music literacy.
I’d like to share a comment one of my Japanese students recently made on her evaluation of my class: “(I) think dictation is most helpful. To do dictation, I could notice where I couldn’t listen to.” The Asian women in this class had excellent grammar and writing skills but I discovered that they were quite weak in listening. I had them do different kinds of dictations: Pair, cloze, prediction, dictogloss (listening to a sentence only once, writing down what they remember, and reconstructing the sentence with a partner).
In ESL the research tells us that listening is the first skill that is acquired, followed by speaking, reading and writing. We know how listening to language regularly helps build fluency and those of us in the field have integrated music into our listening/speaking courses on a regular basis. Thirty years ago a jazz pianist, Carolyn Graham, introduced her book JAZZ CHANTS at a TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) convention and became an instant hit. This is especially significant for our Asian students who need practice in intonation and stress.
My co-author, Cathy Sadow, begins every ESL listening class with a jazz chant! She also uses popular music. She features one song aweek and plays it at the beginning of each class, M-F. In one class she’ll focus on vocabulary, another class will discuss the meaning of the song, etc. We choose music that students can sing to, like James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Ann Murray, and songs with clear lyrics/messages that are appropriate for class discussion. I began with songs for my core class that focused on specific grammar points, like the past tense. I used Ann Murray’s “You Needed Me”. I’d give them the lyrics in cloze form and they had to fill in the missing words they heard. In another lesson I might give a brief bio in cloze dictation form of the singer, Stevie Wonder or Elvis Presley before introducing the song.
One year I got a surprise Christmas card from a Chinese woman who had been in my class several years before. On the card she had simply written, “I’ll never forget when you played ‘Lady in Red.’ You never know the long term effects that music can have on your students!!
Here’s one more anecdote from my colleague and co-author, Cathy Sadow, mentioned above.
I was going to a teachers’ conference in Texas (in 2001) and called a cab to get to the airport (from Brookline). When I got into the taxi, the (Lebanese) driver said to me, “Miss Cathy?” Do you remember me? I was in your ESL class in 1984. I remember the songs you always played at the beginning of class! ” He then started singing his favorite one and he sang it all the way to the airport!
http://www.elllo.org and Randall’s Listening Lab are the most popular sites for English Listening. Recently Elllo made iPhone application as well. Here is the link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/elllo-english/id417373747?mt=8 Good luck.
Judy, Thank you for sharing these stories and this wonderful resource! I LOVE the idea of learning American English through Jazz. It is a testament to music to hear the stories from you and Cathy about how your students joyfully remember all the musical experiences you shared with them to help them learn a new language. This has really motivated me to learn more about ESL!
Judy, thank you for this post. I love the video of Virginia Graham teaching her jazz chants to teachers. I have introduced her books and music to English teaching volunteers in Guatemala and they love them. I’ll be doing some seminars in Guatemala next month and will share your stories.
Just posted a link to this on the TeachingEnglish facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TeachingEnglish.BritishCouncil if you’d like to check for comments.
Please feel free to post there when you have anything you’d like to share.
Best,
Ann
I love Jazz Chants! Not only do they look fun and motivating, but I think they have potential to be another strategy in the “toolbox” of kids with language disabilities. I am excited to try the vocabulary chant to facilitate categorization/classification with my speech and language therapy students.
Aren’t these Jazz Chants amazing? I think it really utilizes the innate rhythmic and sonorous qualities of speech so well! I can’t wait to hear how you will use them with your students!
I too, love these Jazz Chants! I love the simplicity and that no additional materials are needed. I will definitely create a few chants for my transition times. The students clean up and move much better when there is a beat! Oral language and vocabulary are both important parts of the kindergarten experience, and what a great way to learn it. My students just created their own drums and I plan to use these jazz chants with some drumming real soon. thanks!
There is so much literature encouraging teachers to visually support their instruction with pictures and realia so that ESL students can better connect with the language. So what about music? It’s easy to get a beat stuck in your head no matter what language you speak. I have ESL students that enter my class humming everything from the ABC’s to Deck the Halls. Connecting the beat with real language in Jazz Chants is such a great idea! (Why didn’t I think of that?!) I think I got something going around my head now about numerators and denominators . . .
Awesome! Rhythm is all around us and inside us too. So, ya, using that is just the perfect idea, right? I can’t wait to hear what you come up with for math!
I just started using Jazz chants and the students love them! They also remember them ask for more. So far, I have used the chant “A Pizza Hut” to create a vocabulary chant about jewelry and another about weather. Great fun!
Thanks for the idea for playing popular music also. I will have to try it.
Josh