This website is designed for teachers in general; it is not specific to language study. The website, which is presented in and offers material solely in English, includes an extensive database of songs (by both American and British artists) which are related to educational, political, philosophical, and emotional issues. The database is searchable by song, artist, or topic. This website is extensive in that there external links available to song information, workshops, a gallery of student projects inspired by these songs, a song lyric reference guide, and multimedia resources for K-12 teachers. The skills areas addressed using this program are listening and reading, as songs can be heard and used in testing listening comprehension, and their lyrics can be read as important vocabulary teaching tools. However, there is also a possibility for speaking and writing skills to be implemented through song, as the often controversial topics they introduce are a jumping off point for oral debate and written reaction. The learning outcomes very good, I think, because songs can be memorized to help students to internalize important vocabulary and sometimes even grammatical structures, as well as provide exposure to native speakers. The technical requirements are simply a computer with internet access; there are no audio files or things to download, only images, so this website is easily accessible. The related web pages of information about the artist and/or the song topic can be projected in a classroom so all students can view at the same time. There is no scoring necessary with this program,
it merely provides learning material scoring is hence up to the teacher. I am very much impressed with this site and the extensive resources it offers but I do have a few words of caution to teachers looking to use it: the songs posted are quite controversial, and there seems to be little or no censorship. That is, songs were posted regardless of offensive content or language. Full lyrics are not provided on the website (only an introductory sentence or two), nor is a sound clip of the actual song itself. It is up to the teachers to carefully research the lyrics and find the song themselves, and decide whether it is appropriate for their students or not.
Type of Material:
Teacher Resource
Target Student Population:
ESL/EFL
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
A search engine which allows the teacher to find songs based on title, artist, or topic is available, making it easier for teachers to find songs tailored to their instructional needs. The external links to additional resources are truly extensive and helpful, especially the page of lesson plans, music articles and classroom activities.
Concerns:
There is little to no censorship on the content and language of the songs. Full lyrics are not provided, and only some of the songs in the database contain links to information on the artist and/or related topics, so additional research is required by the teacher before implementing the song in the classroom.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
This program is extremely useful as a teaching-learning tool because of the great amount of interest it will generate. Songs are fun and easy to learn in most situations, and they provide a fair amount of exposure to culture, something that is often difficult to teach in a natural way in the classroom. Also, the songs can provide an initiative to teach speaking and writing skills. Discussing the meaning of the song, or having students write an essay about the song, etc is a useful means of practice for these skills.
Concerns:
Many of the topics these songs touch upon are sensitive issues, to say the least. However, they are also very real and interesting topics, most likely ones about which students will be eager to talk or write. The teacher must use his or her own judgment to deem what is appropriate for his or her classroom, being careful not to choose a topic which may cause tension or problems in certain environments.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
This website is easy to navigate, and is well organized,
in addition to having effective design. Teachers have a lot of resources at their fingertips, and it is easy perhaps to spend too much time clicking on informational links, and maybe get lost in the information search, but overall every link is useful. The searches are multifaceted in that one can search either for a specific song, or browse many songs among a specific topic.
Concerns:
Since the full lyrics are not provided on the website, the teacher must spend extra time looking for the lyrics on their own. This can be difficult at times, especially with a more obscure song. An additional problem is knowing where to find the correct or best version of written lyrics online.
Creative Commons:
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