Songs and Translation

Just a quicky today as classes start in 13 minutes.

I've been doing this activity with my classes for a little while and I've found it really develops understanding and paraphrasing.

What I do is play the first few lines of a song. Get students to write what they hear. Listen again, compare what they have to make sure it's ok then I ask them to translate what they have both literally and adapting whatever idiomatic language might be contained within the first 4 lines of the song.

After they've translated it I ask them to translate it back into English but they have to avoid using the same vocabulary, as far as possible, to the original.

I then go through the entire song, using some kind of gap fill. when we're done with that I translate another section of the song. then back again. In doing this it makes the students think about exactly what message the singer is trying to convey.

The most recent two songs I've done this with are. Ed Sheeran's hit Thinking Out Loud and the Kooks early naughties classic Naive and of course my favourite all time song Everlong by the Foo Fighters.

You can do it with any song you desire and there are a plethora of options out there on the internet if you're looking for ready made materials. If you look in my materials folder at the top you'll find two or three songs already done. Help yourself.

Ken Lee (ta liba diba dow choo)

Whether you like it or not both talent shows and pop music exist. Some of you may feel the marriage of the two can lead to feeling violently ill, others, myself included, may find themselves strangely drawn what can only be described as TV smack. You know it's wrong. Every fibre of your being tells you that you are fueling an evil empire and you really shouldn't be enjoying it , but something is a bizarre Macarb sence that eveything in front of you is actually really really good when you know it's really really bad.

With that in mind I recently saw a classic clip from Bulgaria's top talent show, a take on Pop Idol. We all know the best part of these shows are when the telentless individuals get on the screen and  it has the car crash effect where you just can't look away. After seeing this wonderful clip I decided I wanted the world to see it. At least those who hadn't already seen it on Youtube. Alas, being but an ESL teacher my world is confiened to the four walls of my cell classroom. Like with all videos i nclass I am loathed to play them without a decent language pay off. So I created a lesson. Taking students through the meaning of diva to the hilarious video. I'm just going to bullet point the lesson and you can find the powerpoint and hand out over in the materials section.

• Get students to list as many artists and songs as they can for the first slide of the presentation which contains 5 different genres of music. 
• Next get them to talk about the common traits between the five women on the next page. Elict that they are Divas and get them to suggest a few more. My personal favourite from a 12 year old student was Kanye West. 
• Then show them the definition and see if that coaxes out a couple more.
• The next part is getting your students to do a gap fill of one of the world's most popular diva's most famous single. Mariah Carey's cover of Without you.
• I then like to get students to think about why certain people become famous across the globe and eventually elicit the main reason is that they can sing in more than one language thus enhancing their global appeal.
• Then comes the clincher. I put up the video of  Ken Lee. Both the link for the song and the funny clip are below. 
• Sit back and watch your students fall about laughing whilst learning the valuable lesson the actually learning what your singing can prevent international ridicule.

All told the activity usually takes between twenty and twenty five minutes and is great for one of those post exam days.

I hope you and your students enjoy it as much as mine did.

Mariah Carey - Without You

Ken Lee

Til next time

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Johnny Cash's Version

Now, I know I'm a very lucky man. I am, obviously, accutely aware of that fact. Some mornings, though, I wake up next to my wife, look into her eyes and realise just how lucky I am. Today was one of those days. For that very reason I decided to make a gap fill activity weith some follow up questions to a song that will always be synonymous with our love.
It's great because it can really lead to a lot of debate about love at first sight. I also like to encourage my students to go out and listen to the covers. Next class we are going to discuss the difference in the different versions and which is the best.
 
I've added the andout to the materials site on the right.

I hope you enjoy it.