Sing Your Way to Proficiency

by Kit Lum

SINGING may not sound like a conventional way to develop proficiency in English, but it can be effective. For one thing, English songs are easily accessible – on the radio, on cassettes and CDs, in your car – which means learning can take place just about anywhere at any time convenient to you. You don’t have to be sitting in a formal classroom with a book in hand.

I’m sure you will agree this is a most entertaining way to learn. No pressure, no tests.

So let’s get started right away by selecting a song that is reasonably slow and easy to sing. More importantly, pick a song and a singer you like. Nothing will kill your interest more quickly than having to put up with a tune or a singer you don’t like. Select singers who have strong voices and enunciate their words well.

Listen to the song carefully and pay particular attention to the lyrics. If you have trouble making sense of the words just by listening, use a search engine on the Internet to help you locate the actual lyrics. Listen to the song as you read and follow it with the lyrics. Later, listen to the song again without reading the lyrics. The words should become clearer to you the more times you listen to them.

What can you learn from lyrics? Plenty. For one thing, lyrics teach you about grammar, so look for grammatical structures and note how they are used. In the song Yesterday by the Beatles, for instance, you will note the usage of tenses and time expressions:

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away (use of the past tense)

Now it looks as though they’re here to stay (use of the present tense)

Oh, I believe, in yesterday

In another song, Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens, the present perfect tense (‘has’ + past participle) is used:

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird

You may encounter new vocabulary as well as some common conversational and phrasal expressions. This is certainly a good time to put your dictionary to work. To reap the full benefits of using songs for language learning, it is important that you understand the meaning of what you are singing.

For example, you could pick up some interesting expressions and vocabulary in Peabo Bryson’s song, A Whole New World, from the soundtrack of the popular Disney movie Aladdin:

A whole new world

A dazzling place I never knew

But now from way up here (expression)

It’s crystal clear (expression)

That now I’m in a whole new world with you

Unbelievable sights (vocab: use of the prefix ‘un’ and suffix ‘able’)

Indescribable feeling (vocab: use of the prefix ‘in’ and suffix ‘able’)

Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling

Through an endless diamond sky

Contractions are common in lyrics too. If you’re looking to practise these, you can find them in many songs, one example being the late Selena’s Dreaming of You:

I’ll be dreaming of you tonight

Till tomorrow I’ll be holding you tight

And there’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be

Than here in my room dreaming about you and me

I have chosen the above examples of songs and singers on the basis that they are very learner-friendly. The songs themselves are slow and sung by singers with clear, strong voices, the music does not overshadow the singer’s voice, and the lyrics are well-enunciated (as opposed to songs like Conga by The Miami Sound Machine and Ricky Martin’s Living la Vida Loca, which are fast and emphasise the dance beat rather than the lyrics).

If singing along is difficult at first and you find yourself fumbling with the words, it’s perfectly okay to replay the song, rewind the cassette over the same spot, or refer to your lyrics sheet.

At some point, do plan to put away that song sheet and just sing along. Because lyrics are repetitive in nature, and we learn through imitation, the words will roll off your tongue sooner or later with some practice. The music too will work in the background to affix the song in your memory.

The important thing is not to give up. Once you have gained sufficient confidence in singing one song, try listening to another by the same singer, and see if you can decipher the lyrics off-hand. This is a good test of your progress. Later you may consider leaving the singer behind altogether, and going solo on the karaoke.

Educators believe that using songs for pronunciation practice has an added value for Asian learners because of the many phonemic differences between Asian languages and English. If nothing else, songs may well be one of the most entertaining tools for developing your English literacy skills.

Happy singing!

16 September 2002

See the actual article as it appears in thestar.com.my

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About the author:

Kit Lum is an experienced and certified English teacher who teaches adults and children, and conducts corporate courses in Business English. Visit her website at http://englishone.go-getglobal.com. Use the contact form on the site to contact her for details about her classes.

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