Diana Kinser examines how singing can be a powerful tool in the Modern Foreign Language classroom, helping students understand the cultural context and mechanics of a language.
I have always loved to sing. One of my earliest memories is sitting on my front steps, around five years old, singing Silent Night. I would sing it at any time of year, and I would sing it over and over again. In fact, most of the songs that I learned when I was child, I still know. This is but one illustration of the profound power of song.
Music allows us to more easily remember information, lyrics help us to learn pronunciation and vocabulary, and the combination of music and lyrics provides a beautiful tool that teaches us about culture. In the Modern Foreign Language (MLF) classroom, we are interested in students gaining cultural competency as well as learning a framework for sounds and vocabulary. Teaching a variety of songs from the enduring culture of the target language is an effective way to accomplish this.
It is not necessary to have formal music training to begin teaching your students the songs of other cultures. You can easily use YouTube, Spotify, CD’s or other music platforms to help teach the tune. You must, however, actively seek out culturally relevant songs. If possible, ask native speakers for song suggestions, look on target language children’s websites for nursery rhymes and chants, and look in bookstores in the countries that speak the target language for songbooks. Choosing culturally enduring songs requires you to also explain meaning and cultural significance for the songs you teach.
A simple method for teaching a song would be to first help the students understand what role the song plays in the enduring culture and what makes it worthy of study. Then, make sure to introduce the song as a whole before breaking it down into its parts. Using hand motions and pictures can be useful. I tend to create my own page with the lyrics that include images to help students understand meaning. Finally, using the first or last 10 minutes of a class period, once or twice a week, listen to and sing along with the song as a group. We teach one song per quarter in eighth grade. If possible, at the end of this time period, we find a low-stakes performance opportunity which creates some expectation on the group to learn it as well as they can and to demonstrate the skills they have gained.
Songs are an invaluable tool for helping students learn the mechanical aspects of the language, such as pronunciation. As a student listens to a song, they start to understand the flow and rhythm of the language, and when they begin singing along they learn how to imitate the sounds of the language. We know that even the muscles of one’s mouth develop around the languages they speak, so singing in an unknown language builds students’ abilities to form those sounds. Students have an easier time picking up on particular vocabulary since in one song the words are often repeated over and over again. As students listen and sing along, they will start asking why certain expressions are used, why certain subjects are sung about, and what values are important to the target culture. As teachers, we can then help students to compare and contrast these values to their own, deepening their understanding of the human experience.
MFL teachers should consider using a wide variety of authentic songs that illustrate the enduring culture of the target language. Through these, we learn how the speakers view the natural world and their relationship to it including abstract perspectives about good and evil. These songs can be children’s songs well-known to the culture such as songs that have been passed down from generation to generation, folk songs, religious songs, songs for rites of passage such as birthdays, funerals, and graduations, and holiday songs. These songs teach the abiding culture and are most effective in making connections to history and literature. When taught with intention, these songs will ensure that students come away from their language studies with an indelible song-memory that music tends to offer us as well as a deep connection to the target culture.
Teaching or exposing students to appropriate modern-day songs can also have its place. Students generally show a lot of excitement when the sounds and rhythms are something familiar. Once a year, our program participates in Manie Musicale, a song competition in which the students can vote for the songs they prefer from a predetermined set of songs that include a wide variety of popular, school-appropriate French music. This gives students exposure to popular forms of song in the current culture of the foreign language, and students generally find songs they enjoy and even continue listening to them outside of class. As a bonus, their desire to interact with the language outside of the classroom ensures the continuation of learning and demonstrates ownership of the students’ learning, which is a cornerstone goal of every language teacher! Over the summer, I had a former student tell me that they still regularly listen to some of the music they heard through Manie Musicale.
Whether the song is traditional or modern, songs are naturally engaging and an excellent vehicle for teaching students the sounds of the target language while also giving them an insight into the target culture. Singing together is a shared experience that allows students to step out of themselves and to feel the beauty of community; something bigger than themselves. Could you imagine a student attending a ‘Messe de minuit’ (a Christmas Eve midnight mass service) in France and being able to join in with ‘Il est né le divin enfant’, a song that is sung at every Messe de minuit? Their participation would give them a sense of belonging as they sang along with the native French speakers and more deeply experienced this French tradition.
