Before getting started you need to select the songs you will learn from.
This is important because there are a lot of potential pitfalls. For example,
songs that:
·
use difficult language which
isn’t commonly used
·
aren’t mainstream (nothing
against niche artists, but if part of the goal is to connect with English
speakers, it’s probably more efficient to learn from music which would give you
a common language)
·
are too fast (hard to
learn from)
·
don’t have lyrics readily available
Here are my eight tips to help you pick the right music for learning
English:
1. Go to the right place to find songs.
·
You could search video sharing
sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. They have vast libraries of music videos and
some will also be subtitled with the song lyrics in English.
·
Spotify, a subscription
service, is fantastic because they have a huge selection which you can take on
the go. It’s also useful to see what’s trending and popular.
·
We’ve got all kinds of fun videos available now, like music videos
and movie trailers. There are hundreds of videos for you to choose from, so you
are sure to discover learning materials that are perfect for you. There is something great in our collection
for English language learners of any skill level from “newbie” (beginner) to
native. Just take a look – while casually browsing our videos, you will see
tons of diverse videos covering many different topics and areas of interest:
2. Select the right songs.
·
Pick music you love. There’s
no point to learning English through songs if you don’t really enjoy the music.
This is the
fast track to boredom.
·
Find music that uses the right
kind of language. Language which is not too easy or too hard, and which is
commonly used.
·
Another thing to watch out for
is that sometimes sometimes singers won’t pronounce the sound clearly. Perhaps heavy
metal isn’t the best place to start.
·
You might want songs that tell
a story, which could make it easier to understand and visualize. If you are a
real beginner you might even want to learn children’s songs or Disney songs.
·
Start with pop music and then
branch out. Mainstream, pop music tends to be about love and romance,
which is good because there is a lot of repeated vocabulary. When you are ready
to branch out, you can try more diverse genres to pick up a wider range of
vocabulary.
3. Get “scaffolding” and vocab support to digest the lyrics.
It would be nice if you could learn English purely by listening to the
music. In practice, you will have to spend some time digesting the lyrics and
their meanings so that you understand it first. This is what teachers often
refer to as “scaffolding” (scaffolding is something which holds up and supports
something that is being built. Like training wheels for a bicycle.). Instead of
trying to figure out the lyrics on your own, you can use resources like the
following to accelerate this:
·
FluentU: In addition to having the best music videos for learning English, FluentU
videos all have interactive subtitles. If you hover over a word, the video
pauses and a popup provides a definition of the word. Every definition has
multiple, easy-to-understand example sentences. You can easily add any word to
your own personal vocabulary list. Check out an example of these subtitle definitions
here:
4. Study the lyrics and vocab.
In addition to digesting the content, it’s also important that you review
the vocab on a regular basis. Break the song down, word by word, and try to
master each word so that it’s a part of your vocabulary. You can do
this through a flashcard service like Anki or Mental Case.
5. Sing along.
Unless you’re singing in front of an audience, it doesn’t matter if you’re
the worst vocalist in the world. So don’t worry if you don’t possess any
musical ability. Regardless of your singing prowess, you should try singing out
loud to the music. This forces your mouth to adopt the right shapes and move
with the rhythm of the song.
6. Try to sing from memory.
After a while, you should find that you’re starting to memorize the song.
And then you’re ready to take the next big leap – try singing the song without
looking at the lyrics. By the point, you should be able to find that you can do
a much better job including such words in your everyday speech.
7. Periodically review.
You don’t have to complete learning one song before you move to the next.
In fact, after you get comfortable with one song, you can move to the next. And
then after enough time passes, you can go back to the first song. This is
called “spaced repetition” and it’s been proven to be more effective than
trying to learn it perfectly all at once.
8. Find new music that builds on top of what you’ve learned.
This is perhaps the most difficult step. Each new song that you learn
should have the right balance of totally new vocabulary and in
progress vocabulary. This right level of overlap keeps you motivated, and
also naturally reinforces your previous learning for maximum benefit.
Have fun and enjoy! Music is a universal language and one that we can all
enjoy and relate to. Listen to English songs every single day and you’ll soon
be surprised at how much of the English language you can pick up with relative
ease. When you incorporate language learning into fun activities like listening
and singing aloud to music, you won’t even notice that you’re picking up a
second language.
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