ESL Songs
Deborah Jeter

The Music Educator has to wear many hats in order to fulfill the needs of multi-faceted, special needs programs nowadays. While that is all well and good, sometimes, (especially those of us who have been in the profession before these special needs programs were instated), we may feel a bit "behind the times" and not too well equiped to deal with these programs.

While surfing for another area a few weeks ago, I ended up accessing a lot of ESL (English as a Second Language) lessons, especially those geared toward using music.

These web sites could be of great help in putting together some interesting lessons for your ESL students. At the same time, all of the boys and girls whether they be ESL students or not, will have the opportunity to learn something new through music!

The <a href="http://www.lingolex.com/userpages/language.html">first site</a> offers a lesson using a Beatles song. 
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Parts of the phrases used in the song are left blank and the student is supposed to write the correct word. The author says, "First, you pantomime the actions as you say the phrases. Repeat this stage numerous times, so that they, (the students), can start connecting words with actions. Get a student to *act* the actions while you say the phrases.This reinforces the meaning of the words. The physical act helps them remember the words." This is the front page of the <a href="http://www.eslgames.com/edutainment/">Edutainment site</a> in case you might like to see what else this web author has for you.

The <a href="http://www.eslgames.com/">ESL Games</a> page was created to pass-on the web author's most useful tools! There are some very clever and innovative ideas here. This should be a lot of fun as well as educational for your students.

The next site on the list, offers a great list of links for ESL educators, but special interest to us music educators, is the link to <a href="http://www.mudcat.org/">MudCat Cafe's</a> Digital, Traditional Song Database and the link to the Grimm's Fairy Tales. Very nice sites, both of them, and extremely helpful in providing the students with multi-cultural experiences.


A Fun Link to Try

<a href="http://www.zoellnerartscenter.org//encyc_accordion.html">Play the Accordion</a> and there are lots of instruments that you can play on the internet, look at and learn about. This might be a great spot to send your kids, if they are wanting to learn an instrument, but aren't quite sure which one.