Ideas for using songs to teach grammar.

Photo of teenage students singing a song. If too hard, photo of a CD player, or just CDs, and books to suggest the idea of learning through music.

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Passive voice quiz

  • When working on the passive voice with your students, bring in a few well-known songs (no matter whether in L1 or English) and ask: Who was that song sung / written by? A great example of the passive voice in use and also drawing in the students’ knowledge of the world.
  • Ask students to get into teams. In their teams they must come up with at least 10 similar questions (they could do some research for homework) about songs.
  • Organise a class quiz, where team members challenge each other with questions like: Who were ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Brown Sugar’ sung by? (Rolling Stones) or they could bring in tapes/CDs (if this is possible) or sing a snippet of the song and ask the questions.

Other ideas for using songs in classs

Teenagers: Songs 1: Music in the background

Teenagers: Songs 2: Music as a stimulus for speaking

Teenagers: Songs 3: Music as a stimulus for writing

Teenagers: Songs 4: Activities

Teenagers: Songs 5: Discussion and presentation

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