I am from Alabama in the United States, which is part of the region known as The South. There, the genre of country music is very popular. So teaching English with country music was a great way to creatively teach English through music while also sharing culture from my home. The following activities were done over two lessons.
The first lesson focused on teaching English expressions and metaphorical words through song lyrics. This lesson included two songs. Before playing each song, I had the students write down the target language and instructed them to draw checkmarks beside them whenever they heard them sung. The first song is called "Starting Over" by Chris Stapleton. Below is the target language pulled from the lyrics of the song:
I’ve had all of this town I can stand
Saving for a rainy day
Take our chances and roll the dice
Lucky penny
Four-leaf clover
Look back and smile
Again, the students wrote these phrases down and drew checkmarks beside them as they heard them throughout the song. I also created a gap-fill with the lyrics and each phrase marked by a number. The students must fill in the corresponding number of the phrase that they hear. There are also other places where students must choose the correct word out of two options as they hear the lyrics. These aren't the target language but help ensure that students are paying attention to the song. Below is the gap-fill lyrics:
Below is a link to the music video of the song:
Since I know how to sing and play guitar, I performed this one myself in front of the class. The students enjoyed that! After the song, I led a class discussion to figure out the meanings of the words and expressions using contextual clues and students' prior knowledge. I explained their meanings as necessary but gave students the opportunity to share their own explanations. Finally, we discussed the general meaning of the song. Again, I gave students the opportunity to give their own explanations first.
The same activities were done for the second song, which is called "Does to Me" by Luke Combs. This time, I didn't actually perform the song but played the music video. Below is the target language:
Dreamer
Hell on wheels
Full head of steam
Felt like a king
Average Joe
Wear this heart on my sleeve
Said “I do”
Worn out
I stand up for what I believe
Below are the gap-fill document and music video:
The second lesson was a follow-up of the previous song ("Does to Me") where students create their own verse to the song. This is better suited for higher-level learners. In the beginning of class, we watched the music video again and discussed the general meaning, which is that some things in one's life may not seem very important to other people, but to him or her, they mean a lot. As the refrain states, "And that might not mean much to you, but it does to me."
I showed students an example of a verse from the song and explained the following formula:
The first line is a situation, describing who he was. Thus, it starts with the lyric, "I was a. . ." The
second line is simply a detail to further describe the situation. The third line is a misfortune or
piece of bad news related to the situation. The fourth line is a "but" statement, explaining a piece
of good news that is in spite of the misfortune/bad news of the third line. The fifth line is the
refrain: "And that might not mean much to you, but it does to me."
Below is the example verse that I showed. Hints of the formula are included in parenthesis as well as the rhyme/alliteration scheme (AABB). That is, the first two lines end with similarly sounding words, and the last two lines do the same. The example used is the fourth verse of the song:
To make their own verses, I instructed students to think of something important and meaningful in their lives. This could be something they possess, a person they know, or a past experience they have had. I instructed them to each write a verse about it using the formula and example. To give them an additional example and encourage them of their capabilities of doing this, I showed them a verse that I did myself, and I explained how I used the formula to write it. Below is the verse that I wrote:
The rhyme/alliteration scheme was not necessary, but I told the students that they could try to utilize it in their verses if they wanted to. With the last few minutes of class, the students that finished and were willing to share read aloud their verses in front of the class. In the following class, the rest of the students did the same.
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