Visibility of eTwinning Projects Group July 2017 Newsletter------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romanian kids counting in Polish, Portuguese, Czech, French, Ukrainian kids learning Italian or Portuguese, Czech, polish, French and Slovenian kids learning Romanian and so on. Our videoconferences were full of songs as well. For every videoconference we would choose a different song in English, as well as a song in the language of the partner we were having the VC with.
- in Spanish:“ Feliz Navidad”,“ A la nanita nena”,“ Qué Verdes Son”- in Italian:“ Per fare un albero”,“ Carissimo Pinocchio”,“ A natale puoi”- in Polish:“ Kukuleczka Kuka” and“ Na Wojtusia z popielnika”- in Greek:“ Astro Fotino”- in Ukrainian:“ Malinkaia strana”- in Czech:“ Pujdem spolum” and the national anthem
How did we go about singing in so many languages? Let me take you through the process. First we would brainstorm, students, teachers, parents and come up with a few suggestions. We would then listen to the songs and choose one. The students would print the lyrics and look for the English translation of the lyrics so we could understand what the song was about. Next stop, the pronunciation. The students did not have the phonetic transcription of the songs, but the actual lyrics, so without realising it, they picked up some basic pronunciation rules in all the languages, as well as a few words, basic phrases and quite a lot of English grammar( we are talking about past tense simple and continuous in the case of 10 year olds).
Why did it work? Because they loved singing. Once they started a song, they couldn’ t stop till they finished it, even if that meant they would spontaneously start singing in French or Polish while solving exercises during their English classes. They felt confident enough to create interviews for their partners, mistakes and all, to show how much they had leant about the geography of Europe and to share information about their country. We played mime with Christmas related words during some of our VCs and sang carols to each other and together.
Somehow the Romanian kids found it a lot easier to learn songs in all 10 languages, in some even more than one song and the joy they would see on their partners’ faces during the VCs was probably their motivation, whether they were aware of it or not.
So what did we sing? It is such a long list and I might leave some of the songs out, not on purpose of course. Let’ s look at a few examples:- in English:“ Donna Donna”,“ Morning has broken”,“ Over the rainbow”,“ Hello, goodbye”,“ Faded”,“ Lost on you”,“ All of me”- in French:“ La ballade des gens heureux”,“ On ecrit sur les murs”,“ Petite fleur fanne”( in creole),“ Mon beau sapin”
Soon enough, my students’ pronunciation skills had increased dramatically, their listening skills too and they had even come to the point where once we had to read a new text for the first time, they would do it on their own, choosing the order in which they would read, like a well-oiled machine. The same with all the other tasks, I never knew which student would start, who would continue, but it felt so natural and they were all engaged and willing and helping each other, correcting each other and serving as translators for their peers where needed.
So how come singing in all these languages helped them with their English? Well, it is no longer a secret that each language has its rhythm and listening to it while relaxed helps us actually get in tune with it. But what using several languages also does is rewrite the brain and at such a young age,
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