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Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 1; January 03
BEAT THE RHYTHM
David Cranmer and Clement Laroy, secondary +adult
Pilgrims-Longman, 1992
Level Beginners +; elementary + with nursery rhymes
Time 5 to 10 minutes
Focus Energizing the class and create a sense of togetherness
Extras None
Preparation : Choose two minutes of music with a clear rhythm.
Procedure
1 Tell your students they are going to listen to music and clap their hands to the rhythm. They remain seated to do this.
2 Play a piece of music with a fairly simple rhythm. (If you use this activity regularly, use pieces with increasingly complex rhythms). Get the whole class to beat the rhythm with their hands.
If the students can do this, they are ready to work together in class and you can move on to the language work.
Suggested music
Do not try Indian classical music, as the complexity of the rhythms can be awesome, but folk music is often sung and danced with people clapping their hands. Any piece that 'invites' people to do this is appropriate. Circus music often matches this description.
Some well known examples:
What shall we do with a drunken sailor ?, This Old Man,
She 'll be coming round the mountains when she comes,
We shall not be moved, Kalinka
African music played on drums and on the 'thumb piano' (lamellophone), known regionally as sansa, likembe or ubi is suitable, for example Francis Bebey's Sassandra (OMCD 005)
A lot of nursery rhymes work well, and singing the lyrics while clapping provides a good transition to language work. The lyrics themselves may be the subject of the lesson, for example: Old King Cole, Humpty Dumpty, Hickory dickory dock, Pop goes the weasel...
Iona and Peter Opie's: Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book (Opie 1955) contains 800 rhymes. Base your choice on the complexity of the rhythm, the pace of the music and the text of the rhyme (i.e., its length, linguistic difficulty and content).
Fast classical Music is suitable too:
1 Handel: excerpts from Water Music; choose a slower movement to start with, then a faster one.
2 Rossini: Galop (sic) from the Overture William Tell
3 Purcell (attributed): Lillibulero
4 Ravel: Bolero
5 Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor - first movement (opening)
6 Schiarazula Marazula
