Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 2; March 03

'I really think it was an excellent idea to improve our classes with music, which I find very important because it makes us more relaxed and able to think.'

'I love your idea of playing classical music during our classes. It both gives us inspiration and helps us to relax.'

These spontaneous comments from our students bring home the two main reasons why we use background music in class, namely that it helps to create a relaxed atmosphere and it helps our students to concentrate. We have used it for the following purposes:

• creating a relaxed atmosphere as our students come into class – those that are already there can listen while we wait for late-comers;
• helping our students to concentrate on written work and making exercises more bearable;
• breaking silence at the beginning of oral work done in pairs and groups – stopping the music is then a good way of bringing the oral work to an end;
• marking a brief pause in the lesson before moving onto another activity;
• ending the lesson as we began.

When you use background music, check two things: firstly, that it is genuinely 'in the background', i.e. not too loud; secondly, that it is not too directional, i.e. strongly directed to part of the room, while in other parts there is too little sound. You can get round this problem by directing the speaker(s) towards a wall so that the sound is reflected into the room.

The choice of music is very important. Other than when the students are leaving class, when you can use lively music, it needs to be above all relaxing. Vocal music tends to be distracting because of the words. Here are suggestions based on what we have found effective:

1. Music by Baroque composers, especially Vivaldi, Albinoni, J. S. Bach (in particular the lute suites), J. C. Bach, Telemann, Pergolesi (above all, the flute concertos)
2. Music by Mozart, especially the concertos
3. Lute and classical guitar music, especially by Dowland
4. Piano music by Satie, the Nocturnes by Field and rags by Scott Joplin
5. Harp music, e.g. Celtic and mediaeval music, music by Andreas Vollenweider
6. Indian music: try any morning raga, for example, one performed by Ravi Shankar or Hariprasad Chaurasia and Anindo Chaterjee
7. Music played on the Asian zither, e.g. the Vietnamese dan tranh (sixteen strings) and the Japanese koto (twelve strings)
8. Japanmese shakuhachi music

Compendia of music for relaxation are a good source and are widely available.

We have also found that our students appreciate listening to nature sounds in the background. An increasing number are available in commercially produced recordings. We have used the following with success:

• birdsong (a general background of birdsong rather than individual species)
• cicadas and crickets at night
• running water (as from a mountain brook)
• forest sounds
• rain beating down (but without thunder)
• a crackling fire

We have found these particularly effective with classes in the evening.