Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 2; March 03

For many people a love of music of one kind or another is a vital part of their life. This activity provides a framework for sharing that love of music. Use any music that you enjoy and that you would like others to hear.

Level Lower intermediate +
Time 20 minutes +
Focus Talking about musical likes/dislikes; describing music

Procedure

1. Tell your students they are going to listen o some music and you would like their reactions to it.
2. Ask them what kind of expressions they think they will need to talk about the music (e.g. ways of expressing likes and dislikes). Elicit examples that they already know and add further expressions according to your students' level. If you think they are appropriate, include the expressions below – they have all arisen in our lessons.

   Likes and dislikes
   I can't say that I like it.
   It doesn't do anything for me.
   I find it ...
   I'm not used to listening to this kind of music.
   It's the kind of music you can grow/learn to like/appreciate.

   Reacting to music It's - boring.
   exciting.
   I find this music relaxing.
   restful.
   This piece - is sumptuous.
   passage - repetitive.
   excerpt - monotonous.
   movement - sensuous.
   sad.
   

   Recognising music
   X is one of my favourite singers/composers.
   Whenever I hear this ...

   Forming associations
   When I hear this I think of ...
   It reminds me of ...

   Sometimes students want to refer to a particular point in the mujsic an want to use expressions such as:

   The bit that goes ...
   ... where the music gets faster/slower/louder/softer ...

   When they talk about the physical quality of sounds, the students often need these words and phrases:

   loud; soft/quiet – volume
   high/top notes; low/bottom notes – pitch
   sharp (above the note); flat (below the note); out-of-tune – tuning

3. Play the music.
4. Ask your students for their reactions. Chair a d discussion. As they talk, write on slips of paper anything they say that you wish to draw attention to (one per slip of paper) these may be errors or good turns of phrase they have said.
5. Optionally, repeat Steps 3 and 4 with one or more further pieces of music.
6. Divide the class into groups. Divide the slips of paper equally among the groups. Ask each group to decide which slips contain errors and which good phrases. Tell them to correct the errors.
7. Discuss the good phrases, the errors and their corrections with the class.

Variation 1
Instead of pre-teaching the items in Step 2, you can let these expressions arise spontaneously in Step 4, helping your students as the need arises.

Variation 2
Ask one or more students to supply the music. This can become a regular feature of your classes, with different students bringing the music on different occasions.

Acknowledgement
Thanks to the many students who have contributed in a great variety of ways to this activity.