Pilgrims HomeContentsEditorialMarjor ArticleJokesShort ArticleIdeas from the CorporaLesson OutlinesStudent VoicesPublicationsAn Old ExercisePilgrims Course OutlineReaders LettersPrevious EditionsLindstromberg ColumnTeacher Resource Books Preview

Copyright Information



Would you like to receive publication updates from HLT? You can by joining the free mailing list today.

 

Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 2; March 03

An Old Exercise

7.1 Colours

Many people associate colours with other things in life that have nothing obviously to do with colour, e.g. days of the week and people's character. We find that our students need little encouragement to associate colour and music.

Level Elementary +
Time 10-40 minutes, depending on the level of students
Focus Names of colours; giving explanations; the four main skills

Preparation

Select three short contrasting musical excerpts (between tem and thirty seconds each) that suggest colours to you.

Procedure

  1. Elicit from your students the names of colours. At beginner level it may help to bring objects of various colours into class and ask what colour they are. At intermediate level upwards it is best simply to ask the class for the names of colours and list these on the board as they say them. Then get them to process this list in one of the following ways:
    • Ask them to put the colours in two different orders – the order of colours in rainbow and the continuum black to white.
    • Take, say, tem colours and ask your students to rank these in order of preference. Then put them into pairs and ask them to compare their order and discuss the differences.
    • Ask your students to decide which colour in the list on the board they most like to have around them and then think of three things that are just that colour. Tell them to write a sentence mentioning the three objects but without naming the colour; they mustn't let other students see what they have written. When they are ready, ask them to read out their sentences to the others in the class (divided into smaller groups if the class is very big), who have to guess what the colour is.
  • Tell the class you are going to play them three short musical excerpts and that you would like them to say what colour they 'see' or associate with the music as they listen. Tell them not to think too hard but just try and let a colour come to mind. Play the first excerpt. Then ask them what colour the music evoked. At intermediate level upwards ask them to try to explain why they chose that colour. If you have a large class, it is best to divide it into groups of four or five and ask them to tell one another the colour they heard and their explanation. Repeat this process with the second and third excerpts.

    Extension

    Follow up with further discussion on colours and their associations. Start with obvious things such as colour and objects, e.g. green and vegetation, blue and sky, purple and royalty. Suggest that some people also associate colours with less obvious things, e.g. days of the week. See if anyone in your class associates colours with anything unusual.

    Suggested music

    On the cassette published with Musical Openings we included:

    1. Vivaldi: Piccolo Concerto (Concerto per flautino) in C, PV 79/RV 443, opening of the first movement. This tends to evoke a broad range of light colours, especially blue and gold.
    2. Handel: Organ Concerto Nº 4 in F, opening of the first movement. Again a range of light colours, especially green and white.
    3. Mahler: Symphony Nº 1 in D minor, opening of the fourth movement. Almost everyone chooses red or black (dark grey).

    You can use almost any music. Baroque music, especially in major keys tends to evoke light colours, whereas Romantic music, especially Brahms, Bruckner and Sibelius, tends to evoke more sombre colours.

    Back to the top