How John and Paul help me teach English A brilliant and accessible way of Teaching English as a Foreign Language which I learnt as a student has proved to be the best tool in my box! Using Song Lyrics is just excellent! Music has, for decades, been an International language all of its own. There are many globally recognisable bands out there, singing tunes that have been hits in many many countries. Groups such as The Beatles produced song after song that people the world over can still hum. ‘Yesterday’, ‘Yellow Submarine’, ‘She Loves You’ are widely recognisable melodies, and, although the words aren’t well understood, they are easily assimilated. Use these and other lyrics line by line for enjoyable one-on-one or small group teaching sessions. I’ve had a sing along with my latest student as we discussed and tried out a number of grammar points whilst reading through each line of a number of well known songs.

Try describing some apparently simple concepts, like love, and see where words can take you! We have looked at different tenses: ‘Yesterday’ invites you to consider times and dates – make sure the student has really understood by asking for similar examples, or questions that draw answers that indicate full comprehension (for example: “what was the date yesterday?”). We have certainly considered a good lot of vocabulary too: colours, travel, weather, relationships. My lessons could easily centre on lyrics: we have a few fixed exercises, such as looking at the date, time and (as this is England) the weather; we have set tasks each lesson, such as the vocabulary tray (my version of a memory game: various everyday objects on a tray that we keep returning to until the student has got them all in English – then we re-stock the tray!); and then we have our lyric and see where we go! All from a few short verses: thanks John and Paul for giving the world some great teaching tools!

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website How John And Paul Help Me Teach English
By Andrew Carter

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How John and Paul help me teach English A brilliant and accessible way of Teaching English as a Foreign Language which I learnt as a student has proved to be the best tool in my box! Using Song Lyrics is just excellent! Music has, for decades, been an International language all of its own. There are many globally recognisable bands out there, singing tunes that have been hits in many many countries. Groups such as The Beatles produced song after song that people the world over can still hum. ‘Yesterday’, ‘Yellow Submarine’, ‘She Loves You’ are widely recognisable melodies, and, although the words aren’t well understood, they are easily assimilated. Use these and other lyrics line by line for enjoyable one-on-one or small group teaching sessions. I’ve had a sing along with my latest student as we discussed and tried out a number of grammar points whilst reading through each line of a number of well known songs.

Try describing some apparently simple concepts, like love, and see where words can take you! We have looked at different tenses: ‘Yesterday’ invites you to consider times and dates – make sure the student has really understood by asking for similar examples, or questions that draw answers that indicate full comprehension (for example: “what was the date yesterday?”). We have certainly considered a good lot of vocabulary too: colours, travel, weather, relationships. My lessons could easily centre on lyrics: we have a few fixed exercises, such as looking at the date, time and (as this is England) the weather; we have set tasks each lesson, such as the vocabulary tray (my version of a memory game: various everyday objects on a tray that we keep returning to until the student has got them all in English – then we re-stock the tray!); and then we have our lyric and see where we go! All from a few short verses: thanks John and Paul for giving the world some great teaching tools!

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website http://lets-talk2.com/_wsn/page2.html