I use songs with children and teens in Korea and China. Did not have the chance to use songs in Canada and Kuwait where the curriculum was more rigid. Songs are really a form of whole language learning and the music and lyrics motivate students so teachers gets very good cooperation in class. Here is a favourite song, with a simple structure. We can use it legally because it is very old and there is no copyright.

OLD ENGLISH FARMER SONG

(I made up the title and used the music from the Ontario Canada group called Hadrain's Wall. Don't know if they are still touring.)

Where have you been all day Henry my son?
Where have you been all day my beloved one?

Away in the meadow
Away in the meadow

Chorus:
Make my bed I've a pain in my head and I wa'ant to lay down.

And what did you eat today Henry my son?
What did you eat today my beloved son?

Poison beans,
Poison beans

Make my bed.......

And what will you leave your mother Henry my son?
What will you leave your mother my beloved son?

Silks and satins
Silks and satins

Make my bed.....

And what will you leave you sweetheart Henry my son?
What will you leave your sweetheart my beloved one?

A rope to hang her
A rope to hang her (Put a rope or book bag strap around your neck and pretend to swing. The class goes wild)

Make my bed I've a pain in my head and I wa'ant to lay down.

Steps for teaching.

1. Write the whole song on the board and pass out photocopies, if you can, to each pair of students or ask them to copy it in their notebooks. Copying is best as this song is good for repeating.

2. Go through the song line by line and make sure they know the vocabulary. I often draw small pictures above the nouns and verbs. For example a small heart above the word "beloved". Teacher can act out most of the verbs for the kids (act out being poisoned). These little sketches or icons help as memory cues, much like hieroglyphics.

3. Ask the class who is speaking? First the father speaks or sings and then the son. Anybody else? No.

4. Henry is going to die and the sweetheart is implicated as making and feeding him poisoned beans ("Delicious aren't they?"). So Henry will leave good things to his mother, expensive cloth. But he wants his sweetheart hanged. Can you imagine why? The song does not say but perhaps, just perhaps, she is pregnant and Henry will not marry her or he has taken a new girlfriend! The students show some shock at this. Ask the class what they think of the situation. You will get some moral opinions. Mention that the baby will not have a father and maybe a mother in jail or hanged. Is it right to kill the unborn baby because of the parent behaviours? As you can see this is a lot for children to mull over. They love it.

5. Ask the class about the content of the song. Where are the computers and cars and subway etc.? There are none. All the references are to country life, mowing grass to make hay, animal food, likely using a scythe. In Koreaand China they use a short hand sickle to cut rice, barley etc.

I found this song on a CD sung by the music group Hadrian's Wall. Try to get it as the kids like to listen first and then sing along with the music and teacher. You can adapt other songs you already have in the same way, but nothing complex and the lyrics should be easy to hear. Music from the 50s is good for this. You may want to point out that the Roman Emperor Hadrian had a wall built across northern England to keep out barbarian Picts (Picts, from the word pictograph) (before the Scotts invasion from Ireland) just as China built walls to keep out Mongol and Turkic raiders. Many Asians are not aware of this wall across England or the degree to which English language was changed and improved with Roman influence, one of the rarely mentioned benefits of colonization-invasion. In a similar way India and the Philippines benefit economically and culturally from the English they know and use.