ThePositiveRoleofSongsInEnglishTeaching江苏省海安县实验中学姜加芹Ⅰ.BriefintroductionofthepositiveroleofsongsinEnglishteachingInterestisthebestteacherforEnglishlanguagelearners.Howtoarousethestudents’greatinterestinEnglishclassisduetotheteacher’steachingtechniques.Constantuseoftechniquesthroughoutthelessoncanassistandsupportstudentunderstandingteachingmaterials.However,studieshaveindicatedthat,inmostclassrooms,teacherscometoteachwithideasabouttheteaching/learningprocessformedfromtheyearstheyhavespentasstudentsthemselves,leavingstudentsseverelylimitedintermsofopportunitiestouselanguageinavarietyofway.Mostofthetraditionalteachingmethodspayspecialattentiontotheprocessofteachingknowledge.Teachingtechniquesandlearningstrategiesareoftenneglected.Inthisway,studentsusuallygetsensorymemoryandshort-termmemoryforlearningmaterials.Asisknowntoall,oursenses,suchassight,hearing,touch,smell,registerinformationfromtheenvironmentandmakeitavailableforfurtherprocessinginshort-termmemory.Animportantfeatureofthesensorymemoryisthatinformationregistersonlyforaverybriefperiodoftime.Itistheneitherlostfromthesystemasforgettingorisaconsciousthoughtinshort-termmemory.Short-termmemoryisaveryactive,immediatememorysystem,whichhastwocharacteristics.Thefirstisthatinformationissoonlostfromthismemoryunlessitisrehearsed.What’smore,short-termmemoryhaslimitedcapacity.Althoughseveralideascanbejudgedatonce,theadditionoftoomanynewideascanresultinthelossofthem.So,perfectlong-termmemoryisthedreamofmanystudents.Bybecomingclearonwherewestandnowadays,weshouldchoosetoteachdifferentlyfromthewayweweretaught.OneofthemostwidelyacceptedmethodsforteachingstrategiestoEnglishlanguagelearnerstoachievelong-termmemoryistoapplysongsinEnglishclass.Thewaysinwhichweputsongsintopracticevarywiththesituation,themethod,thetopic,thebackgroundofthematerial,thecontentandtheaudience.Wewillsee,asdescribedinthefollowing,songsreallyplayapositiveroleinEnglishteaching.Ⅱ.AnalysisofthepositiveroleofsongsinEnglishteachingFirstly,songsassiststudentsingettingknowledgeofinternationalphonetics.Asweallknow,it’seasyforevenalittlechildtolearntosing‘ABCSong’easilyandquickly.However,ifachildisaskedtorecitethetwenty-sixlettersonebyone,hewillfeelitdullanduninterestingandeventuallygiveup.Yetthingswillbequitedifferentwhenheisrequiredtofocusonlearning‘ABCSong’.Itwillbemucheasiertolearnthelettersbyprovidingasong,whichtellsusoneimportanttheory------Differentgoalsresultindifferenteffect.Asisthesamewithinternationalphonetics,formostEnglishlanguagelearners,theyareunwillingtolearntheinternationalphoneticsjustbydullreadingandrepeatedwriting.Eveniftheyhavetoremembertheminclass,theycanonlyhaveshort-termmemoryforthemwhilesongscanhelpthemgainlong-termmemoryforthephonetics.Forinstance,whenweteachthemtheinternationalphoneticscalled[ai],wecanmakeupasongjustasthefollowing:Mywhitekite;mywhitekite;wherearethey?Wherearethey?Onmybike,onmybike.Mikecanflyit.Mikecanflyit.Fromthissong,studentsmaygettoknowonething,thatistosay,theletter‘i’and‘y’canusuallybepronouncedas[ai].Asallthestudentsarefamiliarwiththepopularchildren'ssongnamed‘TwoTigers’,themusicfortheteacher–createdsongcanbebasedonit.Inordertoemphasizethephonetics,thewordsandphoneticscanbeseenonthescreensimultaneously.Inaddition,wecanplaysuchkind1ofsongsofteninorderthattheyhavemorechancestoreviewandconsolidatethe...
