Who agrees with me if I say that music is one of the very best ways of learning a language? The tune stays in our brain, the vocabulary is acquired at ease and pleasantly, the phonetics are learned without even noticing, and both listening and speaking skills are developed while joyfully listening to a favorite song that is a pleasure to our ears.
I am a big music advocate. I firmly believe that music is one of the best resources to learn or hone one’s language skills. And taking into account the charming and outstanding Francophone music industry, why not taking advantage of it and integrating it in the FLE classroom?
Being a Middle School teacher, music has become a key element of my course. My teenagers love the groups, they become their fans! Little do they know that they are actually learning a bunch of language while enjoying their favorite tunes. They get so much into it, that they start downloading their favorite group’s songs in I tunes (and I do not ask them to do so!), how awesome is that?
Bearing this in mind, I thought of a fun and very educational project for my students. Creating a music clip with their favorite song from their favorite Francophone singer/group. The results were amazing.
To start with, I provided my kids with a broad list of songs/groups of my favorite singers. They were also allowed to use a different singer, but I always had to previously accept their song (that they submitted to me via Schoology for approval).
This is the list that I give my students with my dearest Francophone artists:
Coeur de Pirate, Carla Bruni, M, Vincent Delerm, Cali, Julien Doré, Yael Naim, Têtes raides, Serge Gainsbourg, Camille, Benabar, Axelle Red, Joe Dassin, Mickey 3D, Matmatah (Emma is one of my favorites), Brigitte (la vengeance d’une louve, battez vous…).
This is an assignment that they really love. It is fun, it involves technology, and it is educational at the same time.
These are some of the videos that my students created last year. Enjoy.
My World And Language 