Singing and Learning English with fun: Back to Cool 90s

Music can play a really important part in the language classroom. It can change the atmosphere in the room within seconds. The lesson of the “Practical course of the second foreign language and translation” held by associate professor Oksana Ivanova, helped the fourth-year students-philologists immerse them in the atmosphere of the period of their parents’ youth, try fashion and style that were considered modern and daring in far back in 90s .
Timeless sitcom “Friends” reunites generations, touches everyday issues and inspires to non-standard lessons of English. Consulting with moms and dads about look in the style of 90s , girls tried to do their best. And, of course, watching movie with a cup of cappuccino and cookies, created the atmosphere of those far away 90s in the class, caused positive emotions and friendly atmosphere in the group.
Hits of 90s became the topic of our lesson and took my students breath away.
Songs sung in English are listened to around the world and students can often feel real progress in their level of English when they can begin to sing along together or even just to be able to separate what at first seemed to be a constant stream of words! Songs provide a valuable source of authentic language and there are hundreds of ways to exploit them in the classroom.
I tried to practice some of them:

• Karaoke singing
• Discussion the feelings of the singer
• Matching the phrases to make a couplet in small groups and sing it
• Flashmob (teambuilding)
• Different types of music provoked very different reactions within the students. I explored this by playing a selection of different types of music for a minute or so each and asking students to write some adjectives of how they feel when listening to the different types.

Therefore, the lesson was like a real festival with costumes, fun and legendary songs! Let’s make our life more colourful and amazing with such small holidays during lessons!

Ivanova Oksana, Associate Professor of the Department
of English for Technical and Agrobiological Specialties