Wednesday, March 14, 2007

A Way to Use Popular Songs

A tip of the hat goes to Literacy Network tutor Catherine Grothe for this week’s tutor tip. Catherine writes,
I was on BBC news webpage this afternoon and followed a BBC languages tab out of curiosity. They had a page for learning English. This had vocabulary for words in current news and even a teachers lesson plan... I hope this is a useful tutor resource.

I visited the site and quickly vaporized an entire afternoon with it. Here is the main site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ It has links that take you to resources in vocabulary, grammar, current events and even business English. Here's a screen shot for you:

If you have access to a quick internet connection, take a look at the site linked below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1529_songlines/.

This part of the BBC English learning service uses popular songs to teach common expressions. The phrase I listened to them teaching today was supposed to, as in, “You’re supposed to take out the trash--” a helpful phrase to understand and say. They give the opportunity to hear the phrase both in the song and in news stories of the day. And, if the technical challenge of playing back music is too much for your machine, you can download and print the program script to use in your lessons.


Happy surfing!

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