lunes, 9 de abril de 2018

Lyricstraining and the 4 language skills




Lyricstraining.com is a web site in which users can listen to songs while filling the gaps in the lyrics, or typing the whole lyrics. It stops when the user do not type the correct words or when is having trouble, and accepts only correct answers.   

The site currently supports songs in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, Turkish, Japanese (romaji), Finnish, Polish and Dutch.There are five modes of using the site:


  • karaoke: just reading the synced lyrics, no points to be gained
  • beginner: 10% of the lyrics are hidden
  • intermediate: 25% hidden
  • advanced: 50% hidden
  • expert: typing the whole text



Lyricstraining is an important tool in the language learning field, because let students develop and improve their 4 language skills, in a fun and easy way. They are constantly writing words (when filling in the gaps), listening words or phrases (in order to write the correct answer), reading the lyrics (in the case of beginner, intermediate and advanced mode), and finally speaking (in the case of karaoke). In addition, Lyricstraining is highly useful for improving grammar, because students learn new vocabulary and expressions.

On the other hand, This web-site seems to be attractive, novel and interesting, due to the wide variety of songs, artist, genres and the entertainment quality of music videos. In the case of EFL students, these factors influence in their interests because they are not learning in a mandatory way. On the contrary, they are learning in a relaxed and enjoyable way.

I might use Lyricstraining in my classes as a reinforcement of what was seen during that lesson. For example, if the class topic was “past simple”, at the end of the lesson we would search for the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles (because almost the entire song contains past simple structure). In this degree, the idea is to search for the appropriate song according to the class topic or the grammar structure studied in that lesson.

Personally, I think that the main limitation of Lyricstraining, for the purpose of language learning, are the inappropriate words or slangs that some songs contain. We have to consider that many song lyrics contain language jargon or words commonly used during informal conversation. In addition, song lyrics often contain reduced word forms of some terms (such as "wanna" or "gotta"), as well as some incorrect grammar structure (such as “she don’t”), and this may be confusing for some EFL beginners.


As a way to improve in this area, Lyricstraining web site should incorporate a reference section to highlight or explain examples of more nuanced uses of language. In addition, it should incorporate a “kids section” which would be out of songs with inappropriate words.

Video: "Aprende Inglés cantando" Channel: Ana Mathias




www.lyricstraining.com

1 comentario:

  1. I like the way that you would implement this technology into your class, I might as well do it. I agree with what you said about the limitations, almost every song nowadays has an inappropriate language. When it comes to the way the post is written I'd say everything is perfect.

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