A different way of learning English

LET’S MUSIC !!!

INTRODUCTION Are you tired of repeating structures and doing

exercises that are applied to nothing in your lives?

Are you one of those people who think that learning a foreign language is boring?

If yes, you answered that because you don’t like the language or because you don’t like the way it is taught?

Have you ever thought of learning English through something you like?

Probably, most of you are used to listening to music. So, let’s try something together? Let’s use music as a way to study! Shall we start ?

OBJECTIVE The aim of this project is to offer useful

resources to stimulate you to learn English. This material is specially made for you who don’t feel interested in speaking about topics out of your reality.

Now it is time to work on something you like !

LET’S MUSIC TOGETHER ?

TASK Our project is not difficult, but it is not that

easy. You’ll have to do four tasks during this term, involving music. All of them must be presented in English.

First of all, you need to find two or three partners to form a group.

FIRST ACTIVITYA. First, discuss in your group, asking your friends:

1. If they are used to listening to music in English2. What bands/artists they usually listen to3. What bands/artists they don’t like listening to4. If they think it is possible to study English through music

B. After that, discuss in your group and choose one artist to research about.

C. Research about the chosen artist/band and present an overview about their career. Bring the main information and also curiosities, latest news, releases, etc.

TASK You should include in your presentation:

Why the group chose this artist to talk about Where he/she is from What are his/her greatest hits How he/she became famous What are his/her musical influences

SECOND ACTIVITY A. Choose a song by the artist/band your group have

chosen. The song must have an official music video.

B. Analyze the song with your group. Highlight the predominant grammar structures, the topic, the idioms, the curiosities.

C. Bring the lyrics printed to class and give to your classmates. Play the song and present what you think it’s more relevant and interesting for everybody’s learning. Try to promote a debate with your classmates based on the topic of the song.

THIRD ACTIVITYA. Show the music video to your classmates.

B. Interact with them asking questions about the music video.

C. Bring curiosities about the production of the video and present to the class.

FOURTH ACTIVITYA. Prepare a text as a self-evaluation. It’s important

to take into consideration the involvement and learning of each member of the group, tell the part you liked doing most and least, if it were easy or difficult, if you have learned through other groups’ presentations etc.

B. Prepare some material to be published in the class’ blog. It can be a summary of your research. (One student will be responsible for managing it)

RESOURCES In order to help you finding information easily, some websites

were selected:

FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT MUSIC:

http://new.music.yahoo.com/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/music http://blogcritics.org/music/ http://www.metacritic.com/albums

FOR DOWNLOADING SONGS:

http://www.4shared.com

FOR MUSIC VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/music http://www.music.com/

TO RESEARCH LYRICS: http://letras.mus.br http://vagalume.com.br

FOR CURIOSITIES ABOUT THE PRODUCTION OF MUSIC VIDEOS:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=behind+the+scenes&aq=f

TO DOWNLOAD PROGRAMS, IN GENERAL: http://www.baixaki.com.br

EVALUATIONCRITERIA E G R B

CLEARNESS

DYNAMIC

CREATIVITY

ORIGINALITY

• In the end, your project will be evaluated on the following criteria:

CLEARNESS DYNAMIC CREATIVITY ORIGINALITY

E - EXCELLENT / G - GOOD / R - REGULAR B - BAD

COMMENTS :

FINAL CONCEPT :

CONCLUSION After completing all these steps it’s expected

that you feel more interested about the language and understand that it’s possible to join studying and entertainment.

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THIS WEBQUEST ? DID YOU LIKE IT ?

CREDITS Webquest designed as part of the project for the

subject Practice of English Teaching I – The Use of Technology . It is supposed to be used with intermediate/advanced students.

Group: Gabriel , Leandro Léo and Lucas de Castro

Institution: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Professor : Janaína Cardoso.