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Using Jazz Chants in an EFL classroom
If you are looking for fun ways
to enlarge your students’ vocabulary,
to enable them to practice pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation,
to introduce or practice lexis and grammar in context,
to improve their speaking and listening skills
then jazz chants might be a great solution. Jazz chants were introduced by
Carolyn Graham. A jazz chant is a short poem or chant that illustrates natural
stress and intonation of conversational American English.
I learned about jazz chants in 1995, and since then I have been using them in my
classroom very successfully. I remember teaching an elementary English course
to a group of adults in Kazakhstan, and one of the first jazz chants that I
introduced to that group was “Tell me your name please.” About two weeks later,
one of my students came to class very excited. He was working for the Miners’
Trade Union, and on that day he met with some American business people who
visited his company. He said that at first he got nervous, but then “tell me your
name please” popped up in his head, and this was how he started his first
conversation with native speakers. Apparently, it broke the ice very quickly, and
his affective filter lowered which allowed him to continue the conversation
successfully.
My Arabic students commented that learning jazz chants gave them an
opportunity to become more fluent. I often ask my students to experiment with
mood or emotion or intonation. For instance, I tell them to recite a jazz chant as if
they are angry or very excited. Moreover, our Emirati students are very good at
memorizing, and I believe given enough meaningful chunks to memorize they
have an opportunity to practice vocabulary in context. I was pleasantly surprised
one day when one of my Emirati students raised her hand and asked, "May I
switch off the light?" instead of the usual Arlish "Can I close the light?" Prior to
this incident, I taught a jazz chant "May I switch of the light?" which I found on
www.onestopenglish.com. When I responded with "Sure", the whole class joined
in "Sure, sure, sure" which also comes from this jazz chant.
For these reasons, I find this technique very useful. Yet I was surprised to find
out that very few of my coworkers at HCT use it in class.
There is a variety of different fun ways to use jazz chants in class. The basic one
is choose a jazz chant you find appropriate for your class, make a copy for each
student. In class play the track so that students can listen to it. If necessary,
explain unfamiliar vocabulary. Then give the paper copy to the students, play the
recording, and have students read along. Have them repeat line after line in
chorus after you or the recording. Let them practice in pairs. Other ways to use
jazz chants in the classroom include the following:
1. Type up a jazz chant, print it out and then cut it into sentences. In class
ask the students to put them in the order they think these sentences come
in the jazz chant. Have them work either in pairs or in groups of no more
than four. If your group is pre-intermediate, you may want to cut the
sentences in half and have them match the beginnings with the endings,
and then re-order the sentences. This way the students are engaged in
the activity that challenges them to utilize their existing knowledge to solve
the problem.
2. Pre-teach the vocabulary that might unfamiliar to the students. Have them
listen to the jazz chant and ask which words they hear before or after the
introduced vocabulary. Ask them if they heard any other words that sound
new. Put them on the board and if necessary explain their meanings.
3. Prepare a cloze version of a jazz chant (see the attachment) and have
students complete it while listening to the jazz chant.
4. As a follow up activity, ask your students to create a Power Point
Presentation to illustrate a jazz chant. If your students use iPads, then
they can use Keynote App to create a presentation.
5. Another follow-up activity is to record the jazz chant using the Soundnote
App. Then they can send their recording to you, and you can identify your
student's pronunciation problems and address them later.
References
Craven, Miles. "Jazz Chants." Onestopenglish. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 May 2013.
Graham, Carolyn, and Marilyn S. Rosenthal. Jazz Chants Old and New. New York:
Oxford UP, 2001. Print.