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.