It is known or believed that music can be an effective tool of learning English (and/or other subjects) or
any other foreign language though there might be other ways. Like in the
original versions of films, song lyrics are the best source of words and
expressions to memorize with fun. In addition, listening or imitating foreign
songs helps to increase the pronunciation level. I will provide with you some
useful ideas to help you learn English with music and invite you to practice
this method which I personally appreciate. I have used it for so long and found
it working. Learning a language through music, you must follow some
guidelines :
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Choose the song you like
It is not necessary to complicate things choosing the kind of music to
listen to. The advice is to begin with the songs you already listen to and find
their lyrics. We do listen to many songs that we may like a day, but we do not
pay attention on the content/message and the meaning of the spoken words within
them. I hope you know that practice makes perfect. Repeating is the key tool to
learn in any domain of life.
Try to sing and imitate without reading
When you need to increase your pronunciation level, it is important to
sing the song you are listening to, trying to imitate the same pronunciation
without looking at the lyrics. So, when you read singing, your bad way of
pronunciation will pop up again. Don’t have a problem that you don’t understand
what you sing, the important is to pronounce well. Here you try to write the
words as long as you listen to them.
Find the lyrics
You may search for the
lyrics on the internet via Google « lyrics+song name+artist(if you know)”.
Whether you need a translation, it is easy to translate it on Google translate to find out the
meaning but I do not encourage you to translate by Google. Otherwise, find someone who may explain that for you.
Listen to the song while reading the
lyrics
It’s time to listen and read. You will be surprised to find the words and
phrases that you already knew the meaning, but you didn’t mind about them
before (i.e it is not always easy to understand the words of a foreign language
by yourself). Concentrate yourself on interesting phrases for you or just the
chorus. When you know the chorus of all your preferred songs, that’s all to let
you learn new words in English.
Listen again and begin to sing
Now you know some phrases or words and the general meaning, you can
continue listening to it while singing. When you get used to it, you can make
it yourself and master all the words, getting in the mood of the song than
before. You will find out that you are singing the same song in the car,
bathroom, restaurant,…whereby you will begin using the same words in different
context. This is not automatic, you must keep on repeating. After a certain
time used to this exercise try some songs which have as many words as possible
like Rap songs and learn the words but make sure you don’t focus on the
Rappers’ pronunciation because they have their own way to speak. Take the words,
the general meaning and judge them.