Modern songs to use in ESL lessons

Music is one of the things that has got a universal appeal and its use in the classroom will greatly motivate the learners of different learning types. Songs can be extensively used while practicing the four main skills. Apart from the main learning aims, they enable the learners to have fun and full involvement in the lesson. Through songs, the teacher can present the topic, introduce and practice lexis, encourage intensive listening and creativity, stimulate an exchange of opinions and feelings.

In this article, we will present a number of ways how songs can be used effectively in the classroom and will give some examples of modern songs and ideas on how to use them in the lessons. 

The suggested activities can be implemented in any lesson. However, the teacher needs to take a closer look at the learners’ age, interests, culture, etc. With kids, more repetitive songs can be used ( find great songs here), with teenagers pop and rock music are the most popular ones, with adults different genres can be tried depending on their personality and interests.

1. Introducing new vocabulary from the lyrics (especially for lower levels).

2. Listening to a song and doing the tasks:

• filling in the gaps (provide a worksheet with gapped lyrics);
• writing down target vocabulary while listening;
• completing the sentences;
• crossing out extra words (added beforehand in a worksheet).

3. Doing the tasks after listening:

• underlining grammar structures you want your students to revise, making up new examples;
• discussing the lyrics of the song (meaning, point, aim, giving opinions);
• discussing a video clip (purpose, sharing opinions).4. Singing a song.

Here are effective types of the exercises to use if you choose a song.

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Gap-fill

• The teacher deletes some words and asks the students to guess the missing words then listen to fill in the gaps and see if they have guessed any words correctly.
• Another example is when the teacher focuses on some specific language (adjectives, nouns, verb tenses). Before listening, students speculate on what they think these words will be and then listen to check. While discussing they will use the target language and use language which is not in the song. So, this is a natural exposure to the language.
• For the gap-fill exercise, the teacher can choose some collocations to work on. Before listening, the students are given the list of collocations, they brainstorm on some possible plot of the song. Then they listen and fill in the gaps by the appropriate collocations. As an extension, the teacher can give them extra collocations which rhyme with the ones which really fit in the song. They need to find the rhyming pairs. For the next lesson, the teacher hands out the lyrics of the same song with the blank spaces of the collocations and the students need to write the collocations by memory. This can be managed as a group work competition as well. 

Substituting the words

After a gap-fill exercise, the teacher prepares a list of words which are synonyms to the ones placed in the gaps. The students place them in the gaps and change any other word with its synonym to keep the rhythm of the song. This leads to an extensive language work. In addition, different groups will have different versions of the same song which they can compare in class.

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Rhythm and  stress

In many cases, songs can be used for pronunciation awareness. 

• Students can listen to some songs and highlight the stressed words and explain why these words are stressed.  

After finishing the task, students can sing the song but they join the singer only the stressed words are pronounced. This is really great since they have to listen carefully to pitch in at the necessary moment.

• If you want to focus on rhyming words, before listening to the song teach a couple of words that rhyme and give students three or four words from the song and ask to listen out for the words that rhyme with them. You could also brainstorm possible rhymes before listening.

Tense Review

Most of the songs quite naturally revolve around one or two tenses. Therefore, songs can be used a lot for this purpose. The website Sandraheyersongs.com is a great resources to find songs by theme and grammar.

Find a song with tenses you would like to review. It works best if you focus on two tenses.

Let the students listen to the song, write out any tense form they could hear. After that, hand out the lyrics. Students then identify the different tenses. They then listen again and explain to each other why each tense was used. This forces the students to really think about the rules in a fun way.

Here is an example of a gap-fill exercise on verb tenses for Elementary students based on the song “Last Night” by The Vamps. 

Creative tasks

After some language work with songs, students can do a number of creative activities to have a wider exposure to the material.

Task: Write another verse of lyrics, maintaining the same mood and style as the original. 

This works really well in groups. These new lyrics are then presented to the rest of the class to look for similarities and differences.  

Students work in pairs and write a short paragraph on behalf of a person to whom the song is devoted. The writing needs to be about this person’s emotions and feelings when he first listened to the song. 

Have the learners plan a music video for the song. In groups, they decide the location, the characters, and what happens. Then each group explains their idea to the rest of the class and the learners vote on the best one. 

1. Lady Gaga “911”

Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Age: 18+
Genre: pop 
Topic: Personality/Behaviour/Depression/ Emotions
Grammar: Tenses 

After listening to this song it is not complicated to organize a debate/discussion, as the song and video are not run-of-the-mill. Here are some questions that might be used for the discussion:

1. What do you know about 911? What comes to your mind when you hear this?
2. What associations were caused by the song?
3. Was the end (of the song) expected? How would you interpret it?
4. What can you say about the colours, effects, things were used in the video clip?
5. What do you think about Gaga’s songs in general?

For homework, you can give the article and ask a student to retell (and discuss) the next lesson. 

2. Rolling stones “Living in a ghost town”

Level: Pre-Intermediate-Intermediate
Age: 16+
Genre: classic rock 
Topic: Life/Feelings/Society/ 
Grammar: Continuous tenses (past/present)

For “while-listening” task, you can gap the parts with continuous structures. For example:

Once this place…….
And the air was full of drumming
The sound of cymbals crashing
Glasses ……. all ……..
Trumpets ……..all ………
Saxophones were blaring
Nobody ……….. if it’s day or night
Whoa, oh, whoa, oh
I’m a ghost
Living in a ghost town
I……………….nowhere
Shut up all alone
So much time to lose
Just staring at my phone
Every night I…………….
That you’ll come and creep in my bed
Please let this be over
Not stuck in a world without end
Whoa, oh, whoa, oh
Whoa, oh, whoa, oh, oh
Preachers ……… all…………………
Charities beseeching
Politicians dealing
Thieves ……..happy …………….
Widows ……….. all ……………..

3. Daði Freyr (Daði & Gagnamagnið)  “Think About Things”

Level: Intermediate-Upper-Intermediate
Age: 14+
Genre: pop 
Topic: Love/Relationship

This song may be used as an “active break” during the lesson in a group. You can listen to the song, discuss the lyrics, check new words, sing the song and actually dance. It will definitely turn out to be fun, especially if you have students who like moving around and dancing. 

4. Billie Eilish “No time to die”

Level: Elementary-Pre-Intermediate
Age: 16+ 
Genre: pop
Topic: Relationships/Life/Love
Grammar: Pronouns

The song is slow, so it may be used with low levelled students. If you want to revise pronouns, you can prepare a worksheet with lyrics to fill in the gaps with an appropriate pronoun. If not, you can gap any words which you think the students are supposed to know and while listening they should do the task. 

In the end, of course, it is fun to sing together. 

5. Ed Sheeran “Beautiful people”

Level: Pre-Intermediate-Intermediate
Age: 14+ 
Genre: pop
Topic: Finding yourself/People/Society

Examples of tasks:

• working on vocabulary> match meanings with definitions:

sundown  
a prenup
stunning
to fit in 
a downtown
to faze 

1. to feel that you belong to a particular group and are accepted by that group
2. in or to the central part of a city
3. extremely beautiful or attractive
4. to surprise and worry someone
5. an official document signed by two people before they get married that says what will happen to their possessions and/or children if they divorce
6. the time in the evening when you last see the sun in the sky

Keys:

• To fit in
•  A downtown
• Stunning
• To faze
• A prenup (A pre-nuptial agreement)
• Sundown
• questions for a discussion:

1. Have you ever listened to Ed Sheeran’s songs? What does he usually sing about?
2. What came to your mind when you heard the title of the song?
3. What people are beautiful? What beautiful people are meant in the song?
4. What did the singer want to tell? What is the idea of the song?
5. Is it tough finding “true self”? What does finding yourself mean?

6. Adele Send my love

Level: Pre-Intermediate-Intermediate
Age: 14+ 
Genre: pop
Topic: Relationships/Kindness
Grammar: Continuous Tenses

The song will perfectly fit to revise continuous tenses, especially Past Continuous. For the first listening, you can ask students to note the examples of continuous tenses they hear. After that, the worksheets with a task of completing sentences with appropriate structures may be given. After listening to the song for the second time and filling in the gaps, checking the answers, it is nice to discuss the song in pairs. 

7. Ava Max “Queens & Kings”

Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Age: 18+ 
Genre: pop
Topic: Gender equality/Gender roles

The song is rather easy to understand, so it is possible to have it as a relaxing moment during the lesson with such tasks:

• discuss the title of the song
• listen to the song and identify the topic/idea of the song
• ask and answer questions with a partner. Possible questions:

1. Are there different expectations for sons and daughters?
2. What habits are deemed as appropriate for men but inappropriate for women?
3. Are there differences in the ways men and women communicate?
4. Do women in your country earn less than men for doing the same job?
5. What about in other parts of the world?
6. Why does gender inequality exist?
7. Actress Emma Watson once said that “fighting for women’s rights has too often been synonymous with man-hating.” Do you agree?
8. Would you like to be a queen/king?

8. Maroon 5 “Memories”

Level: Pre-Intermediate-Advanced
Age: 16+ 
Genre: pop
Topic: Memories/Past events

This song might be used as a task for Warm-up or Lead-in on topics related to memories, past events. Here is the article about the song and its meaning. If you have a student(s) who is a fan of Maroon 5, it could be interesting to read and discuss the article. 

Music plays an essential part in people’s lives as we learn many things through it. Songs cause plenty of feelings, emotions with lyrics on varied topics. Knowing what your students listen to and using songs makes lessons more fun, memorable and engrossing.

Songs are a great tool for an interactive and engaging lesson. Remember that the lesson must be well-planned to keep both the fun and usefulness. You can find great lesson plans on songs here.