"If you have never tried using musics in these ways...please do!" - Chris Brewer
A super innovative web tool with embedded YouTube music videos of popular songs which aims at providing language learners with a fun way of practising language skills. Available in 6 languages of English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Dutch and the videos are basically categorized into three mastery levels:
Easy (10% gapfill)
Intermediate (25%gapfill)
Expert (Full lyrics)
Tell Me More!
To start using Lyrics Training is definitely very simple. All you need to do is go to the homepage and select your songs preference.
Picture 1: Homepage
Lyrics Training automatically sets English as its default language so if you need to change your language selection you can just click on the all language button. Instead of using the search engine to find your preferred songs, alternatively you can click on the more option button and this tool will automatically filter your search according to your genres.
Picture 2: All Language and More Options buttons.
Once you have selected your music video, you can start the gap-filling game by choosing the level difficulty of Easy, Intermediate and Expert. Notice that if you press the Play Now button together with the Karaoke icon at the bottom-right without choosing the mastery level, the music video will play with the complete lyrics. Both Play Now and Karaoke buttons are designed to allow learners to preview the song before taking part in the game. When ready, you can easily press the Restart button (bottom-right) and select the game mode.
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Picture 3: Previewing song with Karaoke mode on.
Picture 4: Game in progress - Intermediate.
Can't keep up with the song? Fret not. Lyrics Training is specifically tailored for your listening ability in a way that it will automatically stop until all the missing words are filled in. Akin to other animation games, this web tool also have several shortcuts which allow users to withdraw, restart or repeat the song respectively. Shortcuts function are as follows:
- Withdraw: To stop the game and play the karaoke version, giving users further review before trying again.
- Restart: To start all over from the beginning.
- Repeat: To listen again the last line.
Users also can skip the missing words by pressing the Tab key or replay the last line by pressing the backspace key. See below:
Picture 5: Shortcuts.
Game score will be tallied once the song is completed based on the time you took to complete the song and the numbers of missing words were filled in. The more missing words you filled in, the higher your score will be. Similarly, the higher level will result in higher scores since there is a more gap-fills required. If you wish to keep track on your progress with the Lyrics Training, you may sign up for a free account which enables you to access statistics page with scoring history and music videos information.
Having trouble digesting all the instructions? Help is at hand!: Russell Stannard's LyricsTraining Tutorial
What It Has To Do With Learning?
Music and Autonomy:
The concept of using lyrics and musics for teaching and learning is as old as education itself. The difference with the Lyrics Training, however, is that it highlights the element of independent learning among learners with the help of technology (no more cassettes and radio!) and scaffolds for a life long acquisition by shifting the change in focus from the teacher to the student. This learning tool suits all language learners, be it beginners, intermediates or advanced adults, as it specifically categorizes the difficulty of mastery into three main levels making it convenient for learning at learners' own pace. What is more appealing is that Lyrics Training is well equipped with lots of helpful keys and guided instructions which makes it easier for novice learners to use the tool and indirectly encourages them for an independent learning in a long run.
Behaviourist-favoured:
Skinner and friends remind us how important repetition is in learning: The more repetition you give to your students, the more likely it is that they will grasp the message. Interestingly, Lyrics Training discards the traditional drills and choral responses which are often defined the theory (they are dead boring, yes). Instead, the use of repetitive vocabulary is meshed in songs particularly through repeated chorus or lines. This kind of repetition would definitely considered unusual for normal conversation and redundant in speeches but it does not seem to be redundant in songs. Learners will incautiously repeat the hidden drills as they listen and sing along, making the repeated vocabulary to be better retained in their memory.
Music and Motivation:
Skinner and friends remind us how important repetition is in learning: The more repetition you give to your students, the more likely it is that they will grasp the message. Interestingly, Lyrics Training discards the traditional drills and choral responses which are often defined the theory (they are dead boring, yes). Instead, the use of repetitive vocabulary is meshed in songs particularly through repeated chorus or lines. This kind of repetition would definitely considered unusual for normal conversation and redundant in speeches but it does not seem to be redundant in songs. Learners will incautiously repeat the hidden drills as they listen and sing along, making the repeated vocabulary to be better retained in their memory.
Music and Motivation:
Because songs deal with the whole realm of human emotions which allow learners to relate with their own feelings and interests by making connections with them, songs could be a motivator that drives learners to learn forward and perform better in their learning. The more connections students can make with their learning, the more accessible the process will be. Unlike conversations, pauses in songs make songs more understandable to learners and allow them to find moments for their personal 'owning'.
Other ticks for Lyrics Training:
- Encourages independent learning outside the classroom environment.
- Songs offer shorter, affective and simpler texts in the target language with a lot of vocabulary recycled.
- Definitely suits the purpose for testing and practising learners' listening skills.
- Authentic learning material: Lyrics Training is not tailored to fit specific learners' needs - it suits all level of language learners.
- Offers exposure to everyday-used English inclusive slang.
- Free: Learning English with Adam Levine and Katy Perry for free? Now who wouldn't? :)
- Enriches learners with a wide range of vocabulary.
- Contextualized learning: Songs usually come in contexts, situations or stories.
- Avoids making up your own lyrics: I'm a type of person who could listen to a song thousand times and still have no idea what the lyrics are - seeing them written out as the video plays is indeed a major help.
Some minus points:
- Unfiltered slang and profanity: This could be a sizeable challenge for teachers if they want to use Lyrics Training for classroom purposes.
Picture 6: Example of profanity element in songs.
- Over emphasis on reduced forms of syntax (wanna, gonna, hittin and so forth) might be confusing to some beginners and lower level learners.
- Comes with limited languages.
- Only works with internet connection.
- Proper headsets or earphones are necessary for classroom learning.
Lyrics Training For Classroom Purposes:
- Listening Competition: Teacher to select 5 pop songs and group students according to the pop song they like most. It does not matter if one group has more members than the others because the main objective for this activity is to get them practising their listening skill using their favourite songs. For a fair competition, the teacher will set the game level for all students (eg: intermediate) before they start battling with their group members. Once finished, students will compare their scores and the member with highest score for each pop song will be crowned the winners. If time permits, teacher can have another round of battle using different pop songs.
- Songs Discussion: Have the students to choose one song they enjoy most and have a round of lyrics training with the whole class (this is for classrooms with limited resources) as a warmer activity. Group the students with 4 members per team and ask them to butcher the song in relation to meaning and what they like or dislike about the lyrics. This activity could also be employed as a follow-up or a continuation task for the Listening Competition detailed above.
- Spelling Game: Have the Lyrics Training site ready on the projector. Using intermediate level songs (the beginner might be too easy and the expert might be too hard), teacher could exploit the gap-filling for a spelling game.
Could It Be Improved? How?
Lyrics Training is indeed a great learning platform and it is ashamed that such fantastic tool only limits itself for mostly just listening and vocabulary skills through gap-filling exercises. What could be exploited further is that Lyrics Training should enable a forum or a chat room in the website for learners to discuss the meaning of their favourite songs with the other users.
Lyrics Training is indeed a great learning platform and it is ashamed that such fantastic tool only limits itself for mostly just listening and vocabulary skills through gap-filling exercises. What could be exploited further is that Lyrics Training should enable a forum or a chat room in the website for learners to discuss the meaning of their favourite songs with the other users.
My Rating on Lyrics Training's Usefulness:
4 1/2 / 5
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