Happy Days are here again for languages!

As we all know, singing a song can be a great way of retaining vocabulary, reinforcing sentence structure and hooking young people into language learning. This year's crop of trainee teachers in MFL at Liverpool Hope University have been doing just that by putting their own words to well-known tunes and performing them on camera for all the world to see!

The results in French, Spanish and German are certainly impressive, particularly considering the groups only had 30 minutes to create their masterpieces and learn their dance routines too. Amazing how a bit of creativity and collaboration can perform such wonders in such a short space of time! My favourite clip is the French group performing their own take on the Happy Days theme tune for learning about daily routine. Fonzie would have approved.

You can check out last year's examples too on the MFL PGCE department's channel. The song for learning weather phrases in French to the tune of Umbrella by Rihanna is an absolute joy!

Hope Springs Eternal!

Comments

[John Connor]

Restores one's faith in human nature despite the slings and arrows of Gove! I just hope they get a chance to convey that infectious enthusiasm to some pupils before the current administration grinds it out of them.

[MARK PURVES]

Good post Joe, Have re-posted and retweeted on my blog. Do all FL teacher training course include some element of singing. Think they should but then I would say that!

http://souffler.typepad.com/home/2010/12/sing-your-own-fl-songs-to-well-known-tunes.html

[Joe Dale]

Thanks for your comments kind sirs. Have you watched the other clips too?
http://www.youtube.com/user/kheyniK09

LanguagesatBSC tweeted me more examples of pupils performing songs in Spanish:
http://www.twitvid.com/videos/languagesatbsc

This one is hilarious in particular:
http://www.twitvid.com/5FMIO

[Jan Rowe]

On behalf of the MFL team at Liverpool Hope University, I'm delighted to see that the creative talents of our PGCE MFL students have been recognised! Our thanks must go to Kheya Mair from the Mosslands School who inspires our students to produce such vocal gems by delivering this session with us.

[Joe Dale]

Hi Jan,

Thanks for your comment and to Kheya for the inspiration. I was delighted to find these clips online. It's fantastic they were published so we could all enjoy the students' wonderful performances and their infectious enthusiasm!

Merry Xmas!

[Brittany Pittman]

Hi,
This is Brittany Pittman from EDM310. This looks like fun! I never thought about having my students sing to catchy tunes, and how it could help them in vocabulary, memory, and even sentence structure. This is a great idea, I can see how it would defiantly help in foreign languages like French. Your videos not only show your students practicing their foreign language but also them working together as a team and how it can be fun to study French or Spanish.

http://pittmanbrittanyedm310.blogspot.com/

[Chelsea]

Hello Mr. Dale,

Chelsea from EDM 310 at the University of South Alabama again. Commenting on another of your posts is part of my assignments.

I loved the videos. This is absolutely wonderful and I think teachers in every field ought to make use of this kind of activity. It's entertaining and makes learning a little more fun, not to mention easier.

[Kheya Mair]

Hi Joe! Kheya Mair here! Sorry it has taken me so long to thank you for posting these videos onto your page!
I am thrilled that you found them useful- This is the 9th year I have been invited back to do my Mind Friendly Learning for Modern Foreign Languages sessions (MFL4MFL) at Liverpool Hope Uni- thanks to Jan Rowe!
It is only in the last two years that I have thought to record the finished products (mainly due to the ease of recording on mobile phones and publishing onto you tube within the hour!) Every year I am amazed at the quality of the songs composed by the PGCE students. They start off by shaking their heads thinking there is no way they can achieve their objectives (and I am often tempted to take a picture of their collective apprehensive expressions on their faces at the beginning of my course as part of a before and after shot!!)
I must add, after reading your blog on the benefits of blogging, I am converted! It would have been an easier route to connecting with like minded people rather than just posting my videos on you tube! Thanks again for all your positive comments- they are really appreciated! I only hope they sow a creative seed in in the minds of many more that watch them. Please let me know if you think I could contribute in any other way.
- Thanks so much, Kheya Mair x

[Joe Dale]

Hi Kheya,

Thank you for your lovely comment and for posting these wonderful clips. Capturing and publishing video is so easy nowadays. I wish more people followed your example in sharing good practice in this way. Posting on a blog is great for keeping everything in the same place and to allow others to see your work. I'd highly recommend Posterous as an easy blogging tool.
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2011/03/easy-classroom-blogging-with-posterous.html

For example, you can:

- attach the video to an email, send it to Posterous and it will embed with its own player
- upload it to YouTube and send the link to Posterous which again embeds it with a player
- post it to Posterous directly from a mobile phone.

Personally, I would recommend using a Flip video or iPod Touch to capture in HD quality and then upload via the web interface in Posterous if the clip is too big to send as an attachment.

As you can see from the comments on this post, your videos have been very well received.

I would encourage you to start your own blog and post about your work as well as join Twitter where you will meet other like-minded language teachers interested in creativity and 21st century tools. Here is a list of MFL Twitterers I've put together to help get you started:
https://twitter.com/joedale/mfl-twitterers/members

Best wishes

Joe