Canciones para aprender español: Flaca

Singing songs is a phenomenal way of learning another language. In here you'll find interactive activities to learn Spanish with this fabulous song, Flaca by Andrés Calamaro. If you have any suggestions on this, please let me know ;)

You might also like:

• Songs to learn Spanish
• Learning Spanish through music
• Learning Spanish through songs: Lyricstraining
• Learn Spanish with your favorite song in Spanish
• Why do we sing songs?
• Developing oral fluency through songs

Lunaprofe 4/27/2017  No comment

Why do we sing songs?

Singing songs is a great way of learning/improving languages. We do it in my class, every single day. The students have fun and that on itself can be enough to take this activity into my class but there are more important things while having fun implied in singing songs. 

In order to help my students to develop independency, autonomy, we always talk in class about the strategies, activities we do and we reason them out. This continuous practice allows them to take ownership of what they do and help them realize they are in control of their education and that being an active agent of it is crucial for them to become a better student and person.

How do I do this with my students: 

We start singing songs without any explanations or comments, we just sing. After that I ask my students to write down their thoughts on Why do you think we sing songs in class? [you will be surprised by how accurate their responses are sometimes] To conclude this activity I ask them to read this post and we do a debate the following class to put everything together.

Let's try to summarize what I think in bullet points [they don't come numbered because the order is not related to importance]:

Some benefits of singing songs:  It's a fun way of learning vocabulary and pronunciation Through singing you are training your "ear" for Spanish It helps you comprehend Spanish better because you get used to native speakers of the language in a natural context. Singing is authentic. When you listen songs from different singers from different places you are being exposed to different native accents It is a new and enthusiastic way of learning for many students When you are singing and learning you are being emotionally involved, therefore that learning that takes place is going directly to your long-term memory A song gives you the opportunity of dramatizing the lyrics When you are singing you acquire the information you need naturally Songs present the language as parts and wholes Singing songs will help you score highly in reading, spelling, reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, numerical operations and listening tasks Music training will give you a major boost in terms of spatial-temporal memory It benefits your oral communication skills  Songs are the perfect fit for many activities [language related] If you are new to the language and you are struggling, singing songs will let you join the joy of learning at the very same level as the rest of the class Songs are a snapshot of the culture, so singing songs you are gaining not just language knowledge but cultural one too A song will make you learn language without even realizing it because it keeps the stress bar low while you are just enjoying singing with your friends While listening to Mozart will not make you smarter, music instruction will help you score significantly higher on measuring spatial-temporal cognition, hand-eye coordination and arithmetic  Music improves your verbal skills and sensorimotor integration [musicians are better drivers] Your neurocognitive skills will get better Singing will help you achieve that fluency you have been struggling with in a natural and authentic manner ...

Bibliography:

• Renate Nummela Caine and Geoffrey Caine (1990) [pdf]
• O’Keefe & Nadel (1978) [pdf]
• Frances H. Rauscher (2003) [pdf]
• Brochard, Dufour, and Després (2004) [pdf]

Want to know more?

• Learn Spanish through music
• Learning Spanish through music: Using Youtube
• Developing oral fluency through songs
• Learning Spanish with songs
• Learning Spanish through songs: Lyrics training
• Learning Spanish with the version of your favorite song

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education

Mark Twain

Lunaprofe 8/15/2016  2 comments

Learn Spanish with the version of your favorite song

Back with music to learn Spanish, a former student (gracias Tina) passed me this youtube channels with Spanish versions of pop hits. We, teachers, are always talking about adapting the content to our students motivations... This is a great opportunity for that.
Also, the bands are very talented and not just singing but editing the videos as well.
These channels are, definitely, worth a try.



You can do any activitiy song-related with these, although take into account that all are high level language songs. We can try these channels with our Spanish B classes, ab Initio students could just listen for fun if they like the songs and make it optional. Make them compulsory for your class could bring down the moral of your students. 

Ideas:  - One of these songs can be the perfect fit for one of your three Interactive Oral activities [10% of your final score] that you have to do in your Spanish B as part of your Internal Assessment. After listening to it, you can do a:   - group discussion/debate about the topic of the song [remember this   assessment is based on the core]   - role-play based on the topic distributing your students in pairs.   - anything that involves oral interaction is valid - You can use edpuzzle.com and personalize your activity [believe me, if you don't know this site, it's amazing]

Resources:

• Joshe Jr
• KevinKarlay La Banda 

The direction in which education starts a man

will determine his future in life

Plato

Lunaprofe 7/28/2016  No comment

Aprendiendo español a través de la música: Youtube

La música es una poderosa herramienta usada en todas las culturas para expresar, entre otras muchas cosas, información fundamental que se trasmitía de generación en generación. La lengua comparte muchas de esas características cruciales con la música.
Podemos acercarnos a una cultura y aprender mucho sobre ella a través de la música. 
En una clase de español también podemos utilizar la música para mejorar/perfeccionar nuestra comprensión, podemos aprender vocabulario, podemos presentar en nuestra clase los conceptos básicos de la poesía y las rimas...
Los beneficios de utilizar la música en nuestras clases de español son indiscutibles y, normalmente, los efectos en los estudiantes inmediatos, porque si está correctamente incluida [atendiendo como principio fundamental a la motivación de nuestros alumnos] aportará un clima más distendido, creará un espacio donde el alumno y el profesor se encuentran en un contexto mucho más relajado y pueden interactuar de un modo mucho más cercano y enriquecerse de esa atmósfera más relajada, y [para mí lo más importante] nos hace más felices.
Para comenzar podemos realizar una actividad muy simple: sólo escuchar música del canal aleatoriamente disfrutando de las melodías, sin hacer nada más. Así, sin más. No necesitamos hacer nada más en este primer paso. No hay prisa, sólo escucha la música y disfrútala. Esta puede ser una actividad fantástica para usar al principio de la clase, mientras que los alumnos llegan, se acomodan y se preparan para su clase. De esta manera lo que estamos haciendo es exponer, poner en contacto a nuestros alumnos con música en español y con su cultura al mismo tiempo, sin pedirles nada más a cambio, tan sólo que escuchen y se diviertan.
Un segundo paso puede consistir en escuchar las canciones y leer los subtítulos, con el propósito de entender la idea principal de la canción que estamos escuchando y después discutir la idea principal en clase brevemente.
Otro posible segundo paso, sería escribir el título y el/la autor/a de la canción, hacer una mini-investigación y realizar una mini-presentación en clase. Puedes dividir la clase en grupos para esta actividad y encargar a un grupo cada semana estas mini-presentaciones.

Si te ha gustado, sígueme en mi canal de Youtube

Secuencia:

1. Escucha la canción

2. Lee los subtítulos mientras escuchas la canción por segunda vez.

3. Realiza una pequeña investigación sobre la canción, el autor y el estilo de música. Por ejemplo, himno de Andalucía, Enrique Morente, flamenco.

4. Compara algún estilo de música propio de tu país, una canción y un autor con los que has investigado. Puedes usar el diagrama de Venn.

5. Haz una presentación en tu clase y comparte lo que has aprendido.

Recuerda: la música te ayuda a mejorar tu pronunciación, tu memoria y tu gramática. También te ayuda a mejorar tu estado de ánimo, con la música disfrutamos y también nos motivamos [¿o los alumnos no escuchan música mientras hacen los deberes?]

Lunaprofe 9/07/2015  2 comments