How Can Teachers Use Music in an EFL Class and Not Lose Group Control?

It's Not Just Teenagers Who Love Musicactivities
This is an excellent question in addition to being aAn additional point is to exercise some discretion in the
somewhat "HOT" topic. It's not just teenagers whoselection of music types, artists and songs to be used.
love music either, but almost any language learnerNot all music forms selected by or listened to on the
group or profile will be highly impacted by the use ofpart of teens, for example, are suitable classroom use
music in the EFL / ESL and foreign language learningchoices.
classroom. Use music with teens to lower theirEFL Teachers Can Exercise More Control
"Affective Filters" (Krashen-Terrell, 1984), get and holdSince we know that music alters the active state of
their attention. By don't restrict the use of music to justthe brain's waves, EFL and other foreign language
"sing-alongs", lip-sync or "Karaoke" type activities.teachers can exercise more control over their EFL /
A Critical KeyESL classrooms and learners with well-thought-out use
One critical key here, in my opinion, is to use music in aof different types of music at different times. I went
variety of other ways with teens (and other learnerinto this in much greater detail in a series of articles
profiles).published on using music in the English or foreign
In the EFL / ESL and foreign language learninglanguage learning classroom.
classroom teachers can use music to:o control lengthWe'll continue to discuss applications for the use of
of activitieso set the mood and tone of the classo asmusic in the EFL /ESL ad foreign language learning
background to the class environmento help to calmclassrooms in upcoming article posts.
unruly learnerso stimulate fast-paced EFL practice