Grammar: Music to your Ears

Diana Pedraza

Introduction

"Yo hiciste mi tarea" (I did my homework) is one of the most common sentences I hear in class every day. The problem is – it is grammatically incorrect. My students tend to imitate and overgeneralize the verb endings their teachers say to them (second person singular “hiciste” or plural “hicieron”), instead of the correct form (“hice” first person singular or “hicimos” first person plural). Learning a second language is an interesting, exciting, and sometimes stressing process. As a second language learner myself, one of the most difficult things I had to do in this process was to internalize the grammar and "put it together" when I had to express myself. As a teacher I have tried to teach the grammar of Spanish to my fourth grade students with little success. After memorizing verb conjugations and some other rules, many of my students continue to make the same mistakes in both oral and written production.

This unit is intended for a fourth grade English speaking group of students who attend a dual-language immersion school, Collinswood. In this K-8 Magnet school, math, Spanish literacy (lectura), and social studies content are taught fully in Spanish. Inside the classroom, this target language is used as a tool for communication in math and social studies. In these content areas “the emphasis is on using the language rather than talking about it” (Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada 2010: 110).

Our students are exposed to this target language on a daily basis for 50% of their school day. They use Spanish as a means of communication, not only within the classroom but also in other contexts such as in the cafeteria and during recess. As a result, most of them have developed fluency in Spanish, “high levels of listening comprehension, and confidence in using their second language but have failed to achieve high levels of performance in grammar”. (Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada 2010: 156).

In search of different approaches to teaching and reinforcing grammar, and based on my own experience as a second language learner, I decided to use music as a tool to work on some grammatical structures. This unit consists of a series of activities based on two songs in Spanish. The activities will be directed to improve my students‟ grammatical production. They will also focus on pronunciation and vocabulary.

Objectives

When my students come to fourth grade, most of them are able to listen, understand and actively participate in a whole math and social studies lesson taught in Spanish. They are also able to transfer what they study in the classroom in Spanish to English when they take District and State tests with great success. However, one of the main concerns of Spanish-speaking teachers at Collinswood, especially in the upper grades, has been a weakness in our students‟ grammar in the target language.

In the “Two for One” proposal, Lightbown and Spada (2010) give two possible reasons for students‟ lack of progress on some language features, in content and immersion programs. The first one implies that the focus of these classes is on meaning. Thus, as long as communication takes place, and concepts can be expressed, linguistic accuracy is seldom addressed. Since teachers understand students‟ interlanguage, there is no need for meaning negotiation. This “successful” communication makes it difficult for learners to realize how their language differs from the target language (Lightbown and Spada 2010). This reason may explain why my students continue making the same grammatical mistakes over and over again without realizing. When correction takes place, my students either repeat the sentence correctly, and make the same mistake again when expressing another idea, or confuse the grammar correction with content correction.

This phenomenon, according to Roy Lyster, (1998) is due to the ambiguity that some correction techniques bring to students, especially in content-based second language classrooms. His research on four French immersion schools shows how recasts or reformulations from teachers on students‟ mistakes in sentences or phrases, are the most common type of feedback provided by teachers in the classroom. The main issue of using recasts in content-based second language settings is that students do not understand if the correction made by the teacher refers to a mistake in the language form or in the content being studied. He observed that teachers used repetition either as a way of reinforcing a positive response (noncorrective feedback) or correcting one in terms of accuracy in content, as well as to correct a language mistake (recasts). ¨This suggests that teachers themselves do not consistently use recasts for corrective purposes”(75). He states that from the teachers‟ perspective, and I have experienced it myself, there is a dilemma on “how to focus on propositional content, and at the same time, provide clear messages about language form”. On the other hand, from young second language learners‟ perspective:

Because ill-formed and well-formed utterances are equally likely to be followed by a variety of confirming and approving moves initiated by teachers, it remains difficult, if not impossible, for young learners, with some degree of reliability, to (a) test hypothesis about the target language and (b) detect input-output mismatches with respect to form.

In order to overcome this error correction ambiguity in my content class, I find Richard Schmidt„s “noticing hypothesis” an effective approach to help my students identify and later correct some of their grammatical errors. The noticing hypothesis states that learning takes place when the learner notices a particular feature in the language either from formal instruction or from interaction in the target language. Based on his own experience as a second language Portuguese learner, Schmidt concludes that “the diary notes (he kept) indicated that the forms that (he) produced were those that (he) noticed people saying to (him).” He then claims that “conscious processing is a necessary condition for one step in the language learning process, and is facilitative for other aspects of learning.” Based on Schmidt‟s hypothesis I decided to make my students‟ aware of two specific language features: noun-adjective agreement in gender, and subject-verb agreement in the present indicative tense for the first and second person singular.

The second reason presented by Lightbown and Spada for language content-based learners‟ lack of progress in some features of the target language, suggests that certain language features are rarely used in the classroom. In order to facilitate understanding of the topic being taught, and not to interfere with the content comprehension, teachers tend to use easier forms of the second language. I was not aware of this situation until I realized, for instance, that if in our social studies class we have to talk about the first settlers of North Carolina, I use a historical present instead of using the “pretérito simple” (simple past tense) to ease my students‟ understanding of the content. The same behavior was observed by Elaine Tarone and Merrill Swain when they studied some French immersion programs in Canada (1995). Not only did they find that the language used in immersion classrooms is an “academic language style,” but they also noticed that students are rarely exposed to the pragmatic (language-context relationship) aspect of the target language. From the research “it was suggested that subject matter instruction needed to be complemented by instruction that focused on language form, including pragmatic features of the language” (Lightbown and Spada 2010: 157). My students‟ deficiencies in grammar are evident in their oral and written production inside the classroom when using the academic language required. However, such deficiencies are even more evident when they use L2 in social interactions: talking about personal experiences or expressing ideas towards a nonacademic topic.

Based on the deficiencies presented above, this unit aims to complement our fourth grade content-based program with explicit language instruction. In order to achieve this goal I want to provide my students with extra support during the “Lectura,” or Spanish

literacy time, specifically with instruction on grammar through the use of songs. I believe that if my students can see, read, listen, repeat and understand how a grammatical rule is used in the contexts that songs present, they will be able to use it on their own, in other contexts. Larsen Freeman states that “teaching grammar means enabling language students to use linguistic forms accurately, meaningfully and appropriately” (1991:280). I want my students to feel confident and be risk takers when expressing their thoughts in Spanish either in the classroom or outside of it, in formal and informal contexts.

According to Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada (2006) if an error is persistent and is shared by most of the students in the class, it should be brought to their attention and explained explicitly. Based on recent writing assignments in both social studies and math, and on my own observation on their daily oral production, I have identified two of the main errors that my fourth graders make. The first one is related to adjective-noun agreement in gender. Sentences like “yo es cansado” (I am tired, without using the appropriate ending for the adjective) or “la mapa es bonita” (the map is beautiful, again giving the wrong adjective ending) are some of their errors. They also fail to use the appropriate verb conjugation in any tense, most of the times. For the purpose of this unit, I will focus on the present of indicative form with the first and second singular person: I and you.

The unit also seeks to lower the anxiety in some of my students when interacting in Spanish. McIntyre, Clément, Dörneyei and Noels (1998) state that “learners who willingly communicate in different conversational interactions are able to do so because their prior language learning has led to development of self-confidence which is based on a lack of anxiety combined with a sufficient level of communicative competence, arising from a series of reasonably pleasant L2 experiences” (48). One way to create a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom, and at the same time reinforce, practice or teach language forms is the use of songs. For Henry Thurston-Griswold and Manel Lacorte and (2006), “songs increase the level of motivation and interest among students toward the linguistic and cultural contents of our courses at any given level of proficiency”.

Rationale

Throughout my four years at Collinswood I have made different attempts to “correct” my

students‟ grammar in both oral and written production during the math and social studies classes. Even though it has been useful for some, it has been pseudo-learning for most of them, since such corrections have worked only for a short period of time “with little value for actual use of the language” (Truscott 1996). This phenomenon may be due to different reasons.

The first one could be that during our content-based classes, both students and teachers tend to give priority to the exchange of meaning rather than to the correct use of the language. Due to the long curriculum that has to be covered during the academic year, it is very difficult to stop the class and make corrections to our students‟ speech whenever they make mistakes. The scarce corrections made during our content-based classes are merely recasts and take place only when a grammatical error interferes with the communication. This happens, not only in teacher-student interaction, but also between student-student communication. Otherwise, if the message is understood, language form is put aside and the class goes on. Lyster (1998) states that recasting clearly provides teachers with “efficient ways of advancing the lesson by keeping students‟ attention focused on the content in spite of gaps in L2 proficiency” (75).

The second reason, taking into account Brown‟s (1973), and Pienemann‟s (1999, 2003) research on developmental stages mentioned by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada (2010), might be that my students are not developmentally ready for some grammatical morphemes. Thus, no matter how many times I explain or correct a grammar feature of Spanish, my students will not understand it nor use it until they are ready for it.

However, the mastery of any target language involves the development of both communicative and linguistic competences. Pienemann (1984) concludes that “giving up the instruction of syntax is to allow for the fossilization of interlanguage in simplified form” (1984: 209). It is undeniable that immersion programs provide a meaningful way to use the language being learned. Lightbown and Spada (2010) describe Krashen‟s “Just listen… and read” approach as the proposal that assumes that language is acquired when students are exposed to the comprehensible input given by their teachers and the textbooks on the target language. But “without corrective feedback and guidance, second language learners may persist in using certain ungrammatical forms for years.” Lightbown and Spada (2010: 184)

Hence, I see a need to provide my students with tools that continue promoting their second language learning using the correct grammar forms to convey meaning effectively. In search of motivating activities and resources that can facilitate the understanding, practice and use of some grammatical structures, I decided to use music as my partner. When I walk through the Kindergarten hallway I usually hear them singing and clapping, having fun while learning and practicing new vocabulary in Spanish, without the tedious feeling of repeating words over and over again.

According to Jon Weatherford Stansell (2005), “music positively affects language accent, memory, and grammar as well as mood, enjoyment, and motivation.” During my English classes in college, I remember that one of the most exciting activities for me was to listen to music. Not only because I like music, but also because I could practice my pronunciation and grammar. Soon, I found myself using expressions and sentences that I

had learned from a song. It was from Eric Clapton‟s song “Tears in Heaven” that I understood the use of the conditional, and could later use it in my written essays and oral presentations. I wonder if my students can have the same experience. Could music help them listen, repeat, practice, understand and finally use grammar correctly?

Music brings with it rhythm, excitement and inspiration. “When carefully selected, songs can motivate and inspire students” (Murray 2005). As teachers we all know that motivation is a key factor in learning. “Positive motivation is associated with a willingness to keep learning” (Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada 2010). With the use of songs, grammar could hopefully be easily understood, and would no longer be an isolated filling in the blanks activity for my fourth grade students, or a bunch of rules to be memorized, without using them in real contexts. Thomas Claerr and Richard Gargan (1984) present some of the benefits that songs bring to the classroom. They not only help reinforce grammatical structures, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. Songs also “offer an opportunity for repetition drill without the monotony of pattern drills. Repetition is made pleasant by factors of rhythm, melody, and emotional interest”.(29)

Besides rising students‟ motivation, and creating a natural bridge between learners and the target language, songs provide real-life examples of the language. (Claerr and Gargan 1984). A language that can be heard, repeated and practiced even outside the context of the classroom. Daniel J. Kramer (2001) cites from G. Iantorno and M.P. Salerno‟s assertion that “students will take songs outside the classroom and will go on performing (or listening to) them long after the lesson has finished. Unlike drills, which usually slip from the pupils‟ minds as soon as they leave the classroom, songs can last a lifetime and become part of one‟s own culture”.

Songs also constitute an example of authentic language that students can access as many times as they need, to be able to understand or discover, in this case, the grammar patterns in it. According to the Connectionist psychological theory, presented by scholars like Nick Ellis (2002), and Jeffrey Elman (1996) “after hearing language features in specific situational or linguistic contexts over and over again, learners develop a stronger network of connections between these elements” (Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada 2006). In this sense, songs constitute a valuable and viable way to provide second language learners with real language material that will enable them to establish such connections, and use them in their own production. Carmen Fonseca Mora (2002) states that singing is an easy way of memorizing something. “Melody seems to act as a path or a cue to evoke the precise information we are trying to retrieve” (150). She adds that “when we allow students to repeat, we are giving them more time to process the new auditory information using working memories”.

Strategies and activities

Daniel Kramer (2001) affirms that appropriately selected songs can serve as “a type of comprehensible input form of realia that packages language rules into extralinguistic contexts.” He then asserts that “songs, with their micro narrative-like structure, encapsulates a coherent context more suitable for understanding vocabulary”. According to Thurston (2006), the same song can be used to fulfill multiple language purposes. In order to take advantage of this flexibility, the focus of the activities to be developed in this unit around the songs will be on pronunciation, vocabulary, specifically adjectives and verbs, and two particular grammatical forms: the present indicative form for first and second person singular and adjective-noun agreement.

I decided to focus on those vocabulary and grammatical forms because of two main reasons. The first one has its basis on my observations as a teacher. During the past years I have tried different strategies to address my students‟ errors. The tendency to correct every single mistake in my students‟ oral and written production has generated them some stress, and discouragement, and has not shown any great improvement in their discourse. As Truscott (1996) strongly asserts “people do not like to be told that they are wrong, especially to be told repeatedly that they are constantly making mistakes”. On the other hand, allowing my students to express themselves without pointing out grammatical mistakes, has prevented them from perceiving deficiencies in their production, and has led to a type of fossilization of their errors. In order to find a midpoint between the excessive correction, and the lack of correction, and at the same time propose achievable and observable goals, I decided to pinpoint some of the most common and repetitive mistakes among my students, and target them through the unit.

The first step in this process, and what I consider should be a good start on this error correction journey, is to identify the most repetitive mistakes made by the students. During the first two months of the school, I kept track of the most common grammatical mistakes made by my fourth graders in both their oral and written production. Brief notes after hearing informal interventions made by my students while explaining how to solve a word problem in Math, or discussing a topic during our social studies classes, provided me with ideas of where to start. Formal oral presentations made in class on specific curriculum topics, also guided me on the selection of the main grammatical features to be addressed through the activities.

The second reason of my focus on the grammar topics studied through this unit is a more extrinsic one. According to the CMS standards, fourth, seventh and tenth grade students are required to present four writing tests during the academic year. Two of those are called on demand. In these tests, students are asked to write a personal narrative, and an imaginative narrative text, based on a specific prompt given in a seventy-five minute period. The other two, are content-area tests. Here, students research on a specific topic, and then create a writing piece. It can be a report, a formal letter, a newspaper article, etc. Because of the dual language nature of our school, one of the content-based productions is developed in Spanish. Due to the lack of time to research on a variety of areas, and

with the purpose of establishing cross-curricular links, the Spanish piece is based on a Social studies topic. This year, our fourth graders will be writing a travel guide about one of the cities of North Carolina. Since this type of text includes a descriptive part, it is very important for my students to understand and use correctly the adjective-noun agreement in terms of gender and number. Also, a great deal of the text will require the use of the indicative form when talking about the city, and the activities that people visiting it will be able to do.

Once the main grammatical points were selected, the next step was to choose the appropriate songs that could address both the appropriate vocabulary and the grammar topics I intended to work through the activities. Kramer (2001) establishes specific criteria for selecting appropriate songs:

The language used must fit the learners‟ level. It should stress a specific grammar topic. The singer‟s diction should be clear. The songs should come from a variety of musical styles.

This unit is based on two songs in Spanish: “Un Mundo Ideal” (A Whole New World) from Disney, and “Limón y sal” (Lime and salt) by Mexican singer Julieta Venegas. In order to take the most out of these songs, the activities designed in this unit have four main stages: A listening part, an analyzing the language stage, a practicing the language set of exercises and a creating part, where students will produce the target language either orally or in written form. The students products will be kept in a portfolio.

Listening

During this stage, students will work on their listening skill. They will be writing down specific vocabulary as they listen, filling in missing information, and practicing syllabic stress.

Analysis

To focus on the grammatical features of the songs students will be encouraged to discover and make generalizations on the grammatical patterns and rules from the songs. Class discussions, and explanations from the teacher will either confirm or correct students‟ hypotheses. This way they will probably start “noticing” some of the language features that they had not perceived before.

Practice

This part of the activity will focus on use the language feature and vocabulary studied, through some exercises. They will mainly be made in pairs or groups in order to promote cooperative learning and peer teaching.

Creating a Portfolio

This will be the last stage of the activity. Here students will have the opportunity to apply the grammar features learned. The activities here include, oral and written assignments. As students work on the different activities, they will be filing them to create their own Grammar Through Music Portfolio. The final piece of the portfolio will be the travel guide where my students will hopefully apply correctly the grammar topics studied through the unit.

Activities

Activity 1

The objective of this activity is to practice the listening comprehension skill through the identification of adjectives, and to introduce new descriptive vocabulary.

The teacher will start by asking students what an ideal world would be like. As they give their ideas, the teacher will be guiding them to express it with adjectives when possible. For example if a student says it would have tons of chocolate, the adjective would be “achocolatado” (made of chocolate). The adjectives given will be written on the board, and the teacher will explain that adjectives in Spanish, as in English, are used to describe people, places objects or situations. The teacher will then tell students that they will listen to an excerpt and then a song from the movie Aladdin, “Un mundo ideal” (A Whole New World). The excerpt contains adjectives that describe Jasmine and the magic carpet. Some of the adjectives in the song describe the world. Their task will be to identify as many adjectives as they can, first from the excerpt, then, from the song1. The video will be played twice. Answers will be checked to ensure that everybody has the same list of adjectives. The meaning of the words will be discussed. Afterwards, each student will receive an index card with one of the adjectives of the song. The teacher will ask one student to stand up and read the adjective aloud. The students who think their adjectives are synonyms of the one just read, will stand up and read theirs. Once everybody has read the adjective assigned, students will group the adjectives from their list into synonyms. Then, four images will be shown, and each student will write one sentence about the image, using one of the adjectives studied.

Activity 2

This activity is designed to encourage students to use the appropriate adjective ending according to the gender of the noun being described. It also reinforces the listening

comprehension skill by identifying specific information from the song.

The excerpt and the song will be played (no video this time). Students will make a checkmark next to their list of adjectives as they listen to them in the song. Then, in groups of four, students will complete a chart, classifying the adjectives according to what they are modifying: Jasmine, the carpet or the world (see appendix 1). The teacher will explain to students that in Spanish, nouns have genders: feminine or masculine, and that generally adjectives acquire the same gender of the noun that they are modifying. After checking the answers from the chart, students will look for a pattern in the adjectives that describe Jasmine and the carpet (most of them end in the vowel „a‟). The teacher will explain that usually the adjectives that modify a feminine noun, become feminine too, by adding an –a at the end. Students will be also asked to look at the adjectives describing the world, and find the pattern for those adjectives (most of them end in „o‟).

The students will receive the lyrics of the song (see appendix 2). Some adjectives will be printed in bold. Students should find and circle in the song the nouns that are modified by the adjectives. They should decide if the noun is feminine or masculine, based on the ending of the adjectives. They will also see that some adjectives finish in “l” and “e.” The teacher will explain that usually the adjectives that finish in these two consonants do not vary. It means they keep the same ending, regardless of the noun gender. Students will then replace the nouns they circled by other nouns, taking into account that if the gender of the noun changes, the gender of the adjective also has to change. Each group will read one part of their new version of the song.

Activity 3

This activity focuses on oral production. Students will practice the correct pronunciation of some adjectives, and will apply what they have studied regarding noun-adjective gender agreement.

For this activity each student should bring to class a small object. Before the activity, students will put their objects inside a box. As the teacher reads the adjectives in bold from the lyrics of the song, students will make a small dot above the stressed syllable in each adjective. Then, the whole class will read the song clapping on the stressed syllables marked. The video will be played and students will try to sing along, clapping again whenever they hear stressed syllables of the adjectives. During the next part of the activity, the teacher will start by saying “en el baúl del señor Raúl hay…”(inside Mr. Raul‟s box there is…), and will pull out one of the objects from the box filled at the beginning. The teacher will then describe the object, using and adjective. The next student will repeat the same phrase, “en el baúl del señor Raúl hay…,” the object described by the teacher, and then will pull out another object describing it, using the appropriate adjective ending according to the nouns gender. This will be a great moment

for the teacher assess students‟ production, and to give immediate feedback.

Activity 4

The purpose of the activity is to identify the ending of the verbs in Spanish and find patterns on the conjugation for first and second person singular, I and you, in the simple present indicative form.

The teacher will tell students that in Spanish the verbs have three main endings and that their first task is to discover those endings. Students will be provided with the lyrics of the song “Un mundo ideal”(see appendix 2). They will try to fill in the missing gaps with the appropriate verb before listening to the song. Then, they will listen to it, to either check or correct their answers. It may be necessary to play it more than once. However, since students have been already exposed to it, they should be able to recall some of the verbs before the listening part. Once everybody has them, answers will be checked with the whole class and the meaning of the verbs will be discussed.

In pairs students will identify the three endings of the verbs in their infinitive form: -ar, -er, and –ir. The teacher will explain that their conjugation varies according to their ending, and will tell the students that the focus of the activity will be on one tense: present of indicative. The teacher will elicit information from students on when the present indicative can be used. Then, students‟ attention will be directed to four verbs that are already conjugated in this tense in the song: quiero, puedo, soy, estoy (I want, I can, I am). Students will be asked to focus on the two first verbs (quiero, puedo) and to identify the subject in the lyrics “yo” (I). Then, they will try to find the pattern in the ending of the verbs (they both finish in –o). In groups of four, students will try to create a rule for conjugating verbs in the present indicative for the first person singular. Once each group has given their answers, the teacher will explain that usually to conjugate verbs in the present indicative for the pronoun “I,” it is necessary to remove the ending –ar, -er or –ir, and add the vowel –o. Students will then complete some sentences using the verbs from the song, conjugating them in first person singular. Then, they will decide which of the characters from the video could have said the sentence (see appendix 3), and will write the number next to it. Activity 5

The teacher will show a picture of Mexican singer Julieta Venegas, and will elicit

information about her. Then the teacher will make a sentence describing her physical appearance, and will pass a ball to a student who will create another sentence describing her. The ball will be passed so that everybody has said something about her. Afterwards, the teacher will show the video of the song “Limón y sal” (salt and lime) without any sound.2 Based on the scenes from the video, students will write a paragraph describing what happens in the video, from the main characters‟ perspective. Some paragraphs will

be shared, and feedback will be given based on students‟ answers. Then students will be given the lyrics of the song with some blank spaces (see appendix 4). They will discuss with a partner the appropriate form of the verb and will complete the song. Students will then listen to the video twice to check their answers. Activity 6

Based on the lyrics, students will identify the subject in each sentence. Then, they will identify the difference in the verb endings, and will try to create a rule for the second person singular conjugation. After listening to students‟ conclusions, the teacher will explain that for the second person singular there are two main rules. For the verbs with an -ar ending, the –ar is removed and replaced by –as. For the –er and –ir endings, this last part is removed and replaced by –es. In pairs students will change the endings of the verbs of the song: The ones with first person singular will change to second person singular and vice versa. Answers will be checked and the whole class will sing this new version of the song, while watching the video once more. Activity 7

Students will work individually completing some short dialogues with the appropriate end form for the verbs and adjectives, according to what has been studied so far. Then, in pairs they will present mini role -plays using their dialogues. The teacher will listen to them, and will give feedback.

Annotated bibliography

For teachers:

The following bibliography is useful for those teachers who want to deepen their research on the use of songs in the classroom, second and foreign language teaching, and content-based programs.

Claerr, Thomas A., and Richard Gargan. 1984. “The role of songs in the foreign language classroom.” OMLTA Journal (01/01): 28-32. Iantorno, G., and M. Papa. 1979. “The use of songs in the language class”. Rassegna Italiana Di Linguistica Applicata. Kramer, D. J. 2001. “A blueprint for teaching foreign languages and cultures through music in the classroom and on the web”. ADFL BULLETIN 33 (1): 29-35. Larsen-Freeman, D. 2001. Teaching grammar. Teaching English as a Second Or Foreign Language: 251-66. MacIntyre, P. D., Z. Dörnyei, R. Clément, and K. A. Noels. 1998. “Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation”. Modern Language Journal 82 (4): 545-62.

Mora, C. F. 2000. “Foreign language acquisition and melody singing”. ELT Journal 54 (2): 146. Muñoz, C. 2003. “Segundas lenguas. Adquisición en el aula”. IBÉRICA 6 : 155-69. Murray, K. Sarah-Jane. 2005 “Learning a second language through music”. The Free Library (June, 22), HYPERLINK "http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Learning"http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Learning a second language through music.-a0136071099 (accessed November 01 2010). Nuessel, Frank, and Caterina Cicogna. 1991. “The integration of songs and music into the italian curriculum”. Italica 68 (4) (Winter): pp. 473-486. Pienemann, M. 1984. “Psychological constraints on the teachability of languages”. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 6 (02): 186-214. Schmidt, R. W. 1990. “The role of consciousness in second language Learning1”. Applied Linguistics 11 (2): 129. Stansell, J. W. 2005. “The use of music for learning languages: A review of the literature”. Jon Weatherford Stansell University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Tarone, E., and M. Swain. 1995. “A sociolinguistic perspective on second language use in immersion classrooms”. Modern Language Journal 79 (2): 166-78. Thurston-Griswold, H. 2006. “Music in the foreign language classroom: Developing linguistic and cultural proficiency” (1).

Truscott, J. 1996. The case against grammar correction in L2 writing classes. Language Learning 46 (2): 327-69. Classroom and student materials:

The following is a link to the video “Un mundo ideal” (A Whole New World). Prior to the song, the main characters, Aladdin and Jasmine, have a short dialogue with a good amount of adjectives. Great for working on descriptive vocabulary: HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGPmoDamZXs" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGPmoDamZXs The link HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIpzfs5tBJU&ob=av2e" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIpzfs5tBJU&ob=av2e has the song “Limón y sal” (Lime and salt) by Mexican singer Julieta Venegas. This song is very useful when working on present indicative for the first and second person singular. The song “Sueña” (someday) by Spanish singer David Bisbal is a great source for teaching the imperative. It can be found at the following link: HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik8GUtZ6A3o" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik8GUtZ6A3o The link HYPERLINK "http://formespa.rediris.es/canciones/" http://formespa.rediris.es/canciones/ contains songs and activities for older students (high and middle school). The following blog has songs, grammar explanations and exercises to practice the grammar of Spanish: HYPERLINK "http://principiantes.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/presente-del-indicativo-verbos-

irregulares/" http://principiantes.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/presente-del-indicativo-verbos-irregulares/ It also provides links to on-line bilingual and Spanish dictionaries, and to the Cervantes Institute. Appendices Appendix 1

ADJETIVOS

Clasifica los adjetivos de la canción “Un mundo ideal” según lo que estén describiendo:

Appendix 2

Un mundo ideal

Aladín Yo te quiero _____________ este mundo espléndido, ven princesa y deja a tu corazón ___________. Yo te puedo ___________ cosas maravillosas, con la magia de mi alfombra vamos a _________... Un mundo ideal, será fantástico ___________, nadie que diga no, o a donde ____________, a aquellos que se aman.

Jasmín Un mundo ideal, tan deslumbrante y nuevo, donde ya vi al subir, con claridad, que ahora en un mundo ideal estoy... Aladín Ahora en un mundo ideal estoy... Jasmín Fabulosa visión, sentimiento divino, baja y sube y vuela hacia celestial región... Un mundo ideal... Aladín Mira bien lo que hay... Jasmín Allí mil cosas voy a ________... Aladín Conteniendo el aliento... Jasmín Soy como azul estrella que se va y nunca será igual ya otra vez... Aladín Un mundo ideal, Jasmín Cada vuelta es sorpresa... Aladín Un horizonte nuevo __________... Jasmín Cada instante un relato... Aladín/Jasmín Hay que __________ sin fin, hasta el confín, juntos en un mundo ideal tu y yo...

Aladín Un mundo ideal... Jasmín Un mundo ideal... Aladín Que _____________... Jasmín Que _____________... Aladín Que ____________... Jasmín Que _____________... Aladín/Jasmín Tu junto a mí....

Appendix 3

PRESENTE DEL INDICATIVO

Completa las oraciones con la forma del verbo apropiada. Yo le ________________(enseñar) a los niños del pueblo a escoger las mejores frutas en el mercado. (Ver) ______________que te sientes muy feliz cuando viene Aladín a visitarte, princesa. No (encontrar) ________________ mi lámpara. ¿sabes en donde puede estar? Tengo que regresar a ella. ¡Espera te (mostrar) _________________ la alfombra mágica que encontré en el pueblo! (Seguir) _____________ pensando en la princesa Jasmine. ¡Es tan hermosa! ¿Qué piensas Jafar, (abrir) _________________ la puerta y (hablar) ____________ con él, o no lo dejo entrar? Yo (compartir) contigo mis amigos, mi comida, mi ropa, pero mi alfombra mágica, ¡no! A veces (sueñar) ___________________ que puedo covertirme en el animal que quiera. Todos los días (contemplar) _______________________ el pueblo desde el balcón de mi palaciao. A las 8:00 (volar) _________________ al mercado con el genio en la alfombra. Hoy (ir) ________________ al pueblo contigo princesa. Tengo que cuidarte de los

ladrones. Sigue Aladín, yo te (alcanzar) _______________________ más adelante. Recuerda que si me convierto en pájaro, llegaré más rápido que tú.

Escribe el número de cada oración frente al personaje que piensas que lo dijo:

Appendix 4 LIMÓN Y SAL Julieta Venegas

(tener) __________ que confesar que a veces no me (gustar) __________ tu forma de ser luego te me (desaparecer) ___________________ y no (entender) __________ muy bien por qué no (decir) __________ nada romántico cuando llega el atardecer Te (poner) __________ de un humor extraño con cada luna llena al mes. Pero a todo lo demás le (ganar) __________ lo bueno que me (dar) __________ sólo tenerte cerca (sentir) __________ que vuelvo a empezar. yo te (querer) __________ con limón y sal, yo te (querer) __________ tal y como (estar) __________, no hace falta cambiarte nada, yo te (querer) __________ si (venir) __________ o si (ir) __________, si (subir) __________ y (bajar) __________ y no (estar) __________ seguro de lo que (sentir) __________ (tener) __________ que confesarte ahora nunca creí en la felicidad a veces algo se le parece, pero es pura casualidad.

luego me (venir) __________ a encontrar con tus ojos y me (dar) __________ algo más solo tenerte cerca (sentir) __________ que vuelvo a empezar.