Songs 🎶
Throughout all levels of instruction, I incorporate songs as an effective pedagogical tool that provides both culturally rich resources and opportunities for language practice. Songs not only introduce students to authentic language use but also facilitate engagement with various linguistic structures and cultural contexts in a memorable and enjoyable way.
At the elementary level, I introduce songs as early as Week 2, after students have acquired basic knowledge of articles. For example, the song "Perfect" by MC Solaar (1998) is strategically used to reinforce the distinction between definite and indefinite articles through a cloze activity, where students complete the lyrics by selecting the appropriate article. This task promotes form-focused instruction, encouraging learners to apply grammatical rules in a contextualized setting. Additionally, this song facilitates vocabulary development by prompting students to recognize and analyze cognates (itinéraire, papier) and false cognates (photographe, shooting), allowing them to infer meaning from the surrounding context. To deepen their intercultural competence, students are encouraged to make a contrastive analysis between the representation of women in American and French rap music, fostering both linguistic and cultural awareness. Finally, students engage in a reflective exercise, considering the juxtaposition of an English title with French lyrics, which stimulates critical thinking and encourages them to explore issues of language, identity, and cultural hybridity.
_______ histoires de mode me fascinent depuis des lustres
Comment les jolies filles finissent par devenir _____ luxe
Elles représentent le chaud sur papier glacé, ______ beauté.
Autour d’elles la masse est massée.
Alex, anorexique, pour son physique pleure
Elle marche avec le flash mais le flash n’est qu’un leurre
Il n’y a pas ____ recette, toutes uniques en fait
Je m’adresse aux femmes vous êtes toutes perfect
Mid-semester, when introducing question forms, I use the song "Les Questions" by Aldebert (2008). This song serves as a tool for form-focused instruction by reviewing various question structures in French, such as inversion, est-ce que, and question words. Additionally, the song provides an opportunity to address the limitations of machine translation tools like Google Translate. Students are tasked with comparing the French lyrics to the English translation generated by Google Translate. For example, "la petite souris" is incorrectly translated as "the little mouse" instead of "the tooth fairy," illustrating how machine translation can fail to capture cultural nuances. This activity leads into a discussion about the benefits of using reliable language resources, such as WordReference, to promote more accurate translations and deepen students’ language learning strategies.
C’est quoi le temps qui passe ?
Pourquoi si je baille, tu bailles aussi ?
Qui fait tous ces trous dans l’fromage ?
Quand on est mort, c’est pour la vie ?
Que fait la p’tite souris de toutes nos dents ?
Pourquoi les îles sont au bord de la mer ?
Une poule constipée fait-elle des œufs durs ?
C’est grand comment l’univers ?
Towards the end of the semester, I introduce the children's song "Coup de pinceau" (1996) by Hervé Suhubiette and Catherine Vaniscotte to practice color vocabulary and enhance listening comprehension. The song, which uses colors to describe elements of nature, provides opportunities for interpretive listening. For example, I ask students what “un peu de blanc sur la montagne” represents, and because they have already studied the weather, they can infer the meaning as "snow." Additionally, the song features food-related expressions containing color words, such as “blanc de poulet” (chicken breast) and “marrons glacés” (candied chestnuts). This serves as an opportunity for cultural exploration, as students learn about the French culinary tradition surrounding chestnuts, thereby deepening their intercultural competence.
Un peu de __________ dans les forêts
Un peu de ___________ dans les rosiers
Un peu de __________ sur les montagnes
Un peu de __________ dans la campagne
Un peu de ____________ sur la terre
Un peu de ___________ dans les rivières
Un peu de _____________ dans les étoiles
Un peu de ____________ sur les pétales
At the conclusion of French 0200, when introducing the subjunctive mood, I use the song "Le subjonctif" by Oldelaf (2011), which humorously contains errors in verb conjugation. This song is particularly effective for addressing common linguistic insecurity among French speakers and highlighting the challenges that even native speakers face with complex grammatical structures like the subjunctive. For example, the song features the erroneous conjugation “J'veux pas qu'tu croives” instead of the correct “Je ne veux pas que tu croies.” Students are tasked with identifying expressions that require the subjunctive, such as “il faut que,” and determining the infinitive form of the incorrectly conjugated verb. This exercise encourages students to engage in error analysis. The song also reflects the playfulness of language, showing that while mistakes are part of the learning process, there is also room for creative manipulation of language. In fact, this song demonstrates that French writers, as well as many French speakers, like to engage in playful manipulation of their language.
Il faut qu’j’te dis
Il faut qu’tu sais
Que je n’suis pas l’homme parfait
J’ai un problème
Une affliction
Avec la conjugaison
Il faut que je suis persévérant
Et combatif…
Overall, at the elementary level, I design song-based activities to integrate form-focused instruction with meaningful communication, enabling students to connect language learning with cultural exploration.