1、DiscussiononteachingEnglishsongsinprimaryschool【Abstract】English is a foreign language for the pupils in primary school in China.There are giant differences between English and our mother tongueChinese， and we dont have the real situation for the English study，which makes it more difficult.Primary s
2、chool is the key stage of gaining a language，and the result depends on their interest during the learning，to a large extent.As we know， pupils like singing and dancing ，theyre lively and active， easy to shift attention，and has great capability to imitate. Songs are popping，easy to pronounce and reci
3、te，lively and active，which correspond with the pupils cognition characteristic and the law of somatopsychic development.Furthermore，they enrich the teaching，provoke the interests，memory new knowledge，break through teaching difficult points.This essay mainly discusses about the application of English
4、 songs in the primary school teaching，also，I will share with you some experiences of teaching English songs in a primary school for six years. 【Key words】songs； primary school students； application； experience Introduction In recent years， the English teaching methods have been optimized and obtaine
5、d good results with the English Teaching Reform.But put them into practice，some of them turn out to be unpractical or do not attain the ideal effect.Why？Some of the teachers still concern about finishing the teaching tasks，which ignores the interest of learning English .If we can use the songs to he
6、lp the pupils learning English，the learning efficiency will soon be enhanced. The functions of songs in English teaching in primary school 1.Helping pupils master the right pronunciation and tune and improve their language sense.Songs can help the pupils for their characteristics of rhymes.We know，i
7、t is very hard for Chinese pupils to master the rhythm because of the giant differences between English and our mother tongue，and songs are the best materials to practice. 【Example 1】Take a phonetic symbol teaching eIfor example.In order to practice this symbol ，I teach the song Rain，rain，go away，th
8、e lyrics are as follows： Rain，rain，go away Come again some other day Little Johnny wants to play Rain，rain，go away（repeat） 2. Inspiring the pupils creative thinking and great imagination.One of the tasks of the English courses of basic education is to develop the pupils abilities of observing，memory
9、，thinking，imagination and spirit of creativity.And the magic songs can. 【Example 2】 （Fun With English 5A Unit3 At a Music lesson） In this unit we have a song We can sing and dance in the book， The lyrics are： You can dance and we can sing. They can play the violin. Are you ready？Lets begin. Lets dan
10、ce，lets sing and play the violin. After they can sing the song，I encourage the pupils to recompose the song， the pupils are all happy and want to show me their unique works.Their imagination and creativity are surprising and miraculous. One of the composed lyrics are： You can swim and we can ski. Th
11、ey can make a model plane. Are you ready？Lets begin. Lets swim，lets ski and make a model plane. 3. Helping the pupils to study ，memory some words and grammar. According to Ebbinghaus illusion，pupils tend to forget ，so what they learned must be consolidated on time ，which can be kept in their mind in
12、 a relatively longer period of time.If the teachers just summarize like they were junior high school students or senior high school students，children will feel tedium which may restrain their memory.Hence，we can make use of the songs to stimulate their brain ，thus increasing memory effect. 【Example
13、3】When I teach the grammar “love plus the plural forms of the countable noun”， it is not difficult to remember the rules ，but its not easy not to make mistakes when they put it into practice.Therefore，I decide to teach them an English song I love the mountains.First I drew the new words on the black
14、board and tried to make me understood.（The words are mountains ，rolling rills，flowers，daffodils，fireside）.Then I ask the pupils to listen to what I love.At last I asked them to recompose the song. The lyrics are as follows： Boom de ah da， boom de ah da. Boom de ah da， boom de ay. Boom de ah da， boom
15、 de ah da. Boom de ah da， boom de ay. I love the mountains. I love the rolling hills. I love the flowers. I love the daffodils. I love the fireside when all the lights are low. Boom de ah da， boom de ah da. Boom de ah da， boom de ah ay. Boom de ah da， boom de ah da. Boom de ah da， boom de ay. Boom，
16、boom， boom. In the song，pupils not only learn some new words，but also learn the grammar，the most important ，they enjoy learning itself. 4. Songs can help pupils improve their abilities of reading and writing.Writing is one of the most important skills pupils should master in primary school.We can co
17、mpose the key words or sentence patterns into the song，which can be caverned out ，pupils can fill in the blanks in this way.When teaching the sentence pattern“Its time for.”，one of the teacher use the song Round the clock. Round the clock the hours go. Sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Tell me what
18、 the two hands say. They will tell the time of day. _oclock，its time for_. . Eight oclock，its time for bed. Come with me you sleepy head. In this way，pupils started to write the song according to their timetables.And then the teacher asked the pupils to sing the song to tell others about his one day
19、 life.The task laid a solid foundation for their writing ability.Meanwhile，pupils may get the idea of cherishing time. Current situation Nowadays， more and more teachers tend to begin or end their classes with English songs for creating a good atmosphere for pupils learning English.And the new publi
20、shed Standard of English Curruculum clearly states the objectives and requirements of song teaching.Level 1（for the pupils of Grade three and four） ，theyre required to sing 15-20 simple English songs .Level 2（for the pupils of Grade five and six ） ，they are required to sing 30-40 English songs. From
21、 it，we know songs play an important role in the English teaching in primary school.Even so，many of the students in primary school cannot sing so many English songs as the English Curruculum states for some reasons. The reasons First and foremost，songs are not one of the testing items.We may test the
22、ir listening，reading ，writing through a piece of paper and speaking through an oral English test.As to songs，there is not a system which can test the pupils abilities in singing English songs from certain aspects. So the teachers dont spare no effort to teach songs . Second ，no textbook about Englis
23、h songs in primary school is published.As we know ，teachers should teach according to the textbooks，they dont have the teaching materials，then how to teach？ In my opinion ，a book about English songs that is suitable for primary school students to learn is absolutely necessary. Third，there is no qual
24、ified teachers.It is known that only the talented teachers ，can they teach the songs in the way the pupils love. Teaching songs ，the teachers should be good at the field of singing，dancing，drawing ect.When teaching ，the body language speaks for itself.Whats more， teachers must have the ability of pl
25、aying the piano.In this way，few teachers are qualified of teaching songs. Fourth，the pupils ability of learning is limited，to some extent.English is a foreign language which is difficult to learn to our pupils.So，the pupils are able to sing simple songs after repeating several times，but as to some d
26、ifficult songs，though theyre interesting，its out of their ability to learn. The problems we need to pay attention to when using songs in our teaching. First is interest.Pupils have interest in songs，but teachers cant teach the songs fixedly. On the contrary，we should try different ways to teach song
27、s. Second is accuracy.It is not our purpose to teach the songs to arouse the pupils interest in learning English，learning songs is only a means or a tool of gaining the language itself.Sometimes ，the beat may too quick for the primary school pupils to follow，so some of the consonants wont be sung ou
28、t.We should ask the pupils to slow down and pronounce clearly and correctly.After they are skilled ，we can add the rhythm.Last is choosing.The beat of the song should be easy for them to move their body. If they cant do so in class，the teaching may turn out to be a failure. Conclusion Songs make the
29、 English learning more interesting.Songs are not only a musical form ，but also one of the important means of education.Combining songs with our English teaching in primary school，is a good way of improving the pupils English study.Most important，learning for fun is what we teachers pursue all our li
30、fe.Whereas，it is just a kind of means，we should make proper use of it. References： 1Xue Xiaofang，2007Provoking Interests，promoting English TeachingM.Shandong Press. 2Hu Rong，1997，Effects of Music in EnglishM.Jiling Press. 3Song Jinyan，2005，Learning English by means of songs，Liaoning education Press. 4Fang Fang，Effects and functions of songs in teaching English，Shandong Foreign University.
