Tuesday, September 20, 2022

 

Memorable Song

Mrs. Moon is a teacher of English who has worked with students of all ages for more than ten years. In one of her adult courses, nevertheless, she found it quite difficult to get the attention of three of her learners. The class was made up of five students but three of them, a girl, her  brother and their mother were completely silent and apathetic learners. Lessons were hard for both the teacher and the three beginners, and Mrs. Moon usually felt really frustrated, since most of the time the learners weren’t even looking at her.

One evening, the class was in absolute silence and completely motionless –as the learners were labelling school objects with their definitions-when Mrs. Moon’s mobile phone rang. She had forgotten to mute it, and so a very famous song started to play. Mrs. Moon was not a fan of that particular singer, but Sophie, her daughter, had set one of her favourite songs as her mother’s ringtone.

Much to her surprise, the teenage girl gasped and shouted, “It's him! I love him! Oh Miss, please, turn the music up!!” Mrs. Moon did as she was asked, and the students started to hum and sway to the music. From that moment on, they always finished their lessons listening to different songs, working with them, and learning the lyrics. Yesterday they dealt with a pop ballad as the boy is a big fan. Today, they will listen to a song from the fifties – it's their mother’s turn. 

  Academic summary of Key Concepts in ELT: Discourse community by Borg, E. (2003).    The Relevance of Discourse Communities          ...