英語ノート
EigoNoto.com

Why use chants in the language classroom? Chants

• Help students to remember 
• Teach sound, rhythm, accents, and word stress
  
• Are especially good for things in series (months’ & days’ names, for example)

Rhythm is key.  Use clapping, tamborines, or... the Eigo Noto CD by Kairyudo!? But what if there are problems with the chant on the CD?!
Make up your own chants (Keep reading for tips. Are you rhthmically challenged? More help!).
Or check out the original chants here for you to use at EIGONOTO.COM.

If you want to make up your own chants, here are some points on why chants work well:

• REPETITION. 
• Language is clearly broken-up into COMPONENT LANGUAGE PATTERNS. 
• The chant has 4 BEATS (Hel-lo, Hel-lo. My name is Ken). Not always, but this helps.
  

And here are some points on why chants don't work well:

• Too fast
• Too much language
• Too long
• Irregular, non-repeating language patterns 
• Doesn’t target the language structure well.

If singing AND clapping at the same time is challenging for you (it is for me!), here's a trick I learned: instead of clapping while singing, put a clap or 2 or 3 in the middle or end of the line. For example:

• What clap What clap What do you like? clap-clap
  
• I like APPLES. clap-clap-clap

For many teachers, using chants in the English class is something new. But with a little practice, and seeing how well students respond and learn using chants, I think you'll be encouraged to add them to your bag of tricks!