EPIC Teacher's Guide - Book - Page 16
9. Teaching Songs and Chants
Songs and chants are an integral part of the Epic program. “Music lowers affective barriers
and assists in making students more relaxed, thereby more receptive to language learning.”
(Engh 2013: 117). The use of music in the language learning classroom increases motivation
and engagement, while decreasing stress and apprehension. In addition, songs and music
have been seen to aid significantly in learning vocabulary and language patterns, specifically
in foreign language acquisition. “Songs have a positive outcome on the students’ language
acquisition and…lexical patterns stored in long-term musical memory can be retrieved with
ease at a later date for mental rehearsal, memorization, or during oral interaction.” (118).
Learning and reviewing lexical items through songs and chants is an effective method of
entering them into long-term memory (Laufer, Meara, and Nation 2005) and a step toward
advancing from receptive to productive knowledge.
Throughout the units, songs are strategically re-entered in order to review vocabulary and
lexical chunks from the Pre-Foundation word list and to give pupils the opportunity to gain
the confidence to be able to chant and sing independently. It may take several exposures for
pupils to reach a level where they “can recite and sing using appropriate stress, rhythm and
intonation.” (English Curriculum 2020: 24).
The teacher can help pupils build this skill:
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Tell pupils that they are going to hear a song. Ask them to only listen the first time.
Play the song or chant. You may demonstrate the actions to the song by using Max
the puppet. Perform any gestures that may accompany the song.
Sing the first line of the song (include any gestures). Have pupils repeat after you.
Repeat and continue teaching the song.
Gradually and through each exposure, have the pupils sing along with you/Max.
Each time pupils are exposed to a song or chant, they become more confident in it
and are eventually able to sing independently.
A full list of all the song and chant lyrics in the program appears in Appendix II.
10. Total Physical Response (TPR)
Developed by American professor of psychology, James Asher, Total Physical Response (TPR)
introduced movement and motor activities into the young learner’s classroom. After
decades of research, the link between movement and cognition is clear (Lengel and Kuczala
2010). The introduction of kinesthetic learning has been praised by researchers of the
foreign language classroom as a means of language learning. “When TPR is integrated into
routines, the learners will immediately become involved in the language and engaged in
reacting to it.” (Er 2013: 1767). Furthermore, "use of these multisensory inputs provides
deeper processing, resulting in stronger memory in the brain." (Fink 2015: 139). By engaging
pupils through movement, the target language becomes easier to recall.
Epic incorporates opportunities for movements in all these categories. Games that require
pupils to act out action words, songs that invite pupils to mime the meanings of the lyrics,
flashcards that encourage accompanying gestures, and role-plays that bring the stories to
life, all enrich the program. Teachers are encouraged to bring movement into the classroom
at every opportunity. Specific instructions for gestures, movements to accompany songs or
chants, and story role-plays are included in the Teacher’s Guide.
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