The Power of Action Songs

MM7  Charles Goodger : "The Power of Action Songs."
Monday 23 November 2015

The webinar took place in the Moodle Mooc 7 and I could watch it live but I could not watch the whole presentation because I  had problems with the internet connection. So I had to watch it again and this is the reason why this post is written in December.

First of all,I would like to provide information about the presenter: Charles Goodger. He is the founder of FunSongs Education speaks six languages (including Latvian) and writes language-learning action songs.

He has a modern languages degree in French and 

Spanish from London University and an RSA TEFL

teaching certificate. As well as running FunSongs 

Education, Charles has permanent tenure as 

a Collaboratore Esperto Linguistico at Bologna 

University in Italy.

Charles Goodger is an English teacher, teacher

trainer, text-book and digital materials writer,

playwright, songwriter and entrepreneur. 

Online we can have access to his book, Music and Mime, Rhythm and Rhyme., which can 

alsobe downloaded:

 http://www.funsongs.co.uk/assets/pdf/music_and_mime_rhythm_and_rhyme.pdf

The webinar was an engaging presentation and it showed how Charles is a lover of his way of working. I must admit that I like songs but I have never been trained in  using them for teaching English. Most of the books that I am using do not have songs: I teach  ESP and cooking so my students must have listened to songs in the past, when they were younger.

Some important tips from the webinar and ideas:

Why are action songs important?

They can create a sort of a magical situation in learning: students are encouraged and engaged. He also referred to total physical response: I just checked online and found this article as regards  

English language  teaching

http://www.onestopenglish.com/methodology/teaching-articles/teaching-approaches/teaching-approaches-total-physical-response/146503.article

Action songs are seen  as  presentation vehicles

In some ways I agree: learning can happen also with songs.

I particularly liked the final motto of his presentation:

"When people commit emotionally,learning happens."

This is the link to the website with the  ideas  about the activities presented:

http://www.funsongs.co.uk/



Finally here is the presentation which was uploaded for  the teachers of the MOOC and for anyone who might be interested in learning more about this approach.