Vocabulary/Le Vocabulaire
One of the main barriers students face when trying to comprehend a text is unknown vocabulary and limited experience with content words (Cain, 2010). This is especially true for second-language learners. Explicitly teaching vocabulary helps to build students’ lexicons (mental dictionaries) and increases comprehension.
“When the word is not in the learner’s oral vocabulary, it will not be understood when it occurs in print. Vocabulary occupies an important middle ground in learning to read[...]Reading vocabulary is crucial to the comprehension processes of a skilled reader” (NRP, 2000, Chapter 4, p. 3).
(Pexels, n.d.)
Teaching vocabulary through music
Explicitly teaching the meaning behind new words and planning interactive activities helps to maximize the student’s use of vocabulary (Spear-Swerling, 2019). The National Reading Panel (2000) notes that “pre-instruction of vocabulary words prior to reading can facilitate both vocabulary acquisition and comprehension” (Chapter 4, p.
p.4). This preinstruction also ensures that all students are exposed to vocabulary and it is not assumed that all students comprehend specific words. For struggling readers, this helps to relieve the anxiety associated with confronting unknown words in texts. Within the French Immersion classroom, much of the vocabulary that students use on a daily basis is academic and school related. Exposing students to modern music allows them to encounter vocabulary outside of a school context and also exposes them to
“Using songs put to print can expand vocabulary and knowledge of story structure, as well as build on concepts about print. The use of music for reading instruction allows children to easily recall new vocabularies, facts, numbers, and conventions of linguistic expression.”
(Khaghaninejad & Fahandejsaadi, 2016, p. 40)
more conversational language. Much of teaching vocabulary involves frequent exposure to words, their meanings and their use in proper context. Analyzing lyrics and completing vocab-based activities helps to build the class’s French vocabulary. With an increased vocabulary, students are able to communicate more complex ideas and have a deeper comprehension of texts.
Vocabulary lessons and activities
Prior to listening to this song, students looked up the highlighted words and needed to classify the new vocabulary into verb, adjective or noun. Once students had built an understanding about the new vocabulary, we then listened to the song.
Some songs are centered around a specific theme. You can create close activities to help highlight new themed words. For example, 'Outfit' by Black M., features various clothing and fashion words. Students are then actively listening and placing the words in context.
When presenting new words, you can provide picture translations to help avoid using English words. pre-loading the necessary vocabulary before listening will help lead to better comprehension.
Having students create their own lyrics video/ karaoke slides requires students to look up new words so that they can accurately associate images with the vocabulary. These karaoke activities also help to support fluency through repeated listening, and tracking lyrics. It also demonstrates student comprehension.
Providing vocabulary lists and sentence banks gives students higher confidence to communicate their thinking in a second language. Reference sheets allow students to go beyond "j'aime la chanson". They can add new and richer adjectives to their lexicon to describe better the songs they hear.
