| Living Language Institute Foundation |  |
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Singing English is the name given to the Sound-to Symbol methodology when it is used in working with multi-lingual groups and ESL and when it is used with children with developmental delays. It also provides a sound oral foundation to literacy and can be used as to integrate language use across the curriculum
Singing English is deceptively simple. It rests on the knowledge that the music of certain songs flow in confluence with spoken English. By learning songs such as "The More we Get Together" and "Circle Left, Duo Duo", the children are given an acoustic ‘mantra’ which, when accompanied by the social play of the folk song-game, establishes an architecture of oral English and a social structure for contextualizing the meaning of the words.
Repeating the songs and games over time, while at the same time re-directing the auditory focus of the players and diversifying the focus of the games, provides the oral language structure for children for moving from sound to symbol, both iconic and written. Singing uses a different brain function and children with language delays often find singing enjoyable.
Advantages of the Singing English Program
An oral methodology
• The methodology is oral in both the training of teachers and the teaching of students. In later stages of the methodology, written language is introduced. However, the main focus of the methodology is the acoustic sounds and rhythm of English.
• English folk song games are used to learn the acoustic patterns and metrics, rhythms of spoken English. The games provide enjoyable social interactions in which the meaning the words arises through the context of the actions.
Repetition of the whole song
• Students learn to sing the whole song from the very beginning. It is the sound and not the meaning that is important.
• The song is sung over and over during the song games, often daily over a period of months and years.
Small changes
• Once the song structure is in place, small changes are introduced to give the game its focus
• Limited choices are provided to ensure continued interest and engagement by the children while maintaining the whole song structure.
• Very small changes are made to provide the context for the game play
Visual Cues
• Props are used to provide visual cues for the meaning
• The actions of the Games reveal the meaning in context over many repetitions
Layers of learning a living language
• The same song can be used to develop many layers of language learning
• A small number of songs can be used to cover a wide curriculum
• Non English speaking teachers can learn to teach the song games using simple English communication phrases with consistent hand patterns that convey meaning.
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