1. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership Use of Songs, Karaoke & Internet In foreign language learning Method to motivate language learners created by European partnerships within the projects Languages and Integration through Singing French and Spanish language competence through songs "Find A Delightful Opportunity to learn Portuguese through Internet and songs

2. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership LIS project: Didactical aspect The musical approach helps to make language learning more effective as it increases learners motivation and interest improves acquisition of language skills makes learning process more pleasant

3. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership, Cross cultural understanding Inclusions in the learning process the most diverse groups of students: age ethnic or national origin social status education level LIS: Sociocultural aspect

4. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership Neuro-linguistic aspect Intuitive and conscious processes in acquisition of language skills Use of both hemispheres of the humans brain: emotion & language exist together in a song Real learning happens when there is a switch from the left to the right hemisphere of the brain 3 components of the song guarantee that the language patterns are transferred to the long-term memory : Language (lyrics) + Rhythm + Melody

5. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership songs in the language classroom liven up listening activities; they enable teachers to teach grammar and vocabulary in an entertaining and relaxing way; the vocabulary of songs often extends beyond the everyday language; it is a great way how to practice pronunciation and intonation; memorable melody imprints linguistic patterns, grammatical structures and vocabulary; through songs learners learn about the culture and people, which also inspires various interesting topics for discussion. Positive effects from using songs on learners linguistic and intercultural competences:

6. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership Great diffusion of the Internet and Youtube, especially among youngsters; Linguistic education and digital competences are transversal (they are two of the 8 key competences!) and besides interact among them in the curriculum; Schools in Europe must always make forehead to an ever growing number of immigrants. This new situation asks for new didactic and methodological answers and at the same time as also the use of new proper technologies for the target groups Internet, Youtube & karaoke

7. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership It is therefore particularly useful to furnish to the teachers and all those people that wish to learn a foreign language by themselves tools for a rapid creation of communicative skills founded on the use of a musical approach and the new technologies (Internet, Youtube, karaoke and interactive multimedia whiteboard). Internet, Youtube & karaoke

8. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership FENICE + 8 institutions (6 countries in total) submitted 3 projects of European partnership aimed to spread a method for teaching/learning a foreign language based on the use of videos, karaoke and songs. Result: www.languagesbysongs.eu a website containing teaching materials that can be used by teachers of IT/RO/RU/FR/ES/PT interested in using songs in their classroom, by their pupils who wish to practise at home and, finally, by autonomous learners. Starting from these considerations..

9. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership What song to choose? It is important to keep in mind three factors: Learners profile: age, interests, level of language competence; Suitable language material: lyrics should be clear /acquaintance with idiomatic & colloquial expressions is useful and fun, but they should not impede understanding of the songs/; Cultural context: through song, we can learn a lot about the country, culture, history, behavior patterns of people of the particular country or historical period.

10. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership Teaching/Learning Unit in the concept of the LIS approach The TLU implies three phases focussed around the song: 1 phase: approaching which comes before the real work upon the text; 2 phase: analysis aiming at understanding of how the text works and to train morphological and syntactic rules; 3 phase: synthesis - going back to the text to check its assimilation and to extend it to aspects of culture and civilization

11. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership 1 Phase - Approaching to the text Pre-listening activities are related to building motivation; cultural learning: introducing one or more texts about the song, its topic and/or about the singer, showing pictures of the singer and other images especially if the captions refer to the lyrics; approaching the text, making its meaning clearer, eliciting the text: keywords, synonyms, antonyms, idioms, words with an evocative effect, Wh questions to favour guessing/elicitation. First listening without any particular task

12. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership 2 Phase - Analysis Initial practicing: during the second listening the learners may be asked to write adjectives, nouns, verbs expressing the thought and emotions caused by the lyrics, find particular words, mark a situation suggested by the lyrics, etc Manipulating the text: the text of the song is integrated in various learning activities, such as reading and listened to in order to reinforce sounds and intonation; cloze tests, scrambled sentences, changing from present to past, swapping from the male to the female words, spotting the mistake, etc. Establishing conscious links: exercises to favour reflection on grammar

13. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership 3 Phase - Synthesis After-listening activities aim at Use of the vocabulary and/or grammar taught in the song for further practice (e.g. through games, quizzes, crosswords) In-depth comprehension: new listening to the lyrics, i.e. going back to text and its perception at a new level of comprehension Socio-cultural and intercultural observations: raising awareness of a different culture through discussion, suitable phrases, drawings, images, other texts on the same topic, etc.)

14. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership The website: www.languagesbysongs.eu Six identically structured parts in Italian, French Spanish, Romanian, Russian and Portuguese Information about the project Teaching and learning resources Project results

15. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership Teaching and learning resources Teachers Guidance: theoretical fundamentals of the approach, lesson structure, practical hints on how to create own teaching material Didactic handouts present TLU examples elaborated upon a number of songs Key to exercises are addressed to learners and allow the use of handouts for self-study Lyrics: texts of the songs used in the handouts Video and karaoke for songs used in the handouts - means support language learning via Internet

16. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership Prerequisite: To use the materials at their best students should be at least at the A1 level of the Common European Frame of Reference Testing: The learning materials for Italian, Romanian and Russian have been tested overall by 45 teachers and trainers belonging to 9 countries (IT, LT, MD, RO, BG, SK, FR, USA) on 1018 students of various ages, a number significant enough to give acceptable results. 15% of students were between 6-14, 20% 15-18 and 15% of students were older than 25.

17. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership

18. Project results Looking ahead: community of language teachers using songs in their teaching practice Diffusion: In three years, on the basis of ShinyStat statistics, the website has been visited 20000 times by people from 75 countries. This is the visits list of the first nine countries: CountryVisits n° Italy5026 Romania4547 Slovakia2362 Bulgaria1401 Spain789 USA277 France149 Argentina142 UK128

19. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership FENICE s partners EUROINFORM Ltd – Bulgaria (Sofia) University of Porto Faculty of Arts – Portugal Fundatia EuroEd – Romania (Iasi) University of Bucharest – Romania E-KU Institute of language and Intercultural Communication - Slovakia (Nitra) Official Language School - Spain (Malaga) IES Ribeira do Louro - Spain (Porriño)

20. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, Grundtvig Learning Partnership Thank you for the attention! Giampiero de Cristofaro E - mail: fenice.eu@libero.it www.fenice-eu.org