1. ESL Consultant, Teacher Trainer English Language Fellow
Jazz Chants
Welcome to the webinar!
Today we’re going to practice using a wonderful tool for you and your students – Carolyn Graham’s jazz chants.
When I say practice I mean just that. I hope to have you all clapping and chanting along with me so you’ll feel comfortable using them with your students. The only way to learn to use them is by doing it. So you’ll get lots of practice today!
POLL QUESTIONS:
have you heard of jazz chants?
have you tried using them?
do you feel comfortable with them?
. . . how to use them to help your students speak more clearly, practice vocabulary, and learn and reinforce grammar patterns.
Shirley Thompson
ESL Consultant, Teacher Trainer
Ellen Myers
English Language Fellow

3. Goals for this Session:
to introduce (or re-introduce) you to Carolyn Graham’s Jazz Chants.
to show you how I introduce and practice chants in my classes
to explore a variety of ways you can use jazz chants
to help your students speak with the natural rhythm and intonation patterns of American English
to practice vocabulary
to introduce and reinforce grammar patterns

4. What are Jazz Chants?
“Jazz Chants are Carolyn Graham's snappy, upbeat chants and poems that use jazz rhythms to illustrate the natural stress and intonation patterns of conversational American English.” [from Oxford University Press]
So who is Carolyn Graham?
She’s an ESL teacher by day and jazz pianist by night.
She tells the story of how the idea came to her. She was playing piano in a jazz club in New York City and she over heard someone say “Gee it’s good to see you, you look wonderful.” and realized it had a very clear, jazzy rhythm. She decided this might help her students learn to hear and produce the rhythmical patterns of spoken American English. And jazz chants were born!

5. Carolyn Graham will tell us how she started Jazz Chants
Let’s Watch!
Carolyn Graham will tell us how she started Jazz Chants

6. Chants use natural spoken English
Carolyn Graham: “A jazz chant is really just spoken American English with an awareness of the natural rhythms.”
Chants use natural spoken English
Chants can be used in classes of any size
Chants don’t require any special materials
Chants can be used with all age groups
Chants do not require musical ability
Equipment: I usually use a BB or flip chart paper to write longer, more complex chants and mark them for the students, but you can do them with just yourself – clapping your hands, snapping your fingers, or tapping on a desk or table or your thighs.
And BEST OF ALL, you don’t have to know how to sing or play a musical instrument. When Jenny asked me to do this workshop, at first I thought that she should find someone more musical, but then I realized I am reallly the perfect person to do this because I’m proof that you DON”T have to be musical!

7. Hi, how are you? 1 2 Fine, how are you. 3 4
Let’s begin with the simplest of chants. Listen first. Then we’ll practice.
Hi, how are you?
Fine, how are you.
before we go into more detail, let’s see what a jazz chant is and what it sounds like
read

8. Advice from Carolyn Graham. . .
A jazz chant has a four-beat rhythm: 1, 2, 3, 4
Each beat will be either a stressed word (or syllable) or clap (or tap or pause)
The first beat is the first stressed word, which may not be the first word.
Example: Do you like it? (clap) Yes, I do.

9. Why is this focus on stress, rhythm, and grouping so useful?
For native English speakers, stress is key to meaning. It’s what we listen for to know what’s important and what to focus on.
Jazz chants are a fun, practical way to help students begin to notice and produce natural rhythm.
If you attended my webinar on pronunciation, this will sound familiar to you! If not, I’d like to spend a few minutes talking about why I love jazz chants and how useful they can be as a tool for helping your students understand how spoken English works.
So, let’s talk a little about English stress and rhythm.

10. Syllable-timed vs. Stress-timed
Many languages are “syllable-timed”-- every syllable gets more or less the same stress or emphasis.
ed u ca ti on = 5 staccato beats
pa pa = 2 even, staccato beats, same vowel sound in both
But NOT English. . .English is a “stress-timed” language.
The rhythm is based on stressed words and syllables, not all syllables.
ed u CA tion = 1 strong beat
PA pa = 1 strong beat

11. Rhythm in Sentences How many syllables? How many stresses?
Kids play ball. 3 syllables/3 stresses = 3 beats The kids play ball. 4 syllables/3 stresses = 3 beats The kids are playing ball. 6 syllables/3 stresses = 3 beats The kids are playing with the ball. 8 syllables/3 stresses = 3 beats The kids have been playing with the ball. 9 syllables/ 3 stresses = 3 beats
Let’s look at how this works

12. The kids are playing ball. The kids are playing with the ball.
The beat is set by the number of stresses, NOT the number of syllables. So, each line takes approximately the SAME amount of time to say. Let’s try it.
Kids play ball.
(clap = 4)
The kids play ball.
The kids are playing ball.
The kids are playing with the ball.
The kids have been playing with the ball.
Was this easy or challenging?
Would it be challenging for your students?
If so, you’re language is likely a syllable-timed language

13. The many levels of STRESS
Words with two or more syllables will always have one primary stress.
photograph, photographer, photographic
Phrases have stress.
an excellent photographer (unstressed, stressed, focus stress)
Sentences have stress patterns.
My grandmother was an excellent photographer.
We use stress to focus attention and show contrast, often to correct, contradict or disagree.
My father liked to paint, but my mother was a photographer.
She was a photographer not a photojournalist.
So you can see why focusing on stress is key to being able to speak English in a way that is comprehensible.

14. Stress in English impacts meaning.
(Other languages have stress, but often it doesn’t change the meaning.)
Word-level: CONvict VS. conVICT, REcord vs. reCORD
I was teaching a speaking & listening class. After class, a student approached me with his cassette tape in his hand. . .
Student: I need to talk to you about my cassette.
Me: Do I know your cousin?
I misunderstood because the stress was incorrect even though he used the correct word.

15. Stress affects meaning at the phrase and sentence level.
A conversation in a bakery:
Customer: I’d like two large muffins, please.
Server: Here you are.
Can you guess what the problem is in each case?
1. Customer: Excuse me, I asked for two large muffins.
2. Customer: Excuse me, I asked for two large muffins.
3. Customer: Excuse me, I asked for two large muffins.
Poll question: Which idea does this express?
The server gave the customer two small muffins.
The server gave the customer two large cookies.
The server gave the customer only one muffin.

16. Regular focus on stress and rhythm will train your students to NOTICE stress in English – even if they don’t always get it right, at least they’ll be learning to listen for it!

17. Some general suggestions for using Jazz Chants:
Begin ORALLY. This forces students to listen to what you actually say and not what they think words should sound like based on the way things are spelled. Be dramatic. Exaggerate and make it fun. Have students listen to the whole chant first. Then have them listen and repeat each line several times together as a chorus.
especially true if your students come from languages where the spelling and the sounds match (e.g. Spanish)

18. How I teach jazz chants. . .
Introduce the chant orally first. Discuss the context. Explain any idioms or vocabulary.
Begin with group (choral) practice. Then move to pair and individual practice.
Focus on stress, thought groups, and intonation.
For longer, more complex chants, after some oral practice, (group and pairs) show them the written chant. Go through it again several times.
Together, mark it to show major stresses, intonation, reduced sounds, linking and blending. [Visual learners will appreciate this!]
Review chants regularly! They make great warm-ups.
explain any new vocab or idioms, discuss the context for the chant
With that in mind, I’m going to teach you a chant. So let’s do it orally first, then I’ll show you the written form.

19. Do you like it? Do you like it? (clap) Yes, I do. 1 2 3 4
Does he like it? (clap) Yes, he does.
Does she like it? (clap) Yes, she does.
Do they like it? (clap) No, they don’t.
No, they don’t. No, they don’t.
model whole chant
line by line
choral
Segue: Let’s review how stress works in sentences.
grammar being practiced
eventually, I’d show them the written version

20. Do you like it? 1 2 3 4 Do you like it? (clap) Yes, I do.
Do you like it? (clap) Yes, I do.
Does he like it? (clap) Yes, he does.
Does she like it? (clap) Yes, she does.
Do they like it? (clap) No, they don’t.
No, they don’t. No, they don’t. (all together)
Seque: Let’s try another relatively simple one.

21. Two groups: A – questions; B – answers. Last line all together.
What do you wear on your head? A hat.
What do you wear on your hands? Gloves.
What do you wear on your feet? Socks.
Shoes and socks, shoes and socks. (all together)
Following the choral (group) work, divide the students into two groups to practice.
Segue: Let’s review how stress works in sentences before we look at a more complex chant.

22. How stress works in sentences. . .
content words are usually stressed - nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, demonstratives (this, these, those) and negatives (can’t, won’t, never, no, etc.)
function words are usually unstressed and reduced - a, an, the, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, most prepositions, etc.
in unstressed words and in unstressed syllables, the vowel sounds are reduced and often move to “schwa”: “Do you like it?” do and you are reduced
typically the last content word in each thought group receives the most stress:
I put the groceries/ in the bag / on the counter.
Using this information, let’s look at a longer, more complex chant.
You’ll notice how the beat falls on the last content word in each thought group – the focus stress.
Listen first. Then we’ll practice it together.

23. Do you think it’s going to rain? (first verse)
I hope not.
It looks like rain.
(from Small Talk)
Poll question: Which words should receive stress in the first line? Second line? Fifth line?
Segue: Some of Carolyn Graham’s chants are more like poems that tell a story.

24. It Was Raining When She Saw Him
It was raining when she saw him.
It was raining when they met.
It was pouring when they fell in love,
the streets were dark and wet.
It was raining when they parted.
There were dark clouds in the sky.
It was raining when he left her,
when he turned and said “Good-bye.”
Obviously this is a wonderful chant for practicing the grammar pattern using the past progressive and simple past to contrast an ongoing action and one that happens and is finished.
This rhythm pattern uses the focus stress words as the main beats. You could also do it – NEXT SLIDE
Note that you could beat the rhythm slightly differently, using

25. Here’s another case where you could mark the rhythm in at least two different ways.
1 2 It was raining when she saw him. 3 4 It was raining when they met It was raining when she saw him. (clap) It was raining when they met. (clap)
In the first you’re stressing the last content word in the thought group. In the second you’re stressing all of the content words.
Do what feels most comfortable to you.

26. An easy jazz chant. How do you spell dog? (clap, tap, or snap)
Jazz chants can provide students with useful “chunks” of language – expressions they learn as a whole rather than word-by-word.
Carolyn Graham’s chant, How do you spell “dog”? gives student a “template” for asking how to spell a word.
Try beating out the rhythm by marching. You can have students march in a circle as they chant. It gets the rhythm of English into their bodies. (It’s specially great for kinesthetic learners.)
How do you spell dog? (clap, tap, or snap)
d-o-g (clap/tap)
How do you spell cat? (clap/tap)
c-a-t (clap/tap)
How do you spell octopus? (clap/tap)
Don’t ask me! (clap/tap)
Notice that when we spell we use the same pattern – more stress on the last letter. so: cat

27. In grammar classes. . .
Whenever possible, introduce grammar points orally. Jazz chants are a fun and memorable way to do this.
Focus on the individual sounds that matter most in English – sounds that indicate grammatical features such as third person singular, plural or tenses. For example:
/s/,/z/, /t/ /d/, and /Id/.
Carolyn Graham models a jazz chant called, “The Hungry Boy Chant,” which begins: “He wants: one egg, two bananas, three hotdogs, four hamburgers.” This provides good practice with endings.
Segue: Here’s a more complex chant

28. Here’s a jazz chant called “The Hungry Boy Chant.”
He wants:
One egg, two bananas,
Three hotdogs, four hamburgers,
Five cookies, six sandwiches,
(clap) He’s a hungry boy! (clap)
This provides practice with plural endings.
You can also use it to teach students to notice how stress changes to express different meanings. Make true and false statements and have students correct you. Or ask questions. Example:
You: He ate three eggs. Student: No, he ate three hotdogs.
You: He ate three bananas. Student: No, he ate two bananas.
You: Did he eat three sandwiches? No, he ate six sandwiches.

29. If it rains I’ll wear my raincoat by Carolyn Graham
Chants can be used to teach or reinforce grammar points while at the same time providing speaking & pronunciation practice. Student can quite easily absorb complex grammar points through this type of quality repetition.
If it rains I’ll wear my raincoat by Carolyn Graham
If it rains / I’ll wear my raincoat. (clap)
If it doesn’t rain / I won’t. (clap)
When it’s cold / I always wear my gloves.
When it isn’t cold, / I don’t. (clap)
If it snows I won’t wear sandals* (clap)
If the sun comes out I will. (clap)
But if it rains I’ll wear my brand new coat.*
If I don’t I’ll get a chill. (clap)
*When three content words appear in a row, we typically alternate the stress.
You’ll see in this chant that students are practicing lots of vocabulary for weather and clothing while at the same time practicing the patterns with “if” and “when”
SEGUE: Let’s listen to the recorded version of the next chant
from Carolyn’s book Grammar Chants. This is written specifically to practice irregular past tenses. You’ll see again that it has the same beat.

30. Grammarchant: Irregular Verbs from Grammar Chants by Carolyn Graham
Say, said.
Stop on red.
Eat, ate.
Don’t be late.
Break, broke.
Have a coke.
Take, took.
Learn to cook.
Speak, spoke.
Tell a joke.
Write, wrote.
Get off the boat!
rhythm is a great memory tool so use it for those pesky irregular past tenses
You can have two groups and alternate the lines.

31. Habits (excerpt)
Bob gets up at six o’clock. He never wakes up late. (clap) He always gets up early. (clap) He never sleeps till eight. (clap) He always drinks his coffee black. He never uses cream. (clap) (from Grammarchants)
Here’s a fun way to practice the simple present tense and contrast it with the present progressive. Listen to the recording.
The next chant is also from Grammar Chants.

32. What’s Going on This Morning?
The earth is turning, The toast is burning, The water is boiling, The tea kettle’s whistling, The faucet is leaking, (etc.)

33. More grammar with Jazz Chants For this activity, give the students the written version of the chant before they hear it. See if they can apply the rules of stress. At the same time, they’re reviewing parts of speech.
Have students identify all of the nouns, adjectives, adverbs and other content words that will most likely be stressed when you’re going to do a chant. Underline the stressed words.
Then have them identify the function words that will be reduced. Draw a line through the unstressed words.
Let’s try it.
Here’s another way that you can combine grammar work with speaking.

34. Is the Post Office Open Tomorrow
Is the Post Office Open Tomorrow? (excerpt from Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham)
Is the post office* open tomorrow?
It’s open from nine to five.
Is the post office open tomorrow?
What time does it open?
It opens at nine.
What time does it close?
It closes at five.
It opens at nine and closes at five.
Note: post office is a compound or set phrase and has one primary stress.
What are the content words in the first two lines?
Parts of Speech: In the first line, what are the content words – the words that carry the meaning?
ST Highlight: RISING intonation on the Y/N question vs. FALLING intonation on Wh-question; “nine to five” reduction of “to”; other reductions: it, it’s the, from, at, and
What color is: open, close, post office, nine, five, time, tomorrow

35. Is the Post Office Open Tomorrow
Is the Post Office Open Tomorrow? (excerpt from Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham)
Is the post office* open tomorrow? rising intonation
It’s open from nine to five.
Is the post office open tomorrow?
What time does it open? falling intonation
It opens at nine.
What time does it close?
It closes at five.
It opens at nine and closes at five.
Note: post office is a compound or set phrase and has one primary stress.
ST Highlight: RISING intonation on the Y/N question vs. FALLING intonation on Wh-question; “nine to five” reduction of “to”; other reductions: it, it’s the, from, at, and
clap just stressed words and then add in the unstressed (functions words)
Segue: Here’s one way to mark it.

36. Writing your own chants. . .
The language should be
real
useful
appropriate for the level
Let’s begin with vocabulary chants.
Why vocabulary chants? Rhythm is a powerful tool for memory.
Have students make a list of vocabulary words from a lesson you’ve done.
Ask them to arrange them according to the number of syllables per word.
Choose a two syllable, a three syllable and a one syllable word to make a chant.
Now perhaps you’d like to try writing your own chants. Caolyn Graham suggests writing vocabulary chants using a pattern. That is, chosing
Even some native speakers find it challenging to write their own chants and find the correct beats. It takes practice! You may want to stick with using chants that are already prepared. All of CG’s books come with CDs as does the one offered through the RELOs.

37. An example from Carolyn Graham (you can see her perform this on the video)
ruler (2 syllables) eraser (3 syllables) chair (1 syllable) The chant: ruler eraser chair (clap) ruler eraser ruler eraser
We can make the chants more complex

38. Make it more complex by adding adjectives
Make it more complex by adding adjectives purple ruler pink eraser yellow chair yellow chair
Carolyn also has clapping games you can play. Please watch her video for ideas.
SEGUE: Now let’s write our own.

39. Vocabulary: places is my town
WORD LIST drugstore train station bead shop bookstore hardware store zoo post office mall ONE SYLLABLE TWO SYLLABLES THREE SYLLABLES THE CHANT: drug store [clap] (repeat)
NOTE compounds/set phrases
If you’re working with more advanced students you might have them make up their own based on words they need academically or professionally.
They could each write and perform their own chant.

40. More vocabulary chants – just for fun (using the 2 – 3 – 1 pattern):
Words to praise someone’s work: perfect (2 syllables) fabulous (3 syllables) great (1 syllable) The chant: perfect, fabulous, great (clap) perfect, fabulous, perfect, fabulous

41. Writing your own chants. . .
Once you feel comfortable using jazz chants, you may want to try writing your own. Start by listening to the rhythms that native speakers use.
Remember, it should be:
real language,
useful,
appropriate for the age group.
And keep it simple.
I certainly don’t want to discourage any one from writing their own chants, but in working with native English speaking teachers I’ve found that some find it easy to hear the rhythm and some don’t!

42. It’s best to listen to something natural and unscripted as a model
It’s best to listen to something natural and unscripted as a model. Try National Public Radio,
and click on Storycorps. You’ll hear American telling stories about their lives using natural language.
Recordings are great because you can listen to them again and again until you hear the rhythm. However, sometimes pre-recorded CDs that come with textbooks are they are not necessarily natural.
WARNING: If you have native English-speaking friends or colleagues, listen to them, but don’t ask them to say something for you. When asked, they often produce unnatural English. They often can’t explain how they say something because it’s something they do so unconsciously.

43. Let’s recap….
Practice basic features
Always identify stressed syllables in words, stressed words in phrases, and focus words in conversations.
Practice language in “chunks” or thought groups.
Whenever possible, have students listen before they read, write or speak. Help them learn to trust their ears.
Spoken English is learned by lots of listening to good models, and lots of repetition or phrases and sentences. Jazz Chants provides all of this!
Use Jazz Chants to reinforce these basic rules of spoken English:
All words with more than one syllable have a stressed syllable with a lengthened vowel.
English has a distinct rhythm pattern based on stressing some syllables and words and reducing others.
Stress affects meaning in English, so it’s important to pay attention to it.

44. Let’s recap. . . the many uses of jazz chants -
Use jazz chants to reinforce and practice vocabulary. Rhythm is a powerful memory tool. [ruler, eraser, chair]
Use jazz chants to practice idiomatic expressions and “chunks” of useful language. [How do you spell___? Do you think it’s going to rain? I hope so. I hope not.]

45. Use jazz chants to practice grammar patterns and features.
[If it ____ I’ll (future). vs When it ____ I (simple present).; Do you . . ? Does he. . .? ]
Use jazz chants to help your students learn and practice producing the natural rhythms of spoken English. [Hi. How are you?]
If your students are shy and a bit timid about speaking English, use jazz chants to help them build confidence.

46. Thank you for joining! I hope you’ll have fun with these chants!
I look forward to your questions and comments.
Share resources that you use to work with your students.
I’ll post a list of the books that CG has written and you can request a copy of the video Teaching Jazz Chants to Young Learners.