Introduction

Dear reader,

One Two Red Ballon is based on the idea of teaching English to nursery students through musical and rhythmical activities. In other words, it adopts a cross-curricular approach and attempts to combine the subject of English with the subject of Music.

As it is widely known, music and songs in particular, can play a big part in the teaching of foreign languages. The benefits of incorporating musical activities into our Lf teaching are many. Generally speaking, music can help students: i) learn new vocabulary ii) improve their pronunciation iii) become aware of the social and functional aspects of language iv) increase their motivation and become active learners v) develop their cognitive / emotional / social etc. skills vi) find creative ways of self-expression as well as vii) develop their imaginative powers.

When it comes to nursery students, music can be a way of exposing them to new linguistic input while making them feel at ease. Nursery learners love listening to music, singing, moving and dancing. As a result, if the teaching of new vocabulary items was part of fun-like, musical and rhythmical activities, the young learners would probably be more interested in engaging themselves actively into the learning process. After all, the attention span of so young learners is quite limited, and we will always be looking for ways of increasing their motivation and varying our lessons.

What differentiates this material from others is that learners do not just listen to a song, sing and learn English vocabulary, but they actually engage themselves actively in musical and rhythmical activities parallel to their English learning. As a result, by playing music, practising rhythmical patterns and singing, students may consolidate the linguistic input they are exposed to quite subconsciously. To clarify things, let me describe the lessons' procedure:

Suppose that we were going to teach students some toys in English. In this case, we would find pictures (or realia) that depicted the toys in question and present them to students, as well as ask them to use their L1 and describe what they can see. (The use of L1 can gradually be limited or we can simultaneously use both L1 and Lf). We could also ask them some more questions that would predispose them towards the content of our lesson. By using these pictures we could teach students their English equivalents and ask them to practise them further by using rhythmical clapping. Then, we could tell students that they would learn a song about these toys. We would play the song on the piano (or play the CD) and ask students to: move to the rhythm of the music (walk around the classroom, jump, run, stride etc), raise the correct flashcard of the toys mentioned in the song, put the flashcards into the correct order, dramatise the song, repeat the words with variation in volume e.g. piano - forte, clap their hands rhythmically, play various percussion instruments (e.g. bells, tambourine, maracas, jingle stick, scrapers, sticks etc.) while working as a group on rhythmical patterns and singing. In the end, we could ask students to use the words they have learnt and make a drawing / poster or we could ask them to play a game, make a class survey, vote for the best dramatisation / mime and so on. Simultaneously to these follow-up activities, students could be listening to classical music (or any other genre). And above all, we would use a puppet, students would interact with, and whose role would be that of a conductor or orchestrator of activities, adding that it would invite students to use their imagination and participate.

In fact, what we are talking about is an introduction to the learning of English at a pre-writing / pre-reading level by means of Music, Rhythm, Movement and Art.

As learning is achieved through trial and error we should not get disappointed when errors occur or when learners do not respond to our activities as much as expected, get bored and get away from what was planned. On the contrary this should leave room for improvisation and lesson variation so as to meet our students' needs and keep them motivated. What matters is that any degree of engagement on the students' part does gradually contribute to their development and active learning.

One Two Red Balloon comprises of 18 lessons and each lesson needs at least one teaching hour per week to be covered. Each lesson is topic and song based. The topics covered are the following: GREETINGS, INTRODUCING OURSELVES, TOYS, TRANSPORT, ANIMALS, COLOURS, FOOD, FRUIT, FAMILY, NATURAL ELEMENTS, THE 4 SEASONS, WEATHER, LANDSCAPE, ACCESSORIES, PLANTS, NUMBERS 1-10, ANIMAL SOUNDS, VEGETABLES, BIRTHDAY, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, CHRISTMAS, EASTER . Both music scores and lesson plans are provided. However, the lesson plans are nothing but proposals and you can feel free to omit or supplement the material with anything that would meet your students' needs.

As an English and Music teacher myself I believe that this material can be used for the simultaneous teaching of English and Music to nursery students. It should be mentioned that all songs (both music and lyrics) are original compositions of my own and have been written with a view to addressing nursery students' needs. I hope that you will enjoy working with this material and give your students the opportunity to become familiar with two international languages, English and Music.

Sincerely yours,

Angheliki - Fotini Sartaridou

P.S. Dedicated to my beloved ones.