‘The Sweetest Sounds’

Musicals in English can truly enhance English language learning. Because songs, dialogue and a cultural component all comprise musicals, ESL students and instructors can benefit from stage, film and television musicals. London’s West End and New York’s Broadway are renowned worldwide for their stage musicals, or at least they were until the events of 2020 closed so many theatres. This article’s title derives from the song ‘The Sweetest Sounds’ from Richard Rodgers’ 1962 musical No Strings. The song title sets the stage for using an incredible body of songs usually referred to as show tunes.

Author Dr. Keith Mason in a publicity photo for a school production of The Music Man

Musical theatre and movie musicals are an important part of popular culture and many people consider musicals their all-time favourite type of stage play or film. The combination of music, dance, colourful characters, sets, costumes and interesting themes make musicals irresistible to many. Additionally, the staging of musicals in some schools represents a long tradition and reverence for musical theatre. Nevertheless, musicals are not only for entertainment purposes; with careful planning, they can be powerful educational tools. Musicals can be integrated into the curriculum along with aspects of the history of musical theatre and film including composers and lyricists.

This article provides necessary background for teachers to create powerful lessons for students using songs and themes from musicals. It also outlines learning scenarios that can be utilised in the curriculum to foster language skills, culture and thematic learning.

English through musicals

Many tenets of language teaching can be supported by using musicals in instruction. With thoughtful planning, both stage and film musicals can serve as prime resources for lessons. Cast albums and soundtracks are also great resources as are YouTube videos. The traditional four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as culture can be fostered. Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, idioms and interdisciplinary learning can also be reinforced. Additionally, musicals can teach multicultural ideas and foster ESL acquisition and learning.

Skills building and learning scenarios

Many musicals exist for developing skills. In addition, the libretti, sheet music, print materials, internet, magazine articles and live stage productions can be utilised to enhance learning.

Because we want our students to perform in English through speaking, it is worth implementing performing arts activities in our instruction. Bany-Winters’ (2000) book Show Time! provides a variety of music, dance and drama activities for school-aged children. Specifically, she addresses a number of useful ideas for English language teachers. Because the activities include the need for language, students can learn both the content of the activity and English at the same time. Bany-Winters outlines a number of performance skills including acting out scenes, playing a musical instrument, singing a song or doing a dance, among many other possibilities.

It is absolutely essential that teachers verify the appropriateness of a specific musical to the age level of students before deciding to use it. In practice, musicals can be used at any time in instruction. A song from a musical can be used to open a lesson or unit, be part of the body of a lesson or be used as an exit activity. A song can help frame one or more lessons or an entire unit.

Learning scenarios are lessons, activities or units that are created to foster student learning. In terms of songs and musicals, learning scenarios can be based on:

1. A specific song such as ‘You’re the Top’ from Anything Goes. This song contains many cultural references that students can explore as well as interesting rhyme patterns.

2. An entire musical such as The Sound of Music whereby students learn about music in one’s life, the importance of family during diversity, European history, and Rodgers and Hammerstein.

3. A thematic unit supported by one or more songs or musicals such as rural America supported by Annie Get Your Gun, Oklahoma!, Paint Your Wagon, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Big River.

Skill building

The four traditional skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing plus culture can all be fostered using musicals. Table 1 outlines how skills can be integrated with musicals.

Learning scenarios: guidelines for use

Because of the gargantuan number of songs, many possibilities exist for implementing songs from musicals in your teaching. Show tunes encourage creativity in educators and students. Hundreds of songs exist for educators to tap into their own creative use ‘People’ from Funny Girl, ‘My Funny Valentine’ from Babes in Arms, ‘What’s New?’ and ‘Young at Heart’ from Young at Heart are a few of many that might be used with students. See <www.musicals101.com> for background about musicals by entertainment historian John Kenrick.

The following seven learning scenarios provide a variety of ideas for ESL instructors. These represent only a fraction of possibilities because of the number of musicals available and the variety that they can provide ESL educators.

‘With a song in my heart’: songs for teaching English grammar and vocabulary

This first scenario focuses on the use of individual songs in lessons. The scenario title derives from the Rodgers and Hart song from their 1929 musical Spring Is Here. This scenario is the most general but one that ESL instructors can revisit many times. Instructors choose a song from a musical in order to teach students one or more grammatical structures or vocabulary in context. A few examples illustrate how to implement this idea.

• ‘The Impossible Dream’ from Man of La Mancha repeats a number of infinitives in its lyrics: ‘to dream’, ‘to fight’, ‘to dare’ and ‘to reach’. Students can reinforce the use of infinitives especially at the beginning of sentences.
• ‘If I Loved You’ from Carousel teaches if clauses with the conditional as in the line ‘If I loved you, time and again I would try to say …’. The contracted ‘I’d’ from ‘I would’ appears a few times in the lyrics, inviting practice of contractions.
• In the song ‘Do Re Mi’ from The Sound of Music, students can learn basic vocabulary along with the musical scale. The song is a way to introduce students to music in a similar fashion to teaching the alphabet to help students read. This is reflected in the lyrics ‘when you read you begin with A, B, C’ and ‘when you sing you begin with Do Re Mi’.
• In another song from The Sound of Music, ‘My Favourite Things’ represents a great way to build vocabulary and get student participation. Students can come up with their own favourite things, can interview classmates about their favourite things, and report what they find out to the class afterward. This could be used as a project where students create a collage depicting their favourite things through photos or drawings with text written in English describing their images.

Good Mornin’: Singin’ in the Rain

The song ‘Good Mornin’’ from Singin’ in the Rain is a great song for novice level ESL learners. Besides teaching the basic expression, instructors can teach the colloquial pronunciation of ‘-ing’ with an alveolar [n] instead of a velar [ŋ]. A few foreign language equivalents of ‘Good morning’ are also found in the lyrics and can be reviewed with students. The song could be used as an introductory song while students are entering the class and settling in. They can perform the song individually or in groups. Students can learn other basic greetings as well.

You’re the Top: Anything Goes

The song ‘You’re the Top’ from Anything Goes contains some of the most brilliant lyrics of legendary composer and lyricist Cole Porter. References from world culture can be used for a number of possible activities and projects. This song is ideal for teaching both language and international culture. References such as the Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum, the Mona Lisa, etc. invite research and practice of language and culture within the context of the song. Students could create a collage, a PowerPoint or a report about several of the references in the lyrics.

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly: My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is ideal for illustrating the social context of language and a focus on pronunciation differences. Students can hear differences in accent, especially within England. Consider especially ‘Wouldn’t It Be Lovely’, ‘Why Can’t the English? ’, ‘Just You Wait, Henry Higgins’, ‘The Rain in Spain’ and ‘Show Me’ to illustrate language variation. Other songs within the score are also worth utilising with students such as ‘On the Street Where You Live’, ‘A Hymn to Him’ and ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’.

The Hills are Alive: The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music offers a rich score by Rodgers and Hammerstein, especially for school-aged children. Two songs in particular are ideal for children: ‘My Favourite Things’ and ‘Do Re Mi’. Both songs can reinforce vocabulary in English. ‘My Favourite Things’ can be used as a springboard for students to discuss or write about their favourite things. Other songs can also foster learning including ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Maria’, ‘Sixteen Going on Seventeen’, ‘Edelweiss’ and ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain’. A project such as a collage or PowerPoint is also possible. Mason (2009; 2015) addresses the stage and film versions in student learning. Themes that ESL instructors can explore include Austria, the Holocaust, family, love and music.

Display case featuring the French Riviera, setting for The Boy Friend

Over the Rainbow: The Wizard of Oz

In ‘The Wizard of Oz’, the characters, themes, colour scenes and cultural significance are ideal for ESL classes. Students can read a selection or entire Oz book by L. Frank Baum with instructor guidance to build reading skills and comprehension. The songs from the Oz score could practise certain grammar or vocabulary. For example:

• ‘If I Only Had a Brain/Heart/the Nerve’ can practise ‘if only’ clauses.
• ‘If I Were King of the Forest’ can expose students to the past subjunctive.
• ‘Optimistic Voices’ can show a contrast between dark and light and contractions.
• ‘Over the Rainbow’ can practise vocabulary and introduce figurative language.

Children’s literature and children’s songs

A number of musicals are especially popular with younger children. Some of these works were inspired by children’s literature and this fact invites reading the literary sources. Fairy tales and folk tales have inspired a few musicals: Cinderella, Once upon a Mattress, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! and Into the Woods. Also consider The Little Prince, Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many Disney animated films. Students can watch clips or listen to songs from these musicals as part of a fairy tale or children’s literature unit.

While these learning scenarios are only a sample, I would encourage teachers to develop their own to use with their own students.

Summary

The linguistic, cultural and thematic components found in musicals can undoubtedly enhance ESL instruction. Because so many musicals exist containing numerous show tunes, ESL instructors have a great opportunity to share musicals and songs within musical scores with their students. Numerous activities and learning scenarios can foster the four language skills, structural analysis, vocabulary, pronunciation, culture and thematic learning. This allows musicals to serve as rich resources for reinforcing English language skills. To our students’ ears, the songs in musicals can be the sweetest sounds.

References

Bany-Winters L (2000) Show Time! Chicago Review Press.

Mason K (2009) The Sound of Music Turns 50: Musical Activities to Mark the Occasion. Choral Director 6 (4) 12–15.

Mason K (2015) The Sound of Music in the Choral Music Curriculum: A Very Fine Place to Start. Choral Director 12 (6) 10–14.