LECTURE 7 & 8

Principles of Selection and

Adaptation of Songs and
Poems
Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the lessons, students will be able to:

1. identify the principles of selection and adaptation of
songs and poems for use in the primary ESL
classroom.
2. select, evaluate and adapt songs and poetry for use
in primary ESL classroom
Criteria for Text Selection

In the language classroom,

 Readability
 Suitability of Content
 Exploitability
 Compatible with learning objectives
Readability

 The ease in which text (song or poem) can be read

and understood/ listened to/ watched it on video
 Crucial to students’ understanding of the text overall.
 See a stanza as a complete unit, NOT just a collection
of sentences with individual meaning.
 Factors Affect readability
 Size and type of Fonts
 Lexical difficulty
 Structural difficulty
 Technical jargons
 Culture words
 Amount of new vocabulary
 Amount of new grammatical forms
If the class is reading/
sharing a poem….
Words –
not too
difficult
Words - Too
clear many
enough words

Poem
If the class is listening to a
song…
Most words are
familiar – if not
Too many
pre-teach the
words
unfamiliar
words

For a long song

Words - clear to – many verses
hear but each verse
changes a little
Poem
Ask these questions….

 Is the text too easy/difficult for the students?

 Is it structurally too demanding/ complex?
 How much new vocabulary does it contain? Is it
relevant?
 Suitability of Content
 The content of the poem, song, story or play should be
interesting enough to ‘hook’ the reader to the text.
 The subject matter should delight the children. It
should:
- say something to them
- enhance their egos
- strike happy collections
- tickle their funny bones and
- encourage them to explore
Cont……

 Poems and songs for young learners should tell simple

stories and introduce stirring scenes of action.
 The materials should interest the student and
appropriate to their needs and abilities.
 The materials should also be culturally relevant to the
experience of the students.
Cont ……

 Texts should be within students’ competence

culturally.
 Culture beyond students’ competence will not
motivate the students to read or listen.
 The subject matter of the text needs to deal with
events or experiences which the readers have been
through (Hill, 1992)
Cont ……

 The theme of the texts must relate to

some extent to country or culture of the
readers or learners.
 Students will be motivated to read or
know literary materials whose setting and
culture are familiar to them.
Ask these questions ……

 Does the text interest the students?

 Is it relevant to the student’s need?
 Does it cater the students’ need?
 Does it represent the type of materials that the student
will use outside of the classroom?
Please Mr Postman
 (Stop)
Oh yes, wait a minute Mister Postman
(Wait)
Wait Mister Postman
 Please Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there's a letter in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why's it takin' such a long time
(Oh yeah)
For me to hear from that boy of mine
 There must be some word today
From my boyfriend so far away
Pleas Mister Postman, look and see
If there's a letter, a letter for me
 I've been standin' here waitin' Mister Postman
So patiently
For just a card, or just a letter
Sayin' he's returnin' home to me
 (Mister Postman)
Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there's a letter in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why's it takin' such a long time
(Oh yeah)
For me to hear from that boy of mine
 So many days you passed me by
See the tears standin' in my eyes
You didn't stop to make me feel better
By leavin' me a card or a letter
 (Mister Postman)
Mister Postman, look and see
(Oh yeah)
If there's a letter in your bag for me
(Please, Please Mister Postman)
Why's it takin' such a long time
 (Why don't you check it and see one more time
for me, you gotta)
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
Wait a minute
(Mister Postman)
Mister Postman, look and see
(C'mon deliver the letter, the sooner the better)
Mister Postman
Exploitability

 The literary text can be used to develop the students’

competence and can be exploited for teaching
purposes.
 Questions to ask for exploitability:
- Can the text be exploited for teaching purposes?
- For what purpose should the text be exploited?
- What skills/ strategies can be developed by exploiting
the text?
More complex criteria for
materials selection
 Obviously, when selecting materials you
will need to try to find texts that are
suitable for the majority of students in the
class.
 You may also find that developing the
facility for self-access is one way of
personalising learning so that you can
cater for the range of student
development and interests within a
group.
STUDENTS’
CULTURAL BACKGROUND

 When considering this factor, think about how far the

students’ cultural background and their social and
political expectations will help or hinder their
understanding of a material.
 You will also need to consider how much background
you will need to provide for your students to have at
least a basic understanding of the text.
Cont……

 Sometimes, texts which may appear to be very

remote in time and place from the world today may
still have appeal for students in different countries
around the world.
 In addition, many students may have a strong sense of
curiosity about another culture and enjoy studying its
literature because they believe it reveals key insights
about that society.
THE STUDENTS’ LINGUISTIC
PROFICIENCY
 In some cases, learners can be classified as advanced
and can fairly communicate with ease in an English
classroom.
 Yet, they might not be able to cope with the
language of the text because it departs strikingly from
the usual norms of language use; it includes a great
many archaisms, rhetorical devices and metaphors.
Cont…..

 You might need to ask yourself questions like these

when deciding whether or not to use the materials:
1. Are students sufficiently familiar with the usual norms of
language use?
2. How much of the language in the text will students be
able to infer?
3.Will students find it useful and enjoyable to
study the text, or will they feel demotivated by the
difficulties of the language?
THE STUDENTS’ LITERARY
BACKGROUND
 When choosing texts to use with students, therefore,
we should look not only at the grading of the
language in the text, but at its specific literary qualities
and whether our students can navigate their own way
through these.
 Students may need guidance in making sense of their
deeper literary meanings.
When selecting a text, teachers
obviously need to consider the
purpose of using the song or poem.
 To learn particular
Que Sera, Sera
vocabulary When I was just a little boy
I asked my mother, "What will I be?
 To learn a grammar Will I be handsome, will I be rich?"
construction Here's what she said to me
"Que Sera, Sera
 To improve children’s Whatever will be, will be
intonation and stress The future's not ours to see
Que Sera, Sera
 To learn something What will be, will be"
about another culture When I grew up, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart, "What lies
ahead?
Will we have rainbows, day after
day?"
Here's what my sweetheart said
 When selecting a text, teachers
obviously need to consider the
purpose of using the song or poem.
 To practice questions and
answers
 As a background to a
drawing activity
 As a good way to start
each lesson
 As part of a game
 To reinforce new
vocabulary
 To keep the children active
using action song
 To adapt or not to adapt

If the song or poem is not quite perfect for the

situation, adaptations can often be made.

Lexical items

Sentence structure

Context and Cultural Considerations

 Lexical items
 Individual words or whole phrases can be
substituted to better suit the theme of the
vocabulary that is being learnt, or to be more
culturally appropriate, for example.
Sentence structure
 Songs for young children – short simple sentences,
using simple verb forms such as Simple Present, Present
Continuous, or Simple Past.
 It is not necessarily true that all songs for young
children must be in a simple form, but it is important
not to overwhelm them with complexity.
Context and Cultural Considerations
 Songs and poems for young children always have a cultural
context.
 Many texts - strongly American or strongly British, & full of
seasonal or weather issues, festivals or national days, and
patriotic or religious matters.
 This may be an opportunity for young children to learn
about other cultures and situations, or it may be offensive
and inappropriate, or even just too difficult for the teacher
to explain the differences. In these cases the text may need
to be abandoned, or adapted.
 Sometimes the teacher may want to adapt the text to the
local context, simply because it is fun to do so and the
children can be motivated by singing / talking about their
own context.
Practical task.

 Choose a song or poem which you

consider needs adapting.
1. Explain what is ‘wrong’ and why you
want to adapt it.
2. Adapt the text.
3. Present and perform the text to your
group / class.
Conclusion

 Despite the range and variety of teaching

materials, it is rare to find a perfect one that fits
the learner.
 However, the right selection and proper
adaptation can possibly make them suit a
particular group of students as well as situation
where they are being used.
Tutorial
 Using one of the poems or songs you have collected,
justify your choice of selection using the criteria of text
selection.
 Using one of the poems or songs you have collected,
adapt it using the principles of text simplification and
justify your adaptation.