Song Word Race [Teaching Tip]

This is a great activity to wake your students up!

Choose a song that you think your students will like, and contains grammar and language suitable for their level. Choose 10-15 difficult words from the song and write them on separate pieces of paper or coloured cards. You may want to drill the words with the students first so they know the pronunciation. Blue tack each word to the board or wall. Put the students into teams of around four; each team in single file in front of the board. Play the song. When the first students at the front of their line hear a word in the song that is on the board they have to race each other to grab that word from the board. If there are more then two teams then provide two of each word.

They then go to the back of the line and it's up to the next pair (like a relay race). The team with the most words wins.

I don't usually stop the tape so don't choose words that come one after the other. If you want to make it more difficult you can put red herrings up. You can usually play the song a couple of times until they get all the words.