Music and Song
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First published 1992
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Acknowledgements
This book began when my two elder sisters encouraged me to sing (not always in tune!) with them as a young child, and I got hooked on music. They taught me that joy was more important than perfect pitch. For the academic background, I was helped greatly to understand the power of the medium by Jean-Paul Bronckart, Bernard Py, and Georges Denis Zimmermann, who guided my PhD research on the use of music and song in language learning.
Many other kind musical souls read and commented on previous drafts of this book, providing valuable input and encouragement. Thea Bredie, from Holland, stimulated me greatly with her initial questions and valuable comments. Rod and Sonja Nash, teaching in Germany, have corresponded with me for several years on the topic. I found Dennis Davy and his dissertation on the subject (unfortunately after I had finished my PhD on the same) and discovered a soulmate in his ideas and experience from teaching in Japan and the Arab world. Readers in Japan, teaching a variety of languages at different levels, have helped me shape the book further: Lila Madge, Felicia Rey, Gary Beaubouef, Raoul Holland, Tadashi Sakamoto, and Gabriel Yardley. Two anonymous OUP readers also gave valuable feedback. Finally, Alan Maley’s engaging advice and personal interest greatly influenced the book’s final form.
Several schools allowed me to experiment extensively with music and song in my classes. The Université Populaire in Neuchâtel, and the Commercial School in Biel, Switzerland were brave enough to allow me to teach ‘English through music’ classes. For fifteen summers at International Summer Camp, Montana, Director Rudy Studer provided me with an international mixture of children from six to eighteen years of age in our French, German, and English language courses.
During the writing I have also been fortunate to work in two extremely supportive and stimulating academic environments, at the Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland and Nanzan University in Japan, where fellow teachers and staff have encouraged and added to the music. I would like also to thank the many individual students who taught me how to appreciate the beats of their different drums.
This book is about using music and song, and music and song were much used in its late night writing. So thanks to the music …
Tim Murphey
Nanzan University
The publisher and author would like to thank the following for their kind permission to use articles, extracts or adaptations from copyright material. There are instances where we have been unable to trace or contact the copyright holder before our printing deadline. We apologize for this apparent negligence. If notified the publisher will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.
Music & Media for the ‘European Airplay Top 40’
USA Today for the article ‘Voices: What do you think about the music kids are listening to today?’
Et Cetera for the article ‘Pop Lyrics: A mirror and a molder of society’ by Sheila Davis
Pan Books for the excerpt from The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sachs.
The author and series editor
Tim Murphey (BA in French and German, MA in TEFL) wrote his PhD thesis in Applied Linguistics on Songs and music in language learning: an analysis of pop song lyrics and the use of song and music in teaching English as a foreign language (1989). He is also the author of Teaching One to One (1991). He taught for seven years at the English Language Institute (University of Florida); for seven years at the Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland; and has spent sixteen summers teaching and playing with an international array of children at International Summer Camp, Montana, Switzerland, where he co-ordinated the French, German, and English language courses. From 1990 to 2001 he was teaching, writing, and learning at Nanzan University in Japan. He is currently Professor of Foreign Languages and Applied Linguistics at Yuan Ze University, Taiwan.
Alan Maley worked for The British Council from 1962 to 1988, serving as English Language Officer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Representative for The British Council in South India (Madras). From 1988 to 1993 he was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge. From 1993 to 1998 he was Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature of the National University of Singapore. From 1998 to 2002 he was Director of the Graduate Programme at Assumption University, Bangkok. He is currently a freelance consultant.
Among his publications are Literature (with Alan Duff, OUP 1990, in this series); Beyond Words, Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, Words, Variations on a Theme, and Drama Techniques in Language Learning (all with Alan Duff), The Mind’s Eye (with Françoise Grellet and Alan Duff), Learning to Listen and Poem into Poem (with Sandra Moulding), Short and Sweet, and The English Teacher’s Voice.
Foreword
There is no human society without its poetry. There is no human society without its music. When put together, they constitute a powerful force for both cultural cohesion and identity and for individual fulfilment.
In relation to language learning, the use of music and song offers two major advantages:
1 Music is highly memorable. Whether this is because it creates a state of relaxed receptivity, or because its rhythms correspond