Recently, Miley Cyrus  released a new single entitled “Flowers” and millions of people around the globe have started listening to it on various online platforms, including YouTube Music, Spotify, and iTunes. However, after hours of its release, cybersleuths pointed out the glaring similarities between “Flowers” and “When I Was Your Man” sung by Bruno Mars. There are a few lines from the later song that have been responded to by Miley Cyrus in her song, “Flowers”. 

Let’s take a look at some of the lines that have made Miley Cyrus’ fans, who are called the Smilers, literally smile from ear to ear. 

“That I should have bought you flowers
And held your hand
Should have gave you all my hours
When I had the chance
Take you to every party ’cause 

all you wanted to do was dance”

The lines above are taken from Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man” and let’s see what Miley has written in response to the lines. 

“I can buy myself flowers
Write my name in the sand
Talk to myself for hours
Say things you don’t understand
I can take myself dancing
And I can hold my own hand”

If we read through the lines carefully enough, we can see the similar ideas presented in both songs. The same technique can be applied when we make our students practise listening to English songs. Simply listening to songs and learning something while listening to the songs are two different things. When students listen to songs, they will choose their favourite songs and listen to the same songs over and over again. This won’t affect them much as they are already familiar with the songs that they’re hearing. 

So, as a teacher, what can we do?

Firstly, choose a song that students are not familiar with. How can we achieve this when there are thousands of songs available online now? As teachers, we can ask students to list down their favourite songs on the first lesson of the year. At least, we have a ‘not-to-choose’ list based on the list of songs provided by students. Next, choose songs that are considered ‘classics’ to them — not to us. For those who used to listen to Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, we might consider songs from The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel as classics. However, for our students, songs by My Chemical Romance and Scorpions have already been considered  ‘classics’. 

Right now, the song has been chosen. What’s next?

After the song has been chosen, decide what activity we want to do with it. Here are some suggested activities that we can do with our students.

1. Vocabulary search

Before making the students listen to the songs, ask them to read the lyrics provided. Encourage them to underline unfamiliar words and guess the meaning of those words. They can refer to the dictionary after they have listened to the song. 

2. Listen actively

The lyrics should also have some lines or words removed. This depends on the proficiency level of the students. If they’re capable of rewriting the whole line, we can simply take the whole line out. If they’re quite a beginner, taking out a word from every line should be enough. However, it is advised not to take out too many words from the lyrics because we don’t want the kids to be demotivated to do this activity. 

3. Change the lyrics

If Miley can do it, so do our kids in our classroom. As teachers, we should listen to the song first and decide which part we want the students to change. What Miley did in her song “Flowers” is responding to another song. We can do the same with our kids. Or, we can simply ask them to change verbs or nouns from a few lines and present it in front of their friends. 

4. Karaoke! 

This might sound difficult, but don’t imagine we are singing in the Karaoke Box with the kids. Allow them to sing the song together at the end of the lesson. This can improve their pronunciation of some words they’re not familiar with. Remember, we did ask them to underline the unfamiliar words, right?

5. Act it out!

Learning a language or any subject should always be fun. Combining the seriousness of the subject with some fun elements will make the learning process more meaningful. As usual, choose some lines with a lot of things to act out. Having a prop prepared beforehand is an added value. 

In conclusion, listening to songs can improve students’ language skills if we as teachers plan ahead carefully before conducting the activities. Most of all, listening to songs will make learning a fun thing to do too. What are you waiting for, teachers? Head to your favourite music platforms and start downloading the songs that you need for your class.

Written by Hazwan Hamdan