Personal anecdotes about chanting

When I first starting teaching English to children, back in 1995, I soon became aware of the importance of stress and intonation as well as the children’s ability to pick up or acquire language from the teacher. Working in Portugal the children had lessons twice a week after school. Very often they would be in the classroom before me (I still had so much to learn!) and one day when I walked in to teach a group of 7-8 year olds I saw Rui sitting under a chair. ‘Rui!’ I shouted, and the rest of the class all continued ‘What are you doing?’ with a raising intonation on the stressed word ‘are’ and a falling intonation on ‘doing’. As they all sounded like ‘mini-me’s, I realised I had perhaps said this phrase a little too quite often but was really pleased at how natural they had sounded. Poor Rui was a bit shocked that the whole class had ganged up against him, but it wasn’t their fault, it was a conditioned reflex and I had supplied the stimulus by the way I had said ‘Rui!’.

Since then I have been taking advantage of the fact that children love to imitate their teacher and have positively encouraged all my students to exaggerate the stress and intonation of phrases ever since.

As the Head of Teacher Training at International House Porto I had the opportunity to work with a lot of trainee teachers and observe many different types of classes.

One of the courses we offered included teaching practice and so I organised free lessons for children at a local children’s home. As we provided all the materials for the lesson each week I observed the children asking in Portuguese to borrow pencils and pens. Each week the teachers got the kids to repeat the phrase in English (very often one word at a time) and, unsurprisingly, they were still unable to remember it 6 months later. I realised that as this phrase was needed every lesson, it really should be taught (or learned).

There was a genuine need for communication and an ideal opportunity for the children to speak in English. With a few weeks between courses I decided to teach the children myself.  

Using only the exaggerated intonation, rhythm and stress pattern of the question

Can I borrow a pencil, please?

the chant

‘da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da’

was created and repeated in a fun and lively manner, varying the volume, pitch and speed. Gradually the words were substituted into the rhythmic work (starting at the end/back-chaining) until the children could say and use the phrase confidently.

By the end of the lesson the children were able to produce variations of the target language independently.  However, the following lesson it seemed as though we were back to square one. With a small reminder of the da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da chant to encourage them, they all soon started saying it and communicating in English using the structure Can I borrow a pencil, please?.

The phrase was still produced using heavily exaggerated intonation and stress patterns. I questioned how long it would take for the children to take this language, presented to them in a chant, and use it naturally (if at all).  Approximately two months later, whist observing a trainee teacher, I heard one child saying in the most natural, fluent voice, with a continuous intonation flow, and unprompted, ‘Can I borrow a rubber, please?’.  Job done!

Walking on our way to school each morning my son and I would make up chants, or repeat ones we had already mastered. We had chants about being on time, chants about being late, chants about snails, chants about the date.  We had number chants, marching chants, fast chants, and challenging chants.  We even had a chant that taught him the square numbers. This was not only a valuable bonding experience but an opportunity to discover the sounds, rhythms and patterns of English which he might not have noticed as Portuguese was his ‘educational language’.

A Chant about Chanting (4/4 time)

There were chants about being on time,

There were chants about being late,

There were chants about racing snails,

And chants about the date.

There were number chants and counting chants,

Fast chants and  challenging chants.

Action chants and marching chants,

Animal chants and spelling chants.

There were chants  we repeated each morning,

There were chants we made up on the spot,

There were chants that helped us remember,

And chants that we quickly forgot.