Chanting certain expressions in class is a powerful way to acquisition. Meaning is simply hammered in deeper with chants. However, when we are told in workshops about chanting, we walk away feeling funny about actually doing it and then we rarely do them in our classes.
We feel funny because our perception of chanting is one of getting the class all riled up in a big cheering kind of activity. Though that is sometimes possible, most of us were not cheerleaders in high school and we already feel as exposed as we want to be in our classrooms just doing stories. Therefore, we need to explore the other kind of chanting. What is that?
The other kind of chanting is when we pick up on a phrase that has a little humor or rhythm in it, and explore it in class for the humor and/or its rhythmic value. If we find a phrase that has one or both of those qualities, we can start repeating it, not as a loud class chant, but as a kind of quiet repetition for a short amount of time – 20 or 30 seconds or so.
We can repeat a phrase that catches our attention with its humor or because of a certain rhythm that it has. We may only end up repeating the structure four or five times, and then we would simply move on with the CI. This kind of chanting doesn’t have to be yelled, it can be tasted. Watch the kids, they will be moving their mouths in spite of their everpresent need to hide and protect themselves in school settings.
When we do the other kind of chanting, we get good reps on the structures, and the kids hear the structures repeated more than once, and accent is taught at the unconscious level, and we don’t have to feel like a fool. In this kind of chanting, we are not trying to get a big chant going at all. We just say it almost to ourselves for the fun of it, but loud enough for everyone to get in on it if they want to.
I have noticed that when I do this, my own mood goes up. I feel the mojo of just playing with language while I model for the kids how to relax and flow and enjoy the sounds of language, of words, just for the fun of it, just for the play. If they see a teacher having fun while teaching, maybe they will relax a little and learn to have fun themselves while learning.
It’s too bad teachers have beaten all the fun out of our kids. Can languages even be learned if they are not learned in a positive setting? Those of us who take the chance in those little moments of class to do “little chanting” when the opportunities arise, when the sounds of certain structures present themselves in totally unannounced fashion to us, by accepting the invitation to playn in the sound of the words, are happier and better teachers and so our kids learn more.
In my opinion, it is more important for us to be happy in our instruction than that our kids learn a lot. If students sense that we are not happy in our instruction, they won’t learn much at all.
When we accept our own invitation to play, we are lucky, because we get to enjoy ourelves more, and we teach our kids to explore play – even in school – as well. Then we and our students don’t have to think that school is not all about pure mental drudgery and that learning and life itself can be fun.
It’s important for us not to forget that we can be happy in our jobs, and that if we are, then that will carry over into our regular lives, because there is no separation between our lives and our jobs – they are totally interconnected and cannot be separated. If one sucks, the other will suck.
It is in unconscious enjoyment of language that kids acquire language. If kids in our language classes can just be allowed to feel like kids in neighborhood pools on a hot summer day in the summer, just swimming and laughing and having fun, then they will learn the languages we teach them.
Just because concepts of play like “little chanting” can’t be put into lesson plans or pacing guides doesn’t mean that they aren’t the most powerful ways to learn languages, because they are. Play is everything.