Looking for that tip to help your ESL/ELL students grasp the English language a little more quickly? Pearson, the well-known learning company, released a study this week that reports some pop culture icons may be able to help. Music from The Beatles and Harry Potter books have been shown to be the preferred methods for English acquisition skills. Other artists that seem to help include Justin Timberlake and One Direction. The study doesn’t state why this is the case, but I’m willing to bet that, like most learning, creating a personal connection often increases the speed and amount of new material able to be attained. If the students wants to learn song lyrics in order to sing along, or if they want to learn new words in order to find out what happens to a kid wizard and his friends, then they will be more likely to work on retention. Perhaps a bit less textbook memorization and a bit more White Album in classes today would help those second-language students fulfill their learning goals more effectively. If you use any interesting pop culture techniques to assist our ever-increasing population of English language learners, feel free to share!
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AuthorDr. Spivey is a college English professor and lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. Archives
October 2017
Movie Reviews |