Hello again. I just wanted to share with you one of my favorite ESL teaching secrets. This is how I taught my own children as they were growing up in Korea! (Yes even their first language was Korean and to a lesser extent English, since they spent the majority of their days in Kindergarten or with their Korean Aunties and cousins).
So one of my biggest teaching secrets is the use of musicals. Maybe this seems like common sense to some people, but not to others. Perhaps you know this is a great secret, but you don’t have a good list of outstanding children’s musicals to share with your students. That’s why I will share a big list of some of my favorites, which I knew my kids and I loved, in addition to my regular ESL Classes back in Korea. I should also say that musicals are something very special. They are way beyond your average movie, in my opinion and the quality of music is often much greater than your average pop song, though any kind of music can be a great teaching tool. Musicals are really full of magic I feel and I can frequently watch the same musical again and again and usually not get bored. So that means your students can learn effortlessly and happily for hours! The huge popularity of “Frozen” in the past few year in Korea is a great example of the power of musicals. Without further delay. Here’s my list.
Recommended Musicals for ESL Studying:
1. Annie
This was such a great musical to me and I can’t tell you how much I love all of the songs and the story of Annie. Here’s one of my favorite songs below. “It’s a hard knock life”. Make sure you get the movie for your kids or students.
This is a great example of what I’m talking about: 윤시영
2. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
This is a hilarious story from the “James Bond” creator, Ian Flemming. It really speaks a lot about the power of imagination and creativity in a world where “children are forbidden”. Check out this magical video below.
3. The Sound of Music
The music is so wonderful in this movie. Trying to act this out with the music and your students could be a really fun idea too. I’ve listened to these songs and seen the movie thousands of times.
4. The Wizard of Oz
The first time I saw this movie I was just 5 years old and I can honestly tell you that I fell in love for the first time on that day in which I saw Judy Garland sing, “Somewhere over the rainbow”.
5. The Phantom of the Opera
As your students get older you might find that they will love this musical and story. For years I personally thought it was a “lady’s musical” so never bothered to see it. Then the new movie came out and somehow I heard it was good. I had a video projector set up at my school in Cheongju with a big, beautiful sound system. Yes it was like a small theatre. Hahah…and we made music videos together with students. Be sure to see this movie. It’s great!
That’s enough for now. Much more to come as I think of them.
Peace,
James