Who is this for?

This Advice Sheet is for anyone who wants to improve their English by listening to songs.

The aim of this leaflet

The aim of this leaflet is to help you develop your listening ability through listening to songs. It introduces you to materials that are available in the SAC and on the Web and suggests learning tips.

Useful materials in the SAC

Music CDs

The SAC has a selection of English music CDs in the Lobby Area. Ask for the CD you want to borrow at the SAC Office counter, and hand in your student ID card. You can then play the CD in the Seminar Room (if you want to listen with a partner or group of friends) or at the Music Booth in the Audio Area. In the Music Booth, you will also find the words or lyrics to most of the songs that we have.

The list of CD titles we currently stock is here:
http://lc.ust.hk/~sac/materials/english/Emusic.htm

If you would like to recommend that we add particular music CDs to our collection, please pass your suggestions to the SAC Office, or e-mail them to: lcsac. We welcome suggestions!

Pronunciation Activity Sheets

We have several activity sheets which can help you practise listening to pronunciation features with particular Music CDs. Check them out in the Pronunciation booths in the Audio Area.

Useful materials on the Web

Sites with music and lyrics

Elvis Discography http://www.elvispresleyonline.com/html/elvis_discography.html

Contains a whole host of original Elvis Presley songs. A treat for Rock'n'roll fans of any age and a great place to start your listening. Classic pop music, informal English, and lyrics and songs on the same website: very convenient!

Lidwina's Disney Song Collection http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/7840/ clearly arranged site with lyrics to 120+ Disney songs and midi music files (not original music/singing).

Sites with lyrics only

The International Lyrics Server http://www.lyrics.ch/index.htm
A very good place to start looking if you have the song you like, but not the lyrics.

Lyrics World http://www.lyricsworld.com/
A useful site if you can remember some key words but not the title of the song.

The Song Book Music Lyrics http://pages.map.com/~freek/booklist.html
Mainly 60s music (golden oldies): folk, country music and rock'n'roll

The Madonna Lyrics Archive
http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~kennyz/madonna_lyrics/HomePage.html
The lyrics to all her songs: ‘Material girl', ‘Don't cry for me, Argentina', ‘American Pie' etc.

Sites with music only

These are too numerous to mention, and you will have your own favourites. Here's one that has the music for the ‘Don't cry for me, Argentina' song mentioned above:
http://www.wbr.com/evita/cmp/dontcry.html

Other resources

The Radio

Lots of possibilities, although you won£t be able to read the lyrics at the same time (unless you can search the web very quickly!). One suggestion from a learner: ‘Uncle Ray's' programme on RTHK Radio 4 around midnight.

Computer programs

WordPilot http://home.ust.hk/~autolang/
This program, available to anyone with access to a campus PC and also downloadable off-campus, contains a vast amount of English language learning resources, including a collection of the lyrics of 1,100 songs (mainly from the 1960s). Look under ‘Libraries', load up the lyrics, and then you can find lyrics for particular songs or do a search for particular phrases (e.g. what phrases contain the word Love?). This is particularly useful if you would like to know the right grammar or vocabulary to use (e.g. if you are a song-writer yourself!), as the program shows you which grammatical/vocabulary patterns are most common. You can also convert the text to speech and hear a robotic voice read them out: not good for pronunciation practice, but fun!

WordPilot has a host of other features, some of which you can see here:
http://home.ust.hk/~autolang/screensh.htm
For further advice on how to use the program, contact one of the SAC Advisers, or e-mail lcsac.

Learning tips

Before listening ...

• Decide what aspect of your listening you want to improve. If your focus is Vocabulary, it's useful to decide whether you want to focus on conversational phrases, or vocabulary related to a particular topic (e.g. Love and Relationships) etc. See Learning Vocabulary by Reading or Listening (V7). If you want to improve your ability to hear features of English Pronunciation, then it's useful to find out if your main difficulty is hearing contractions, or linking, or weak forms etc. See the Pronunciation Advice sheets, particularly Deciding what Areas of Pronunciation to Focus on (P2), Selecting Materials to Work on (P3) and Glossary (P6).
• Set yourself a goal. It's best not to aim too high, unless you have lots of time free to dedicate to your listening. Think of one or two aspects of your listening that you'd like to improve and set a goal related to that (e.g. ‘In phrases like You're all that I'll ever want, I want to be able to hear the contractions like You're and I'll' or 'I want to be able to hear words which are linked together e.g. You're all that I'll ever want'). Or you could aim to improve your ability to hear the words of one particular singer.
• Choose a song or singer that you enjoy!
• Try to find songs that match your goal and level. Do the songs contain the Vocabulary or Pronunciation features you want to practise? Do you want songs that tell a story, with a wide range of vocabulary, or do you want songs with a lot of repetition?
• Find songs that have got printed lyrics (words). Even native speakers often mishear the words of sings. (If you don't believe that, check out http://www.thechicagoloop.net/lyrics/ or http://www.kissthisguy.com/ - it's surprisingly common.) So having lyrics available is really vital when listening in a second language.
• If you know the song is going to be difficult for you to hear clearly, read the lyrics first.
• Find out about the singer or the topic of the song if possible - it's useful to have some background knowledge before you start listening. Encyclopedias are good sources. A particularly good one is Encarta, which has up-to-date information and links to other websites for singers that it doesn't list: http://encarta.msn.com/reference/. You will also find useful information on famous singers and cultural topics in the Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (Reading & Writing Area).

While listening ...
Here are some things you can do while listening:

• Jot down vocabulary that you don't know, if you are focusing on that. Try NTC's Dictionary of American Slang & Colloquial Expressions (Reading & Writing Area) if you hear phrases that are not listed in your dictionary.
• Rewind the CD/tape if there are parts you can't catch.
• Stop the CD/tape randomly and predict which words will come next. This tests your knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, as well as your listening ability.
• If you have your own song lyrics, highlight the words/sounds you are having difficulty with. You can also ‘white out' some key words in the lyrics beforehand, and then try to fill in the gaps while you listen.
• Jot down the main point of the song if you are trying to develop your ability to interpret or draw conclusions/infer meaning from what you hear. You can later check this with the song lyrics or with a friend who may be listening to the song with you or already know it.
• Listen to the song with a friend. You can later discuss what the song is about and help each other if you have difficulties in understanding any of it.
• Try to transcribe the song word for word. This is a useful technique for advanced learners, or for intermediate learners if the song is fairly simple. You can then compare your transcription with the actual lyrics.

After listening ...
Here are some things you can do after listening:

• Think about how you will learn + remember vocabulary that you have jotted down. Writing it down (and checking its meaning in a dictionary) is the easy part. Remembering the vocabulary is the important part. See Remembering Vocabulary (V4).
• Listen to the songs again but without reading the lyrics this time. Can you still understand them?
• Check your summary, gap-filling or transcription with the lyrics.
• Discuss the song and any problems you had in listening with a friend.
• Write your own lyrics or record your own song!
• Find more songs to listen to that have the same topic (if you're focusing on Vocabulary) or Pronunciation features (if you're focusing on Pronunciation)

Evaluating your progress

It can very useful to evaluate your learning progress: this not only gives you a sense of success, but also enables you to identify areas that you need to work on in the future. Here are some ways of evaluating the progress you have made in your listening to songs:

• Think about your progress - how do you feel about your performance?
• Try listening to another song. Are you able to hear Pronunciation features (e.g. contractions) more clearly now?
• Compare your listening comprehension/vocabulary knowledge/knowledge of pronunciation features at the beginning of a period of learning and at the end, e.g. several months later - have you improved? (You could listen to the same song as before, or to another song by the same singer, for comparison.)
• Listen to the songs again without reading the lyrics. Can you still understand them?
• Check your summary, gap-filling or transcription with the lyrics.
• If learning vocabulary, test your vocabulary knowledge after several months. Can you still remember all the words you wrote down? See Evaluating your Vocabulary Learning (V5) for more advice.

And Now...

If you would like any help or advice, or just a chat about your progress, please get in touch — we are here to support your independent learning! To contact us:

• see an Adviser, on duty at the SAC Advice Desk (for details of advisers and their availability, please go to http://lc.ust.hk/~sac/sacadviser.html)
• e-mail lcsac (lcsac@ust.hk) with your query;
• ask at the reception counter of the SAC — if the receptionist cannot help you directly, s/he will pass your query on to one of the SAC advisers.

Note
The introductory leaflet in this series is the leaflet Improving your listening (L1).

This advice sheet is part of the Listening series of leaflets supporting independent learning, produced by the HKUST Language Centre SAC team. This leaflet written by Richard Pemberton, 2000. Version 1. If you copy from this leaflet, please acknowledge the source. Thanks.