Vocabulary and Songs – Learning Tip to Improve your English from Tara

Improve your English with songs

How to Improve your English

Most of us enjoy listening to music, an enjoyment which can help to improve our English. So, how exactly can it help us?

One of the reasons why we like music is not just the tune but also the lyrics, and lyrics are a great source of potential new vocabulary. An easy way to study the lyrics is to go to www.youtube.com , type in the name of one of your favourite artists and the word ‘lyric’ and see what comes up. The great thing about this is that you will be able to expand your vocabulary base and improve your listening comprehension at the same time. Start by listening to the song a couple of times without stopping, before playing it again and pausing every now and then so as to analyse the language used.

You may, of course, find some of the language difficult to understand, so have a dictionary handy to look up the definition of the word(s) (or a translation dictionary if you prefer). You do not need to understand every word as long as you understand most of the song. Remember that lyrics are often full of slang and idiomatic language making the understanding tricky.

In terms of the grammar, you may find that it’s rather different to what you have learnt in the classroom! Don’t worry as the songwriters may simply have ‘changed’ the grammar rules so as to fit in better with the rhythm of the song.

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