Tuesday, January 29, 2013

PopuLLar: EU learning language project

Today I learned of PopuLLar, a music-focused language learning education project for secondary students in the European Union.  I read about the project on Shelly Terrell's blog, Teacher Reboot Camp.

Students write new lyrics to a song of their choice, then translate the lyrics into their target language.  This final version is then recorded and made into a music video that is shared with other EU learners.

If a group of German students write a song then translate it to Spanish, for example, Spanish students studying German could listen to the Spanish song and translate it into German.  The Spanish students would then have the German students' original song to compare with their translation!

I think it's a great idea; people remember lyrics really well, especially if they're to the tune of well-known songs.  The fact that I still remember every word to each song in my sixth grade opera is proof (ah, the joys of general music class).  And if you have to work out a translation to fit the music, you'll remember the words even longer.

I found some pilot videos of the project on youtube.

Here are German students singing in Spanish:





And here are some students in Soria, Spain singing in Spanish!




And here are those same students with the translated version in English:





Have any auxiliares heard about PopuLLar at their schools in Spain?  If anyone does this project in their classes (in any country), I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

1 comment:

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