A bit of ska this week, for Intermediate learners and above, with great little tune by Coventry-based ska revival band The Specials. This could be used for the end of the year to talk about future plans, when lessons are coming to a close and your students are moving on to bigger and brighter things, … Continue reading A Message to You Rudy – The Specials
This post is a tribute to those affected by the Manchester attack at the Ariane Grande concert last week, now an anthem from one of the biggest bands to come from this fantastic city. Use it for its range of vocabulary, mixed grammar structures and pronunciation practice as you see fit and follow it up with a … Continue reading Don’t Look Back In Anger – Oasis
Tune #2! This is a catchy one by the 2006 X Factor winner Leona Lewis from Islington, London. I used this as a musical lead-in to a lesson about the body with a class of intermediate 15 year olds, creating a gap fill and lyrics mix-up for them to do, followed by a brief discussion about their opinion … Continue reading Fire (Under My Feet) – Leona Lewis
Hello and welcome to another ELTune! Apologies for the lack of posts in recent weeks. To make up for it, you're getting a trio of tunes to play with! First off, I'm going to tell you about a great little number by the 90s Britpop band Pulp that I recently used with a class of 18 year … Continue reading Common People – Pulp
Hello everyone! I'm back and I hope you all had a lovely Easter. This week, I'd like to tell you about how you can use one of Coldplay's fantastic earlier tunes, and the opener to one of the greatest albums ever made, "Parachutes". Most of my students like their new stuff more, but I'll always prefer the old … Continue reading Don’t Panic – Coldplay
A terrific tune from English/Tamil rapper M.I.A. to discuss the refugee crisis and immigration in the ELT classroom. M.I.A. (a play on her own name and reference to the acronym "Missing In Action") and her family had to flee conflict in Jaffna during the Sri Lankan Civil War and go into hiding from the Sri … Continue reading Paper Planes – M.I.A.
Another Kinks tune in this special post paying tribute to London. It essentially talks about isolation, but there are some positive aspects to the track, and it is simply sublime. Dirty old river, must you keep rolling Flowing into the night People so busy, makes me feel dizzy Taxi light shines so bright But I … Continue reading Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
