Singing is always a great way to learn a language. Some teachers fret about teaching the meaning of every word. In particular they don't like the old songs with words that are not used any more or words that are made up. However, I feel what is important in singing songs is getting the kids used to the sounds of English. I have a karaoke session with kindergarten students at our school every week. The youngest are three and a half. The oldest are 6. I do this in large groups with about 120 students in one go (in one classroom too!). I do this for about 500 students non-stop on Monday mornings. It is actually easier to manage than it sounds. We are now four months into the first term and it has already become easier for me to teach new songs. The kids are more easily repeating after me for each line. That shows they are becoming familiar with the English sounds.

These karaoke songs were first featured in a computer game that I mentioned before. Nong Grace loves the catchy songs that teach ABC, numbers, days of week and months. So, I was really happy to learn that they had released a VCD version of these songs. There are two versions - first in Thai then finally in English. I haven't bothered with the English version yet as there is too much language and way too fast. The Thai version is good enough and gives them good English vocabulary.

I use this VCD as my signature tune. I always have it playing when they enter the class and when they leave. They love singing along. We also bought copies for each of the Kindergarten 1 and Preschool classes and they play them every day. (Repetition is really important at this age and they don't complain). Preschool are very good at ABC now and also days of the week. Kindergarten 2 are also doing a great job of pronouncing the months of the year. The colours are shown for each day of the week which allows me to ask "What colour is Monday?" etc. A question that even Kindergarten 1 can answer now.

Most karaoke songs that we can buy here are way too fast for our students. It is alright later when they are familiar with the songs. But often no good for the start. However, this "Dance with Teddy Bear" VCD published by Scholar is excellent. We have been working our way through the songs on this VCD this term and we have nearly finished. The only really fast song is Old McDonalds. But, only after a few weeks they can now keep up with the VCD, much to their delight.

The main reason I like this VCD is that each song is first introduced in Thai. The presenter goes through each line allowing the students to repeat after her. Then she explains the meaning of the song. Then we get to see some kids dancing while we sing along. The only thing I didn't like so much is that there are no subtitles for the songs. But then, that would be mainly for my benefit as the kindergarten cannot read yet. They have a second CD of karaoke songs but the songs on this one are not so well known.

Scholar is an excellent publisher of resources for people learning English. I will share more of their titles with you later.