The fastest way

What is the fastest way to learn anything?

It has long been noted that young children can learn nursery rhymes very quickly.   And indeed, as they grow, most children find it easy to learn the lyrics of songs and advertising jingles, even if they struggle with much that they are asked to remember at school!

The reason is that most of us have an inbuilt ability to learn phrases that rhyme and use repeated rhythms – and almost certainly it was the ability to do this that was a fundamental factor in keeping early communities of people together.  Knowing the chant made one part of the group.

Indeed, this expression of oneness within a community is still with us today through vocalisations as diverse as nursery rhymes and the chants of football supporters.

So, it is not surprising that this inbuilt ability to remember rhythmic and rhyming phrases can also be put to good effect in learning a foreign language, as has now been revealed in “Learn French through Raps in Key Stage 2”.

Because of their affinity with rhyme and rhythm children are much more willing than they might otherwise be to repeat the phrases they learn, and thus improve their pronunciation.   And, of course, at the same time grammatical structures and vocabulary become embedded within the memory. All of which will help you hit the Outcomes for Schools targets.

The only downside is that a lot of chants, rhymes and raps are not exactly child friendly, and so these raps have been written for children, with the specific aim of helping them remember French phrases by tapping into their basic affinity with rhythm and rhyme. The rhythms are at a speed the children will be able to follow with repetition of vocabulary and language structure to ensure good retention and therefore easy recall.

In “Learn French through Raps” the words are spoken to the music rather than sung and supplied as a set of audio files along with recordings of the songs.  As a result, speaking French becomes part of the genetically implanted fun of rhythm and rhyme. 

And because everything in this approach is related to a fundamental human ability to appreciate rhythm and rhyme, the use of this technique requires very little preparation time.

Read more about Learn French through Raps in Key Stage 2 on our website . Scroll down to the ‘Try before you buy’ tab to download the PowerPoint, teacher notes, words and audio file for the song ‘bonjour’ and try it with your pupils.

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