Bringing authentic Spanish language music into your classroom can liven it up and give students a creative and relaxing way to learn. It’s a great juxtaposition to the more formal lessons like grammar, verb conjugation and vocabulary.<\/p>\n
I’ve used music in my Spanish classroom for years with excellent results. Students love listening to music and I get the satisfaction of knowing I’m not only teaching them the language, I’m giving them insight into Spanish language culture.<\/p>\n
Here are my top 17 top pick songs for Spanish class, complete with grammar points and teaching ideas for each song, along with videos.<\/p>\n
[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>Beginner<\/p>\n “Me gustas t\u00fa”<\/em> is Manu Chao\u2019s most popular song, a catchy tune that will ensure your students master opinions once and for all. Anyone that has already listened to Manu Chao\u2019s hit will surely agree that it does its work when it comes to drilling likes and dislikes, because the song repeats the common Spanish phrase\u00a0me gusta<\/em> (I like) over and over in each verse.<\/p>\n Check out\u00a0this safe version of “Me gustas t\u00fa”<\/em><\/a> if you teach younger students, as the original does mention marijuana.<\/p>\n Lesson\u00a0ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n You could organize a survey for your students. Give your students a list of vocabulary from the song\u00a0(el caf\u00e9, correr, la cena, la noche\u2026)<\/em>\u00a0and ask them to go around and ask each other \u201c\u00bfTe gusta\u2026?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Higher-ability students can extend their learning by including reasons and aiming for more complex forms, while lower-ability students can have visual or written support (for example, model questions and answers) to help\u00a0them get involved in the activity.<\/p>\n Surveys are really successful group activities because they are not only\u00a0fantastic speaking practice<\/a>, but also a great way to break up the routine, get your students walking around and working independently, without having to constantly follow your guidance.<\/p>\n This template<\/a> for surveys is really accessible for younger students.<\/p>\n Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>Intermediate<\/p>\n Although our students will probably know (and love) some of the newer Shakira songs, older tunes\u00a0like “Inevitable”<\/em> are still fresh and great for teaching. “Inevitable”<\/em>\u00a0is fantastic for\u00a0focusing on the present tense, as most of the song is made of\u00a0simple, straightforward sentences. Plus, the vocabulary is varied, but quite accessible.<\/p>\n Lesson ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cInevitable\u201d<\/em>\u00a0includes many verbs in the present tense, including irregular verbs. Additionally, there are a few verbs in the past and the future tenses too. This offers great scope for differentiation, allowing higher-ability students to tackle harder verbs, while lower-ability students can work with simpler forms.<\/p>\n Allow your students to work with a conjugator app like\u00a0VerbTrainer<\/a>\u00a0to check their answers and find the ones that they can\u2019t wok out (i.e.\u00a0conocer<\/em>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0conozco<\/em>). Remember, with Spanish it\u2019s not always about having every answer, but also about knowing where to find them!<\/p>\n I\u2019m a firm believer in the benefits of practice and using the right resources when it comes to\u00a0verb conjugations<\/a>. \u201cInevitable\u201d<\/em>\u00a0is a fantastic way to reinforce verbs in a more entertaining way.<\/p>\n Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>Intermediate<\/p>\n At an advanced level, our students are able to play with the language in a more natural way and need resources that are able to stretch them. Music at this level plays a different role, moving away from the usual listening comprehension and showing our students\u00a0the particularities of different dialects and slangs.<\/p>\n Lesson ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n You can reinforce the new vocabulary by asking your students to describe famous people or popular TV characters with the phrases that were taught in class.<\/p>\n So, why not make it even better by actually watching an episode (or part of it) of a popular Spanish TV series, such as \u201cCuentame\u201d<\/em>\u00a0or \u201cEl Ministerio del Tiempo\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(which can be watched online via the\u00a0RTVE website<\/a>) and using the vocabulary to describe the characters and situations? For example, \u201cEn este episodio, Toni es un Don Juan<\/em>\u201d or \u201cAmelia es un trozo de pan.<\/em>\u201d Now that\u2019s\u00a0real Spanish immersion!<\/p>\n Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>Intermediate<\/p>\n Do you want to rock your lesson with the best tunes? If you\u2019re looking for some good old rock classic, then Los Suaves is a must-have in your music collection.<\/p>\n Grammar can be boring, especially when you\u2019ve been doing the same exercises year after year. Trust me, I\u2019m still battling with some of those when I go to my French lesson (yeah, I\u2019m still a language student too\u2026). Don\u2019t get me wrong, they’re really useful, but for once I just wished my teacher would come up with something different!<\/p>\n Lesson ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n Some years ago, Yosi was diagnosed with hepatitis, which has forced the band to retire. Get your students to\u00a0read this article<\/a>\u00a0on Los Suaves\u2019s announcement and then work in pairs preparing the interview, with a focus on what would happen if Yosi wasn\u2019t ill or what he would do if he could keep playing for years\u2026<\/p>\n By providing your advanced level students with a magazine article and a real scenario, you\u2019re giving them the opportunity to use the language with a real purpose.<\/p>\n Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>Intermediate<\/p>\n “Malo”<\/em>\u00a0is a tale about one of the biggest social problems in Spain: domestic violence. What in Bebe\u2019s song is just a sad story, is actually a real drama in Spain today.<\/p>\n Lesson ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n RedEle\u2019s magazine\u00a0features a great didactic session on gender violence, which not only explores the message behind the song, but helps students analyze the whole situation. Although there\u2019s not a huge deal of grammatical content covered in this unit, when it comes to cultural awareness,\u00a0it doesn\u2019t get any better than this. There are graphs to analyze and key data and information on gender violence in the target language, which\u00a0will enable us to take our lesson a step further.<\/p>\n The ultimate objective with our advanced level classes is to be able to have a debate on the topic, in which students use the language to communicate in the most natural way possible. So, combine this song and unit with a\u00a0recent newspaper article<\/a>\u00a0covering the impact of domestic violence in one of the Spanish-speaking countries to trigger that debate! Go to\u00a0El Pa\u00eds<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0El Mundo<\/a><\/em>, search for \u201cviolencia de genero<\/em>\u201d and find the perfect article to get your class babbling away.<\/p>\n Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>Advanced<\/p>\n “La Reina del Pop”<\/em>\u00a0is one of the La Oreja de Van Gogh\u2019s first songs, and yet another great way to practice the present tense\u2014a key grammar point for beginners.<\/p>\n Lesson ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n Experience has taught me that Spanish learners find the\u00a0t\u00fa<\/em>\u00a0form and the\u00a0vosotros<\/em>\u00a0form the hardest to memorize, probably because our focus on writing activities gives them fewer possibilities to practice them. For English speakers, the\u00a0t\u00fa<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0vosotros<\/em>\u00a0forms come with the additional complication of not having a clear difference between \u201cyou singular\u201d and \u201cyou plural\u201d in their native language.<\/p>\n Take advantage of this opportunity to reinforce the differences between \u201cyou singular\u201d and \u201cyou plural\u201d in Spanish. Using\u00a0the lyrics, ask students to identify verbs in the\u00a0t\u00fa\u00a0<\/em>form\u00a0and change them\u00a0into the\u00a0vosotros\u00a0<\/em>form, maybe as a pair activity or even as a whole class. How would the sentence change in English? How would the meaning change?<\/p>\n Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>Advanced<\/p>\n Once students are comfortable using the present tense and verbs conjugations, the next step is being able to master other tenses.<\/p>\n Although the grammar practice opportunities in this song make it a great choice for our lessons, there’s much more to it than just verb conjugations.<\/p>\n “Aquellos a\u00f1os locos”<\/em> is the story of someone\u2019s youth, so students can take\u00a0a stroll down history lane to discover what life was like in Spain during the ’80s.<\/p>\n Lesson ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n Hands up if you teach the imperfect by getting students to talk about their childhood. I see many hands out there, including\u00a0my own. So what better way to do it than with this song? After listening and working with the lyrics, Oscar\u2019s lesson plan features an\u00a0exercise in which students describe their own youth and even compare it with that of their partners.<\/p>\n To show a better command of the Spanish language, get your students to compare their life as kids to their lives now, by combining the imperfect and the present tense\u2014just as you can see on the final slide of this PowerPoint<\/a>, which\u00a0will help you teach this new tense. Even better, use this as a way to\u00a0compare how life has changed in their own country and in Spain since they were younger.<\/p>\n Difficulty:\u00a0<\/strong>Advanced<\/p>\n The great thing about teaching Spanish to an intermediate class is that, at this level, students are already able to hold small debates and express their own views on different topics. “Marta, Sebas, Guille y los dem\u00e1s”<\/em>\u00a0is a song about friendship, an accessible topic for pupils of different ages and something they surely have loads to say about!<\/p>\n “Marta, Sebas, Guille y los dem\u00e1s”<\/em> also provides great grammar practice. The whole song is pretty much a combination of preterite and imperfect tense, giving us fantastic opportunities to work with these two tenses together once our students are comfortable conjugating them separately.<\/p>\n2. “Inevitable,”<\/em>\u00a0Shakira<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3. “\u00bfQu\u00e9 sera?,”<\/em>\u00a0Amaral<\/strong><\/h2>\n
4. “Si Pudiera,”<\/em> Los Suaves<\/strong><\/h2>\n
5. “Malo,”<\/em>\u00a0Bebe<\/strong><\/h2>\n
6. “La Reina del Pop,”<\/em>\u00a0La Oreja de Van Gogh<\/strong><\/h2>\n
7. “Aquellos a\u00f1os locos,”<\/em>\u00a0El Canto del Loco<\/strong><\/h2>\n
8. “Marta, Sebas, Guille y los dem\u00e1s,”<\/em>\u00a0Amaral<\/strong><\/h2>\n