ABA Journal The digital English academy
The end of the year is approaching. That feeling of Christmas is beginning to arrive as well. In some countries, people gather together to sing Christmas songs and carols. In others, everyone listens to them at home. If there is anything that exists almost everywhere in the world, that would be Christmas songs.
Have you ever considered using this traditional music to help improve your English level? Learning and developing your skills in this language doesn’t have to be tedious. You don’t need to isolate yourself from the world to study for hours on end. On the contrary, learning should be an opportunity to meet more people and to discover new cultures.
Learn English With Songs and Movies
One of the fundamental pillars when learning English, or any language, is to also learn about the culture that language belongs to. This will help you know how the language works in context and is something that needs to be present in any learning program.
Listening to songs or watching movies in English will help you improve in many aspects of the language itself. But it will also help you to immerse yourself in Anglo-Saxon culture and context. This is very important! Knowing the culture will help make it much easier for you to know what to say or how to behave in specific situations. This is something you simply can’t achieve through memorising grammar rules.
The Benefits of Learning English With the Lyrics to Christmas Songs
Learning English with traditional Christmas songs or with more modern versions will really help your English. These incredible benefits are similar to those that storytelling gives you. Would you like to learn about them?
- Your English vocabulary will be greatly enriched by specific words related to this festive time of year, since ‘tis the season to be jolly! Each song offers new vocabulary waiting to be discovered. Learning new lyrics will be like opening up presents under the tree.
- You will familiarise yourself with different accents. As classics that have been around for hundreds of years, Christmas songs contain a great collection of idioms from different places and times. There are some very fun and interesting ones like Cockney rhyming slang. Slang, that is to say, colloquialisms, go beyond the English you learn when you study grammar. This is the English spoken in the street, which is the part of the language that is most alive and changeable.
- Your pronunciation will improve. Just like what happens when you watch movies, TV series, or programs in English, when you listen to Christmas songs in this language, you’ll also be training your ear to how the language sounds and how different words are pronounced. This is an excellent opportunity to practice understanding different accents!
- You’ll learn more about the culture. With each song, you’ll learn a little more about the culture to which that particular theme belongs. You’ll learn about what they eat, the activities they enjoy, the traditions they have, and how they celebrate Christmas.
- You can share the Christmas spirit with people from all over the world. The end of the year is one of the times when people travel the most. By knowing about how Christmas is celebrated around the world, you’ll be able to initiate conversations with new people with much more confidence and ease.
A Bonus Reason: Subtitles Improve Your Spelling
Spelling is definitely not something you have in mind when thinking of Christmas or listening to Christmas songs or carols. But did you know that using subtitles for the songs that you learn in English will also give your spelling an excellent boost?
First, let’s talk a little about the different types of subtitles. When you find it difficult to understand part or all of the lyrics of a song from the first moment, it could be useful to look for a subtitled version. As you know, there are two ways to subtitle audio: in your language or in the speaker’s original language (in this case, English). The first option can solve many obstacles but it doesn’t present as many challenges as the second.
We suggest using the English subtitles when:
- You don’t understand a couple of words. You can understand everything being said or the idea of what’s being said, though.
- You want to improve your pronunciation and associate the sounds you hear with the written words.
- You have an intermediate or advanced level of English.
We suggest using the subtitles in your native language when:
- You understand almost nothing that you’re hearing.
- There is a large amount of slang. If this is the first time you’re hearing it, we suggest changing the subtitles to English so that you also learn how those new words are written.
- Your English level is very basic.
Short Christmas Songs in English
If you like this idea and want to start practicing before December arrives, here are the titles of some of the most well-known Christmas songs.
With these short songs, you’ll definitely improve your level of English. You’ll also get into the Christmas spirit at the same time! Let’s sing!
- Let It Snow
- Silent Night
- Deck the Halls
- Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
- Jingle Bells
If, after singing, you want to know how much your English has improved, we invite you to find out. You’ll see that after singing these songs (or any others that you want to learn) you’ll have learned new vocabulary. You’ll also learn more about the climate, traditions, food, and Christmas activities of the English-speaking world.
This means that not only will your English level improve, but you also will have taken a small Christmas trip without even leaving your home. You can prepare yourself to talk about Christmas in English with people from other countries and learn about their customs just through songs. That’s amazing!
Do you want your English lessons to be more entertaining? Do you want to learn more Christmas vocabulary? Why not take our online course? ABA English offers you 144 free video classes and the same number of short films. This will let you learn English using an intuitive and natural method that emphasises communication without sacrificing grammatical accuracy. What are you waiting for?
