Karaoke In Education

---

Local - KMBC TheKansasCityChannel.com Karaoke Machine Helps Students Learn English
Thu May 20, 4:33 PM ET
Karaoke machines are helping students learn a new language in one Kansas City, Kan., school.
KMBC's Natalie Moultrie reported that students at Chelsea Elementary School are not shy about grabbing the microphone. They like singing songs using the karaoke machine. It is helping them learn English by saying the words and seeing them on the television screen.
"To have it all in a rhythm, it's so easy to plug it into their brains and link up with that," teacher Charlene Littlefield said.
Littlefield is a former music teacher and now teaches English as a second language. She came up with the idea to use music to help her students learn.
"The bonus is that they're hearing themselves so clearly speak or sing English. They start enunciating and pronouncing words more clearly. We call that self-correcting," Littlefield said.
She calls the program Watch Your Language, Moultrie said.
The Kauffman Foundation awarded Littlefield a Great Ideas Grant to buy the karaoke machine.
"The idea is so teachers will come up with great ideas to move children forward, both emotionally and educationally," said Amy Sweeny-Davis, executive director of the Kauffman Fund.
Littlefield also used the grant money to buy Leap Pads the students can take home. She said that the students' parents end up using them to learn English as well.
"It's interactive, repeats itself and repeats the word for them," Littlefield said.
Littlefield also uses other methods to teach her students English, but her Karaoke in the classroom definitely is a big hit, Moultrie said.
Kauffman awards $100,000 worth of Great Idea Grants to local teachers every year. They're available to teachers in four metropolitan school districts. For more information, call the Kauffman Foundation at (816) 822-1191.