A selection of English ESL music lyrics printables

I watched a beautiful music video by the band Seafret called Wildfire and felt inspired to create a lesson based on it. Students read through the lyrics to identify similes and metaphors. Then read through a set of questions and find definitions to some of the vocabulary. Next, they work with a partner to ask and answer some of the questions. Lastly, they watch the music video.



You may wish to abbreviate the questions, or rephrase them, as some of the language might be too difficult for lower level students.



This lesson would work well with one on speed dating, and is intended for older students.

Figurative Language:  Similes & Metaphors

Listening to a song by Sting:An English man in New York

gap filling+wh questions+personal opinion. This is an exercise to practice the lyrics of a song.The song is sung by an Englishman.

'An Englishman in New York' Sung by Sting

A song activity, it´s a song teens know very well and they like it a lot. There are 5 exercises, choose the right word, order the lines, fill the gaps with given words, put the words in order, and find the extra word. I hope you like it! 





Song: She looks so perfect - 5 Seconds of Summer

A worksheet that works with the song's lyrics, it includes two exercises - filling words and matching definitions. It was created for an intermediate private lesson.

LP Lost On You 

A beautiful and romantic song from Kina Grannis, you should give it a listening even if you don´t download the worksheet! :) The video is also very cute, an interesting concept, and without planning it we talked about it a lot, so I added this as the last exercise. This is an easy worksheet, there are several exercises: fill the gaps with pronouns, order the lines, fill the gaps, complete the missing vowels, choose the right word and put the words in order. I hope you like it!!

Song: Valentine - Kina Grannis

An activity to help students learn and practise the present perfect tense and listening skills.



Learners complete the worksheet by listening to the songs and filling in the gaps/checking their answers.



14 songs are featured in the worksheet with at least one example of the present perfect in each song. The list of songs can be found in the video description.



The activity can be made more difficult or less difficult by adding or removing gaps in the song lyrics.



The music’s audio along with the answers can be found here: https://youtu.be/abF7ttEcENw



Learners self correct their worksheets by watching the video: https://youtu.be/abF7ttEcENw

Present perfect in songs worksheet, video and answer key

this worksheet is adapted to introduce students to present perfect tense using the song by arctic monkeys. The activities are very simple and fun. fill in the gaps and organize.

Lyrics Worksheet - Do I Wanna Know - Present perfect

I've just realized I forgot to upload here this worksheet I made last summer!! Another summer song, this time from Jonas Brothers. It should be familiar to Disney´s "Jonas L.A." fans. There are several exercises: fill the gaps with antonyms, complete the missing vowels, fill the gaps with the words you hear, choose the right word, put the worda in order and find and correct the mistakes. I hope you like it! Enjoy the summer!



P.S. - If you're looking for more summer-related songs, last year I felt very creative ;)

https://en.islcollective.com/mypage/resources?Tags=summer&type=Printables&searchworksheet=GO&view=grid

Song: Chillin´ in the summertime - Jonas Brothers

A nice song from Olivia Holt, a song written specifically for the Disneynature documentary "Bears". In an interview she said that the song really captures the “struggles and heart” of the film. There are several exercises: choose the right word, match the lines, fill the gaps, find extra words and correct mistakes, fill the gaps with antonyms and complete the missing vowels. It is also useful to introduce or to review Future Simple. I hope you like it! 



P.S.  If you are interested in the topic, on the official page there are a lot of activities related with bears: http://nature.disney.com/bears/educators-guide

Song: Carry on - Olivia Holt

9 pages about the 2016 Grammy Record of the Year Nominees. Cover page, biography of each singer, lyrics to all the songs, links to YouTube, and page listing nominees for Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist.

Music: Grammy Awards 2016

This is a listening exercise using the song Radio Gaga by The Queen. Students learn information about the band first, then Match words that rhyme, and eventually complete the lyrics with the missing words.

Radio Gaga by The Queen

A listening/discussion/writing worksheet based on the song "Just When I Needed You Most" by Smokie.

The listening part is a gap fill exercise. I suggest to play the song once first, before handing out the worksheet. For the first three verses the missing words are given 1) in the wrong order 2) with the letters mixed up and 3) in the wrong order. For the remaining verses the missing words aren't given. A key (full lyrics) is included. A part of the gap fill, almost all verbs have been omitted from the song so this worksheet could also be used as a lead in to practice irregular and regular verbs.

For the discussion part I have included a couple of questions to invite the students to think about the song and give reasons for what might have happened.

As for the writing part, students are asked to compose a short letter from "him" to "her" and it would be fun to share these letters with the class and vote for the most romantic just to end the class on a high note. Alternatively, if you want to omit the writing part, just get the students to sing the song together for a little bit of fun.

Smokie - Just When I Needed You Most - Song Gap Fill - Writing

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

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how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

332 Music lyrics English ESL worksheets pdf & doc