Vocabulary: Percussion Instruments

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Percussion Instruments

Musical Instruments

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
Head of Curriculum Development Academic Department Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano	Senior Language Professor School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 Post 341 / Vocabulary 003

Students wanting to know more should be the norm in our classrooms, and it is for that reason that we have to ensure they can develop their vocabulary much more and way beyond their textbooks. A good way to make some changes in a thematic unit that deals with music or musical instruments is to have them work on percussion instruments, which is just a sub-variety of instruments that can be used for the purpose of this exercise. Any other type of musical instruments can also fit the purpose of having our learners practice the language productively.

Most of us, if not all of us, wanted to play a musical instrument at some point in our lives. So why not to take advantage of this prior knowledge to have learners discuss creatively, inventively, and critically about instruments. And here what I suggest is to have students compare instruments:

1) Compare and contrast the triangle and the tambourine.

2) Compare and contrast the xylophone and the marimba.

3) Compare and contrast the cymbals and the hi-hat.

4) Compare and contrast the triangle and the xylophone.

5) Compare and contrast the marimba and the cymbals.

A second option is to have our learners write their own definitions and descriptions of what a musical instrument is or looks like. Here you can have them exercise their writing skills and play with the new vocabulary.