Although songs have long been used in the classroom to teach grammar and to create positive affect, recent scholarship in the theory and method of language instruction has drawn attention to their potential for inculcating more sophisticated language skills. Of particular interest is the use of popular songs for teaching lexis, discourse, and language awareness. Aside from their excellence as texts, well-crafted songs from a variety of musical genres can be used to teach learners a repertoire of simple and effective analytical skills which can be generalized and applied to new intake language, e.g., the material in their course book. Such an approach to popular songs encourages learners to use their increasing awareness of language to see the lyrics, their course books, and indeed, any text, as lexically rich sources of discourse that can be analyzed, internalized, and made part of their lexical repertoire. Well-known songs are also instructive in that they often provide a more incisive introduction to the thematic content of a coursebook lesson than the book itself. Well-crafted popular songs, then, not only provide learners with a springboard into the heart of a language but also prove to be the perfect counterpoint to the topical content of course book lessons.
