Growing With Proficiency The Podcast
Welcome to Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast! Are you a World Language teacher who is looking for ideas, strategies, activities, and inspiration to create a World Language class where you and your students enjoy using the language to learn about the world and each other? Do you want to transform your class into an acquisition-driven instruction space where you intentionally provide a ton of comprehensible input?
If you are, you're in the right place.
Let's start this journey together. Head over to IG, and send me a DM @claudiamelliott to let me know what topics you would like me to cover in an upcoming episode.Join my free Facebook community, Growing With C. Also, check out my blog to start discovering some of these ideas and strategies at growingwithproficiency.com
Growing With Proficiency The Podcast
Episode 169: How to Use Songs in the World Language Classroom (and Make Them Comprehensible) with Kara Jacobs
Every world language teacher knows the power of music — but how do we move beyond karaoke Fridays and make songs truly comprehensible and meaningful for our learners? 🎵
In this episode of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, host Claudia Elliott sits down with veteran teacher and blogger Kara Jacobs to unpack how she turns authentic songs and music videos into acquisition-rich, culture-centered units. Together, they explore how to create stories around songs, use visuals to support comprehension, and design lessons that engage both novice and heritage learners.
You’ll learn:
- How to choose songs that are compelling, not just grammatically useful
- Simple ways to make authentic music accessible for every proficiency level
- How “triple input” — audio, visual, and text — boosts comprehension
Why translation and storytelling can deepen students’ cultural connectionWhether you teach Spanish, French, or any other language, this episode will leave you inspired to use music as a powerful tool for communication and connection in your classroom.
🎧 Tune in, take notes, and start making songs comprehensible!
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Resources:
Free resources created by Kara Jacobs
Acquire & Inspired PD Opportunity with Kara and AnneMarie Chase. Details are available HERE.
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