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These Pitt faculty use pop songs to teach English

Tags
  • Arts and Humanities
  • Global
  • Our City/Our Campus
  • English Language Institute

Linguists Ece Ulus and Heather McNaught, instructors at Pitt鈥檚 , launched a podcast marrying English language lessons and pop song lyrics.

features one song per episode and a corresponding lesson on pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar.

The podcast evolved from Ulus and McNaught鈥檚 work leading the Language Music Club, a group where students can socialize and practice English while singing.

鈥泪迟 was a great way for students to connect with each other outside of class,鈥 said McNaught, 鈥渁nd it inspired us to consider ways we could increase the number of people who could benefit from our lessons.鈥

, Ulus and McNaught give a breakdown of The Temptations鈥 鈥淭he Way You Do the Things You Do,鈥 prompting listeners to pay attention to the song鈥檚 rhymes, reductions 鈥 in this case, contractions and slang 鈥 and sentence stress.

To ensure they spotlight a diverse mix of artists in their show, the hosts consider three criteria when choosing songs: language, genre and decade.

鈥淟isteners of the podcast come from all over the world, and we want the songs we choose to reflect that. It鈥檚 really exciting when one of us hears a song we think might be suitable for an episode,鈥 said Ulus.

New episodes drop every three weeks, with the next coming on Oct. 28. .

鈥 Nichole Faina