When we saw in the seminar the video of a class doing a jazz chant, I was surprised about the “strange” letters in the room, so I want to search about what language is this and why Jazz Chants are there. Finding at home for more Jazz Chants, I discover that this language is Filipino and they are from the Republic of Philippines.

And you can be thinking: “Why Jazz Chants arrive in Philippines?”. Well, I continue finding about it and I found that, from 2008 to 2012, there were the “National English Jazz Chants Festival” supported by the Department of Education of the Government of Philippines, so it shows that the government understand that Jazz Chants are a good methodology to help children to learn English, so they create a festival to develop it.

I think this is a good way to introduce new techniques and new tools to learn English, also in countries where English is the official language. Can you think something like this (a festival) in Spain? Or even in Alcalá, Madrid or Guadalajara?

Maybe you think this is not possible nowadays because children doesn’t have the level required to do it, but this can be a stimulation for them to learn English and understand that learning a new language can be fun. If TV series like “Dora, the Explorer” or the official exams of Cambridge can motivate children to be interested in English and to obtain a good result for them, this “funny” things can be a good thing to increase their motivation.

Is Competition good for kids?

This festival made me think about if competition is good or bad for children. The American author, Alfie Kohn says that “If one child wins, another cannot. Competition leads children to envy winners, to dismiss losers.” so that can make that we think that competition is bad for children because allow them to “put stickers” on their classmates about who is good at something and who is not as good as the others at other things, but he also says that “Co-operation (…) is marvellously successful (…). Children feel better about themselves when they work with others instead of against them”.

Many specialists on children said that healthy competitions are good for children, but all the competitions are “healthy”? What makes a competition “healthy”?. If a healthy competition is about working in groups to not demotivate students, I think we are not doing what we have to do, because in real life, they are going to compete alone, and if we used to our children to be always in groups for everything, maybe we are preparing them for an unreal future.

Link to a video of the winners of 2011 edition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bzhB4MqgEY

Link to their Facebook page (there are information only till the 4th NEJCF in 2011) http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-English-Jazz-Chants-Festival/113346822069127

Link to a webpage where there’s a debate about competition and children: http://www.ineos.com/articles/inch-issue-5-2013/debate-is-competition-good-for-kids/