About the List of Classroom-Friendly Songs

For the past several years, I’ve been building a list of popular songs suitable for English language learners (ELL, ESL, EFL), organized by sixteen themes. The themes coordinate with units in the textbooks True Stories Behind the Songs and More True Stories Behind the Songs but could be used to enhance other theme-based curricula as well.

The songs on this list have:

• clear, comprehensible lyrics;
• language that is rated at least “PG”;
• staying power. (Most of the songs topped the Billboard chart or were nominated for an Oscar or a Grammy.)

I’ll be adding to the list from time to time, so please check back for new additions. To check out newly added songs, please see “Recently Added” on the navigation bar.