Using Karaoke in Language Classrooms: Exploring Potentials and Prospects

Karaoke is an exciting pastime in many cultures. Karaoke singers are expected to sing along melodies of songs and keep up with the lyrics that run at the bottom of the monitor. In this sense, it involves both linguistic processing and language articulation, and thus offers itself for potential use in foreign language classrooms. However, there appears to be a shortage of examination of Karaoke for useful classroom use. This paper will therefore firstly introduce karaoke as a possible classroom activity followed by a description of some technical equipment required. The paper will then explore some potentials and principles that may inform the language teachers of different ways of implementing karaoke in the language classroom.