This highly emotive song was originally written for the hugely successful American musical Carousel, but when recorded by the Liverpool group Gerry and the Pacemakers (who followed in the wake of the Beatles) it gained a whole new audience: the football (soccer) scene. You’ll never walk alone is now equally well-known as a football anthem, and is the signature tune of Liverpool FC, Celtic FC, Borussia Dortmund FC and even FC Tokyo, and many others. There are several versions, but the Gerry and the Pacemakers version is strongly recommended.
The symbolsong technique is an alternative to the gap-fill activity that often accompanies a song. At first the students have no idea what the symbols mean, but slowly you will hear gasps of delight as some students start to guess the words.
The students are firstly given a handout of the symbol sheet which represents the song, and after trying to decipher as much as they can, they then listen to the song and compare with their ideas. The full lyrics can be shown to the students for further comparison before they listen a second time.
You’ll never walk alone symbolsong click here for free downloadable pdf sheets including complete lyrics. For obvious reasons the song itself cannot be provided here, though it can easily be found through all the normal outlets.
Please find a snapshot of this symbolsong below.
