The Effect of Music on Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition

Author: Suzanne L. Medina, Ph.D. School of Education Graduate Education Department California State University

Summary:

The effect of music on SLA is usually positive, however, the empirical support is lacking. According to Nagy and Herman, people acquire L1 through oral language at first, and only a portion of vocabulary is learned in school while lots of vocabulary is learned from various sources. Moreover, lots of researches indicate vocabulary acquired incidentally by reading or listening to oral stories (Cohen, 1968; Elley, 1989; Eller, Papps, & Brown, 1988). Therefore, comprehensible input ( Krashen’s input hypothesis) is needed whenever learners learn vocabulary. Furthermore, vocabulary can be enhanced by extralinguistic support (e.g., pictures, actions, music). According to Glazner, music benefits memorization when the verbal information is meaningful. As a result, the purpose of the study is to discuss whether music can bring about language acquisition, whether illustrations improve vocabulary acquisition and a relationship between the medium (music /no music) and extralinguistic support (illustrations/no illustrations). The method of the research is designed as four conditions: (1) Music, (2) No Music, (3) Illustrations, (4) No Illustrations. The subjects were 48 second-grade Spanish speaking students. The materials were audiocassettes with accompanying big book illustrations, “A Surprise for Benjamin Bear by Nelson (1989)”. Students would be tested with a pretest and two posttests which contained a 20-item multiple-choice (paper and pencil test). Besides, students were divided on the basis of vocabulary pretest scores from lowest to highest and students would be divided into fourths randomly from each list. The score gains of the pretest, posttest 1 and posttest 2 were used to assist to perform “Two two-way analyses of variance (ANOVA)”. The result showed a level of statistical significance of .05. The Music and No Music treatments produced comparable amounts of vocabulary acquisition which is consistent with the statements regarding the efficacy of music for language acquisition. The research has provided an empirical support for previously unsupported statements on several aspects. First, illustration treatment groups have better and higher levels of vocabulary acquisition than no Illustration groups both in the short and long term. Second, the combination of music and illustration showed the highest average amount of vocabulary gain which goes consistent with several studies which reported positive effects from the combination of music and meaning upon memory retention (Weener, 1971; Glazner, 1976; Shepard & Ascher, 1973). Third, illustrations, additional extralinguistic support, and further music boost the effects of second language acquisition. To sum up, vocabulary gain could be increased with multiple forms of extralinguistic support. Music should be treated as a viable as well as a recreational vehicle for second language acquisition with instructional value. Teachers can apply songs in the curriculum due to the reason that songs can provide the classroom teacher with an alternative means and additional exposure of promoting second language acquisition.

Reflection:

I personally agree that students learn from various sources and multiple ways; as a result, I like to use big books with colorful and attractive illustrations with the repeated sentence structures, interesting story plots, VCDs or CDs as extensive materials in class. That is because I believe learning can happen both incidentally and intentionally due to the positive effects of extralinguistic support from pictures, actions or music. Four skills could be increased with multiple forms of extralinguistic support. For me, music is used as a viable and a recreational vehicle for language acquisition with its instructional value. It is very obvious that the elementary school textbook publishers also notice the positive effect of rhythms, rhymes, songs and chants. For example, Rainbow Book Six, Unit Two, Phonics and the phonics words ( waiter, dinner, nervous, finger) are reviewed by using a chant with background music which goes like this, “ The nervous man snaps his fingers. Waiter! Waiter! Please bring me my dinner.” The purpose of this chant is not only to create a situation in the restaurant but also to introduce the usages of each word. Another example from Rainbow Book Six, Unit One, “How do you go to school?” The song in this unit is reviewed not only the marker sentences of “ How do you go to school ? “ “ I go to school by…….” but also the key words of “ on foot, by bike, by taxi, by train, by MRT, by bus” with several versions, such as spoken version, chant version, and sung version. There is no doubt that music, songs, rhymes, chants as well as rhythms can provide the teachers with an alternative means and additional exposure of motivating students’ second language acquisition.