Literature Review by Karen G. Smith
Introduction
Elementary music students traditionally have music class 30 minutes, once a week. The Music Standards, written by music specialists, through the Florida Department of Education, gives specific subjects to teach. The only vocabulary listed in the standards is music vocabulary, but no mention of words included in lyrics, stories and poems. Music specialists document the introduction and mastery of standards for each student. The Standards are broken into 4 sections, and within a section, there are Grade Level Expectations, listed for each grade, with a realistic amount of the subject to master in each grade (see Appendix One). These are wonderful, well written standards yet, nowhere in the standards does it say the students need to understand what they are singing. The only vocabulary comprehension mentioned is music vocabulary.
One day, singing the American Folk Song, Old Dan Tucker, boys began lassoing, like a cowboy, and this was repeated in many classes. It always began during the third verse:
Old Dan Tucker came to town, swinging the ladies all around
Circle to the right, circle to the left, kiss the girl that you love best. (Sing Chorus)
When asked why they were doing this, the boys said they were “swinging the ladies all around”, by the hair or a leg. They did not understand he was square dancing. This literature review asks three questions: Why should we teach students to comprehend the vocabulary of the lyrics of the songs? How can we teach the lyrics vocabulary in the small amount of time we have to teach, not only that, but all the required studies listed in the standards? Is it important to teach the students the vocabulary comprehension of the songs, or should we just teach the music skills we are already required to teach?
Why we should teach students to comprehend vocabulary of the lyrics of songs.
Donaldson (2008) wrote a paper, Robust Vocabulary Instruction, which is one of the most complete, concise papers with facts and figures listing why children should be taught vocabulary in all classes, including music. One of the most startling sets of figures states children, age 4, have various amounts of vocabulary already known before starting Kindergarten. Children from professional families usually know 1,100 words, working class children know 700 words and children from families on welfare know only 500 words. The Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement reports Printed School English contains approximately 88,000 different words and the average child, by graduation, may know half of them, approximately 45,000 words. Children enter first grade knowing about 6,000 words and learn 3,000 words each year, but only 300 from actual instruction. Active teaching can cover about 400 words per year. This is the foundation of why we should teach vocabulary to students. The students also have Dolch and Fry word lists, which are sight words the students should know by certain points in their elementary school years.
According to Bromley (2007) students learn vocabulary best when they are first read to out loud. By reviewing the lyrics of the songs, the students hear the words, which is the first step for comprehension. An important part of learning is comprehension of vocabulary. Learning prefixes, suffixes and basic roots of common words is another valuable form of learning basic vocabulary. The students may decode words they have never seen by knowing parts of the words and what they mean.
Piro and Ortiz (2009) reports involving music education with training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal and practical skills that have superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared to non-musically educated peers. They also found music education helps with cognition and enhances performance in language and literacy. This study looked at two very specific sub-skills in reading: vocabulary and verbal sequencing, which are vital in the continuum of the development of literacy and is essential in a successful acquisition of proficient reading and language skills, such as decoding and reading comprehension. The students who studied music did significantly better in testing of vocabulary and verbal sequencing than the students who did not receive music instruction. Many other studies and a letter from the Secretary of the US Department of Education (Appendix 2) and (Appendix 3) have shown positive links between music education and other abilities, such as linguistics and mathematics in children Reis (2007) reported on teaching vocabulary comprehension using schoolbooks, workbooks and textbooks, versus books and other forms of literature, songs, and poems the students were interested in. It showed the students using the works of interest tested very high in comprehension, as opposed to the control group using the regular text and workbooks. Clearly, if the students are given works of interest, they will want to comprehend the vocabulary so they can understand what they are reading.
Teaching vocabulary comprehension in quick, concise lessons.
Martin (2009) found that analyzing poetry to music, listening to instrumental music while reading, memorizing important facts by setting them to music and learning how to do various skills while music is playing, was a good way to utilize music in the classroom. Spear-Spurling’s (2006) stated if children are unfamiliar with word meanings, the reading comprehension will suffer. She gave the example of reading the word scarlet, being able to pronounce it, yet not knowing it meant bright red, would make the comprehension suffer. She found the sooner students were given the meanings of words, the earlier students comprehended words and with better results.
According to MENC: Music Educators National Conference’s website (2006), teachers were asked what were their schedules in school and as of May, it showed there are many varied schedules, but most elementary music educators have 25-30 minutes per week with the students. In some of the larger schools, music classes may be held once every 2 weeks for 30 to 40 minutes.
Rasinski (2007) stated oral reading, which includes singing, poetry, and other forms of speech done solo or in chorus, could help with comprehension of vocabulary. He found studies showed some children learn better using all 3 basic styles of learning: aural, oral, and kinesthetic. By reading the words as they sing or speak, they see them, they hear them, and if they can use their finger to point to the word, it gives them the benefit of all 3 styles. Some children succeed better with other tactile objects such as the whisper phone, which can be a PVC pipe in a C shape. When the child whispers into it, sound comes back into their ear, so the word is reinforced by saying it, pointing to it and hearing their own voice in their ear.
The importance of teaching peripheral vocabulary comprehension in music class.
Bromley (2007) stated there are very important reasons for learning vocabulary. She says seventy percent of English words have more than one meaning and it helps to learn various meanings, and not just the one in a particular song, story, or poem. She used the word hand as an example of multiple: body part below wrist, cards dealt someone in a game, applause, and to give someone something.
Congos (2005) of the University of Central Florida wrote an article about mnemonics, stating there are 9 main categories of mnemonics, including music, name, expression/word, and ode/rhyme that are easily incorporated into the elementary music classes. Mnemonics memory devices that help learners remember larger pieces of information, have some categories easily used and taught in music class and can help students with various vocabulary. He found that people who used mnemonics tested 77% better than people without any mnemonic devices.
Some music mnemonics include songs such as the “ABC” song, “50 Nifty United States” and Ode/Rhyme mnemonics, such as “30 Days Hath September”, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”; “I before E, except after C, or when sounding like A in neighbor and weigh”. It is also used in made up names, such as “Roy G. Biv” to remember the colors of the rainbow. Each of these is quite helpful with memorization of various vocabularies. Congos suggested if one has something to memorize and is having trouble, make up a mnemonic to fit the words that need to be memorized.
Hayes (2009) discussed the use of Mnemonics with music, tunes, rhymes or poems to remember things. Because mnemonics helps to learn something, it seems to be in the broad topic of learning vocabulary. She wrote that children learn many things if they can sing it. It has been shown again and again that it works. (see Appendix Four) Children learned multiplication tables and the Presidents of the United States, by singing them. Mesaros and Virtanen (2009) did a study on recognition of lyrics of songs and one thing that came out the study is that 57% of the time, there are errors in what people understand that is being sung. The people hear one thing, but it says another, so, without written words, many people confuse what words are actually sung.
(PAEC, 2007) In a study done on concurrent development of phonological awareness, word recognition, and spelling, they discovered first graders were seeing letters and making up words that made sense to fit in the sentence. Many times, the children concentrated on the first letters listed and immediately made up words that began with that letter. As the year progressed, they began to look at more of the word, and using the spelling and the sounds, still made up words, but this time, tried much harder until they finally read the word correctly.
Conclusion
Children overwhelmingly prefer to learn tedious academic material through music, songs, pictures, video, and games. Through these mediums, they actively listen, watch, participate, and effortlessly memorize. If the content is taught through a tune or melody they already know, a picture or video clip they recognize, and are taught with explicit strategies for recall, students are able to utilize them as needed during tests, quizzes or simply when answering questions or in conversation. Since time is an element always in demand, learning vocabulary works so much better when the students are able to learn in a fun and efficient way.
References
Barr, Robert, Dr. (2007). The Kids Left Behind Leadership Conference Series. PAEC-Panhandle Area Educational Council. Retrieved July 21, 2010 from http://www.paec.org/courses.
Bromley, Karen. (2007, April). Nine Things Every Teacher Should Know About Words and Vocabulary Instruction. International Reading Association, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 50(7), 528-537. Retrieved from International Reading Association. doi:10.1598/JAAL.50.7.2
Congos, Dennis. (2005, January 24). 9 Types of Mnemonics for Better Memory, The Learning Center Exchange, AccuTrack and NCLCA. Retrieved June 15, 2010, from
Donaldson, Rebecca. (2008, November 8). Robust Vocabulary Instruction. Speech presented at the UCIRA-Utah Council of International Reading Association, Salt Lake City, Utah. [Transcript]. Retrieved from http://www.utahreading.org/pages/conference/ConferenceHandouts/Robustl%20Vocabulary%20Instruction.ppt%20UCIRA%202oo8.pdf
Florida Department of Education. (2010). Sunshine State Standards of Music with Grade Level Expectations. Retrieved from the Florida Department of Education Standards. http://www.fldoe.org/bii/curriculum/sss/pdf/musicglek-2.pdf.
Hayes, Orla C. (2009). The Use of Melodic and Rhythmic Mnemonics, Dominican University of California, San Rafael, CA. ; To Improve Memory and Recall in Elementary Students in the Content Areas. Retrieved June 6, 2010, from http://www.dominican.edu/academics/education/seed/filestorage/hayesorla.pdf
Music Educators National Conference. (2006, May). May 2006 MENC Online Sched
uling Survey. Retrieved from http://www.menc.org/resources/view/may-2006-menc-online-scheduling-survey.
Martin, K., (2009, December). Music and Memory: Integrating Music Into the Curriculum to Aid in the Learning and Memorization of Concepts and Facts. Retrieved from Sierra Nevada College web site: http://www.sierranevada.edu/UserFiles/file/TED/THESES_FA_09/Kathleen%20Martin.pdf
Mesaros, A., & Virtanen, T., (2009, November 23). Automatic Recognition of Lyrics in Singing, Journal on Audio, Speech and Music Processing. www.hindawi.com/journals/asmp/2010/546047.html. doi:10.1155/2010/546047.
Piro, J., & Ortiz, C., (2009, March 16). Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills. Retrieved from Science Daily Web Site: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316075843.htm
Rasinski, T., (2007). The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, The Elementary School Journal, Volume 108, Number 1. Retrieved from
Reis, S.M., McCoach, D.B., Coyne, M., Schreiber, F.J., Eckert, R., Gubbins, E. J., (2009, December 1). Songs for Teaching: Using Music to Promote Learning. The Elementary School Journal, Retrieved June 23, 2009.
Resource Materials and Technology Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. (n.d.) from CIERA: Why Teach Vocabulary/Why Teach Sight Words? Retrieved July 11, 2010, from http://rmtc.fsdb.k12.fl.us/literacy/vocabulary.html
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