Second Language Verb Recall by Music and Motion
Anonymous
Kent State University
This study examines the effects of music upon memorization of verb vocabulary in a foreign language
classroom. In a group of 40 first-year French students, there was a series of 3 irregular verbs taught within a
two-week period. The first verb (vouloir) was taught only with visual support from the overhead projector.
The second verb (faire) was taught with a song and hand motions. The third verb (pouvoir) was taught with
a song. After each of the three diverse verb presentations, students took a post-test of 8 fill-in sentences to
show how well they recalled the verb from earlier in the class period. Post-tests were given on 2 consecutive
days to see if recall changed over a 24 hour period. Students were also asked to reflect upon which learning
methods were most effective for learning new irregular verbs in-class. The results suggested that students
recalled the verb better when it was presented with the combination of music and hand motions. Students
had the least amount of recall when the verb was only presented on the overhead. The results are interpreted
as being supportive for music to be used as a teaching tool in the classroom; hand motions are also an added
tool to consider as well. Further investigation is recommended to determine whether students would perform
better in recall tests when song and hand motions are used to teach a lesson, versus when song and pictures
are used to teach a lesson.
“I like to learn by songs in class because they get stuck in my head.” This was a
comment that one of my students made after learning a new irregular verb in class this year.
Sometimes it is hard to get certain tunes out of our heads; mostly this is perceived as a “bad”
thing. For educators, however, this is something to rejoice about, because music can be a
powerful teaching tool in the classroom. Music helps its listeners to both acquire and retain
vocabulary that was sung and performed. This study will examine the role of music as a
teaching aid and its affect on vocabulary recall in a foreign language learning environment.
Traditionally, there have been many diverse studies pertaining to music use in a
classroom setting. Among the differences, the research suggests that there are many benefits to
be gained overall for the learner, although this is still a relatively new area of exploration in
second language acquisition studies. There are many studies about music use in other academic
settings, but not as many in a foreign language setting. First, I will discuss the formative studies
that observe music in the classroom. Then, I will propose how I would like to expand upon this
research.
1
Music is an interesting teaching tool because it appears to stimulate learning
environments. In some studies, music has been passively applied as background noise, while
learners set out to study new vocabulary. De Groot (2006) found that a learning environment
with music in the background is beneficial to memory and retention of foreign language (FL)
vocabulary words, in comparison to a silent learning environment without music. In her study,
she played classical music in the background, while the Dutch foreign language students learned
new English vocabulary. The experiment yielded very positive feedback that suggests
background music stimulates the brain for learning. On the other hand, Furnham and Bradley
(1997) discovered that pop music was harmful to overall vocabulary recall when it was played in
the background of a learning environment; it appeared to be too distracting. The difference in
musical choice (classical vs. pop) could have made an impact on this study. And, their study was
not implemented in a second language classroom like De Groot’s study, so that also could have
made a difference.
In other studies, music takes on a more active role. For example, Haley (2004), a
proponent of Gardner’s multiple-intelligence theory, wanted to observe if students that were
more “musically inclined” would learn better by music presentations. He ran an experiment to
test out the multiple intelligence theory on groups of students across the United States. In the
pre-testing phase, he had all students determine their own individual strong and weak
intelligence areas among the following: linguistic, logic-math, musical, bodily-kinesthetic,
spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Students with high musical intelligence were given the
task to learn material by musical rhythms, tones, and patterns. The results suggested that when
the instructor used music methodologies to present the new learning material, it was very helpful
for students with high musical intelligence. Also, it was suggested that musical and linguistic
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intelligences were complimentary to one another; individuals that demonstrated high levels of
musical intelligence also demonstrated high levels of linguistic intelligence.
Some of the research about music in the foreign language classroom also focuses on
motivation and how to create a multi-sensory learning environment. In the studies done by Huy
Lê (1999) and Lems (2005), music that was chosen for the classroom instruction yielded a lot of
positive feedback from the test subjects. In Huy Lê’s study, Vietnamese students were presented
with American pop music selections in English. They learned several English lessons by
reading, listening, speaking and writing about the music selections played in the classroom by
the researcher. The majority of the students said that it helped connect them better with the
foreign culture and it helped their listening abilities. The only negative feedback was that some
of the lyric content was a little racy for their Vietnamese culture. In Lems’ study, she discussed
how to incorporate music in an adult ESL class. Lems emphasized that music can aid in teaching
listening comprehension and cultural material. It was also mentioned that music can also help
students to practice their L2 reading abilities when lyrics are presented to the learner. Students
can engage in writing activities as a post-discussion of the song and lyrics. She also found that
music selections in another language helped her students to connect with the foreign culture. She
said that music breaks beyond cultural borders and that is why it is such a useful tool for
instruction. Lems also commented that music was a good motivator for learners; music would
stimulate the brain to be ready for learning.
Music has also been brought into the foreign language classroom through a teaching
model called “Suggestopedia”. The model was created in Bulgaria by Georgi Lozanov and was
implemented during the 1970’s and 1980’s (Omaggio-Hadley, 1993, p. 117). The belief behind
the methodology was that “relaxation techniques and concentration would help learners tap into
3
their subconscious resources and retain greater amounts of vocabulary and structures than they
ever thought possible” (p. 117). In a study conducted in a German I classroom in Iowa by
Prichard and Pullen (1980), it was found that music was used in the beginning of the class to
relax the learning atmosphere; it was later synchronized along with the German vocabulary
review. Higher levels of vocabulary recall occurred after a week-long session of suggestopedia
presentations by the teacher. Suggestopedia is not as commonly used now because the method is
very dependant on the instructor’s preparation and personality. Prichard and Pullen (1980)
implied that suggestopedia only works for educators that find it natural to incorporate music and
drama in the classroom.
As shown above, music can be used as a tool to teach vocabulary. In some studies, the
researchers wanted to see in post-test assessments if music affected vocabulary recall. Medina
(1990) explored the use of music along with story illustrations in English in an ESL classroom.
She used 48 second-grade students from the same school Los Angeles as her test subjects and
she divided them into four test groups. All students had low English proficiency. In the first test
group, the students heard a story through song, with no pictures to accompany the story. The
second group heard the story read out loud, with no illustration to the story. The third group
heard music along with seeing vocabulary pictures of words represented in the story. The fourth
group heard the story read out loud with the accompaniment of the pictures of vocabulary words.
The results showed that students in the third control group that had the story accompanied with
both music and illustration had more vocabulary gain overall than the other test groups during
the post test. All in all, many studies suggest that when music is partnered with another medium
to teach vocabulary, such as illustrations in the case described above, the success rates of
learning and memorizing the vocabulary are higher.
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Along the same line as the Medina study, Schunk (1999) created tests of music and sign
language to accompany vocabulary in English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. Her
study was inspired by the idea that there is a growing population of students in the United States
that have limited English proficiency, due to immigrating families from other countries. For this
growing population, there is a need for English language acquisition so the students can integrate
academically, socially, and economically. Schunk wanted to see if music partnered with sign
language would help ESL students acquire and recall language better. She observed 80 K-2
students from 3 different elementary schools. All children that participated were identified as
belonging to either of the most minimal classes of English fluency: nonspeakers or limited
English proficient (LEP). There were four types of testing conditions that she observed with
vocabulary instruction: singing and signs, text with signs, sung text, and a control group of
spoken text only. For the sign test, she had 20 targeted vocabulary words for the students to
learn; for the singing test, she had 3 songs for the students to learn. Both sets of tests
incorporated appropriate vocabulary for the learning contexts. The results showed that the tests
with signing or singing yielded significant improvement in recognition of vocabulary words from
pre-test to post-test.
Both Medina (1990) and Schunk (1999) found results that suggested that music was an
aid to vocabulary recall in English as a Second Language (ESL) setting. Medina partnered music
with pictures; Schunk partnered music with sign language. Those studies have helped to lay
some beginning groundwork that I would like to support further. I think that researching these
implications in an FL classroom could be very important as well. This is still a relatively new
area of research in second language acquisition studies. There would be several benefits for
foreign language educators to learn more effective ways of presenting new vocabulary to
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students and have them remember the vocabulary well. In addition, all of the studies mentioned
earlier focus on using music to memorize noun-related vocabulary. I think a logical new
challenge would be to explore the vocabulary of verbs. In a first year foreign language
classroom at middle or high school level, students can not graduate to the next level of language
learning until they have general mastery over verbs and verb use. In order to produce language
in the form of written work or spoken words, there must be some knowledge of verbs. That is
why this study can continue to build upon the foundation that Medina and Schunk have started.
In this research project, I push the edge of knowledge by exploring the use of music and
movement as an aid to vocabulary recall. By researching these teaching methods, I hope to gain
more insight on different approaches to foreign language instruction. I also hope that my students
will benefit from the multi-sensory approach to learning language. My classroom research will
begin with presenting three, present-tense, irregular verb conjugations over a two-week period of
time. I would like to compare all of my French students’ recall performance of the verbs, based on
three different learning scenarios. The conjugation of the first verb, vouloir, will be presented
without music; the verb will be recited out loud to a rhythm. The conjugation of the second verb,
faire, will be presented with music and hand motions that accompany the lyrics. The conjugation
of the third verb, pouvoir, will be presented with music. After each verb has been presented, all
test participants will undergo a recall assessment of the verb. I would like to address these research
questions in my study:
1.) Does music aid in foreign language short-term recall?
2.) Does music, on its own, help vocabulary recall more than music partnered with handmotions?
3.) Do students find music and motion learning strategies effective?
Methodology
Participants
6
In this study, 40 students from a middle school in Ohio ranging in age from 13-14 years
old participated. The test sample was made up of 24 males (60%) and 16 females (40%) total.
The participants were chosen because they were all learning the same material in all 3 testing
classes from the same French instructor and classroom setting for 41 minutes daily, 5 days a
week. All participants spoke English as their native language but elected to take French in 8th
grade to count for a high school language credit. None of the students had studied other foreign
languages previously in-depth, aside from having introductory, surface-level exposure to French,
Spanish, and Latin (3 weeks per language) during their 7th grade year. In addition, none of the
students that participated in the study had spent time studying language abroad.
All students, regardless of gender, were assumed as homogenous in this study. All
students qualified to take the French course of study in 8th grade based on high reading-ability
scores and an English class grade of a C average or above during the previous school year. All
students also had the equal training of a foreign language exploratory class as 7th graders, where
French was studied for 3 weeks. In other words, all students that participated in this study had
previous language training together in 7th grade and had to meet the same requirements to take
foreign language in 8th grade.
In order to participate in this study, students needed to have a parent-student consent
form filled out and returned to the instructor within a 2 week period. Students were informed
ahead of time that their participation would not affect their overall grade in class and that their
names would be kept confidential in the study. 40 students returned their forms and nobody
dropped out of the experiment while it was being conducted over the two-week period.
Materials
7
In this study, I wanted to explore if music aided short-term recall of verb vocabulary.
Also, I wanted to see if a lesson that employed a music-only learning strategy would cause more
improvement in verb recall than music partnered with hand-motions. Lastly, I wanted to find if
students would reflect that music and/or hand motions were helpful to them in the learning and
recall process. In order to explore these three essential research questions, I created some posttests that attempted to monitor and create data for each area of interest.
The verbs picked to use in the study were vouloir, faire, and pouvoir. They were chosen
because they fit into the current curriculum of our classroom textbook. There were a total of
three post-tests created, or in other words, one post-test per verb. Each post-test consisted of
eight fill-in sentences. The directions stated that it was necessary to conjugate the verb and fill it
into the appropriate sentence, to achieve subject-verb agreement. When creating the post-tests, it
was important to keep in mind that the students had been learning verb conjugations since the
beginning of the school year and had begun to recognize a certain order for the subject pronouns
to be memorized in:
Je (I)
Tu (you- informal)
Il/elle (he/she)
Nous (we)
Vous (you-formal)
Ils/Elles (they)
Usually, the subject pronouns were presented and practiced in a “grid” formation. The post-tests
that were developed for this experiment did not assess memorization of the grid. Instead, the
post-tests wanted to see if students could remember the grid from the in-class presentation and
then manipulate the information into complete sentences. The subject pronouns were listed in
random order, not following the “normal” structure as shown above. Students were allowed to
write the grid of the verb on the side of the paper if desired, but that was not what was assessed.
Correct spelling and matching of subject-verb agreement were the determiners for good recall of
8
the verb. Incorrect spelling or subject-verb mismatches subtracted recall points from the tests.
Overall, the 3 post-tests were designed to be similar. The only main differences in this whole
experiment were how the verbs were presented in-class.
Another added feature to the faire post-test was an opinion question. The first part of the
test monitored verb vocabulary recall. This extra opinion question was asked to explore the
other area of questioning: Do participants reflect that there is one specific method that is
effective for learning a new verb? Participants were posed with the following statement and had
to choose one method out of the four:
Out of these choices, the best way for me to learn verbs is:

To see them on the overhead

To hear the teacher’s explanation

To sing

To make hand motions to act out the verb
By adding this opinion question, it helped to show what participants perceived about their
personal learning styles. It was designed to show if the participants’ opinions about learning
matched their overall performance when recalling the verb vocabulary.
Procedures
The testing was spread over two weeks by spending two testing days per verb, with a
couple days of break in between the verb change. After the first day’s presentation of a new
verb, a post-test was administered. On the following day, another blank copy of the same posttest was given to observe the verb recall between Day I and Day II. I presented the verb vouloir
first, the verb faire next, and the verb pouvoir third over the two week period. This order was
specifically picked, due to the similarity between the verbs vouloir and pouvoir. By introducing
faire as the second verb, it helped to split up the two similar verbs so the data would not be
biased.
9
On the first day of a new verb, I showed the conjugation on the overhead projector to the
class. Students were allowed to comment on any patterns that they could detect and I marked
them with different color markers on the transparency. Then, I had the students repeat the verb
out loud. After reading and repeating, I showed 4 example sentences with the new verb
conjugated in the present tense within the context. This was the control part of the experiment.
(See appendices A, B, and C.)
After the overhead presentation described above, I did not add any extra verb information
to share with the class about the verb vouloir. For the verb faire, however, I did a demonstration
of a song that used all conjugated forms of the verb (to the tune of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”) and
set of hand-motions that accompanied the French lyrics of the song. Students could read the
song lyrics on the overhead. The students and I practiced the song and hand motions 2 times
together. For the verb pouvoir, I played a 15-second music clip from a CD so the students could
review the tune to the song, since it may not have been as well-known. Students recognized the
tune from the radio, since it was fairly current song that was released within the last couple years
(“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day). I sang the pouvoir verb song once as a
demonstration (without the CD accompaniment) and then the students and I practiced the song 2
times together. (See appendices A, B, and C.)
Before administering the post-tests for the verbs, I had the students focus on another
classroom activity, such as playing a vocabulary game. This happened for 10 minutes after I
presented the new verb in class. I decided this would truly test their short-term memory and
show how effective the music and motions would be upon recall performance. The short, 10
minute “interruption” activity was never verb-related. I wanted to have a time delay between the
verb presentation and the post-test. After about 10 minutes, I passed out the verb post-test to the
10
students. They had to complete 8 sentences, using the correct form of the verb in the context of
the sentence. I had the participants turn their tests over and draw until everyone was finished.
Testing lasted about 5 minutes; tests were collected at the same time from all students. (See
appendices A, B, and C.)
On the following day, students received a second blank copy of the same post-test and
were asked to fill it out again, without having reviewed the new verb in question. The Day II
post-test was given at the beginning of class, before anything else was introduced in class. This
second post-test was to monitor if the students’ ability to recall the verb had changed over a 24
hour period.
Data Collection
The data was collected and analyzed after all verb post-tests were completed. t-tests were
run to compare all Day I and Day II data. As mentioned above, the Day I data was collected the
day the verbs were first presented and Day II data was collected at the beginning of the following
day. The t-test program was used because it compared the significant differences between the
dependant variables: the vouloir, faire, and pouvoir presentations. A Pearson Correlation test
was run on the opinion questions to see if there was any correlation significance between student
opinions about individual learning styles and student recall performance.
Results
The first research question asked about student’s ability to recall vocabulary better with
music. The mean scores for each verb were collected and compared between Day 1 and Day 2.
(See Table 1.) The data reveal that learners were able to recall each verb differently. The
vouloir test, where the verb was presented only on the overhead, rendered the lowest average
recall scores on Day 1 and Day 2 with the scores 3.95 and 3.71, out of a total of 8 points. The
11
faire test, where the verb was presented with both music and hand-motions, had the highest
average recall score in Day 1 with a score of 6.37. The faire average dipped down to a recall of
3.75 on Day 2; however, the faire Day 2 average was still higher than both of the vouloir test day
averages. Last, the pouvoir test, where the verb was presented only with music, showed the
mean scores of 5.63 and 5.19. All three testing verbs experienced a lower average of recall in
Day 2 in comparison with Day 1. (See Table 1.)
Table 1. Student Mean values for Student Recall for each verb tested
Overhead only (vouloir)
Music and Motion (faire)
Music (pouvoir)
Means
Day 1
Day 2
3.95
3.71
6.37
3.75
5.63
5.19
There were two t-tests run for the Day 1 and Day 2 data (See Tables 2 & 3). The t-test
was chosen to compare the significant difference between the vouloir, faire, and pouvoir test
variables. The t-tests further complimented the mean scores of recall. On Day 1, the t-test
showed that students performed significantly better in recall tests with the verb faire (22.65) in
comparison with the others verbs. The vouloir test showed that students recalled significantly
less than the other two verbs. Therefore, both the recall mean scores and t-test supported the
idea that the scenario where students learn with music and hand-motions helped the overall recall
of the verb better than the other two learning scenarios. The tests also supported the idea that
when information was presented only visually, like with the verb vouloir, the overall recall of the
verb wasn’t as successful as it could have been. Verb recall was more likely if another teaching
method was added, such as music or hand-motions, along with the visual presentation.
Day 1
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Tables 2 & 3. t-test results for Day 1 & Day 2
student recall
t
p
Vouloir
9.21
<.001
Faire
22.65
<.001
Day 2
Pouvoir
20.21
<.001
t
p
Vouloir
9.56
<.001
Faire
8.85
<.001
17.34
<.001
Tabl
e 4. Correlations of student opinions
Pouvoir
Day 1 recall
vouloir
Day 2 recall
vouloir
Day 1 recall
faire
Day 2 recall
faire
Day 1 recall
pouvoir
Day 2 recall
pouvoir
opinion: see
overhead
opinion: hear
explanation
opinion: sing
a song
*
*
*
opinion: use
hand
motions
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
A Pearson Correlation test was run to compare the relationship between the two sets of
data: students’ opinions about their learning styles and students’ actual recall performance for
each verb that was taught. Vouloir was taught only via the overhead projector; faire was taught
with music and hand motions; and pouvoir was taught with music. The results showed that there
was no significance among the data collected. The students’ opinions about which was one of
the best learning methods (seeing, hearing, singing, or using gestures) did not support how well
they performed on the verb recall tests. Furthermore, students that claimed to learn better
visually did not perform significantly better on the vouloir recall test. Along those lines, none of
the students claimed that learning by using hand gestures was the best; the performance recall
results declared that faire rendered the highest recall results on Day 1.
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Discussion
The findings from the study yielded some diverse responses to the research questions that
guided this experiment. First, in reference to all of the Day 1 data collected, it was found that
students did remember some of the verb conjugation vouloir when it was shown visually on the
overhead and discussed in-class. According to the mean scores of vouloir recall, the average
participant remembered fewer than four of the eight conjugations (Table 1). Verb recall was
much better, however, when extra teaching methods were added to the visual presentation.
When the verb pouvoir was presented with music accompaniment, the students were more likely
to recall it. And better still, in the testing of the verb faire, where both music and hand-motions
were introduced to accompany the verb presentation, the recall abilities continued to strengthen
among the participants. These results endorse DeGroot’s (2006) study, where he found that
learning environments with music were beneficial to foreign language vocabulary retention and
memory. DeGroot explained that music aided in retention because it was a brain stimulant.
The t-test scores for Day 1 also indicated that there was a significant difference in recall
performance between each of the teaching methods (Tables 2 & 3). The highest recall levels
occurred when participants learned a verb accompanied by music and hand motions. The
medium middle verb recall levels occurred when participants learned a verb that was
accompanied by music. The lowest recall levels occurred when participants learned a verb just
visually via an overhead projector. When the t-tests were run with the collected data, all results
came up highly significant where p < .001. The recall results that occurred in my post-tests had
some similarities to the results found in other studies conducted previously. When Schunk
(1999) tested ESL students for vocabulary acquisition gain, she tested students visually, with
song, with sign language, and with a combination of song and sign language. The verb
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conjugation recall results from the vouloir, faire, and pouvoir tests echoed similar results to her
study. She found that the most effective vocabulary gains occurred in vocabulary testing that
incorporated the use of sign language. She also discovered that the highest mean gain score for
vocabulary recognition occurred when sign language was combined with singing.
As for the data collected for Day 2 recall performance, there were more mixed results
from the post-tests. First, all verbs were forgotten a little bit between Day 1 and Day 2 posttests; this is reflected in the average mean scores of recall data from Day 2 (Table 1). The focus
of this study was on the short-term recall of the verb that could be demonstrated in the Day 1
data. The Day 2 data indicated the idea that information can be lost over a day if not practiced.
However, one factor proved to be quite surprising: the verb faire was most successful from Day
1 and experienced a greater drop in recall on Day 2 than the other two test verbs.
The decline in the recall of the verb faire on Day 2 was most likely caused by many
factors. Before I administered the Day 2 post-test, I announced to the participants that they
would be taking a second post-test of the verb faire that we had learned the day before. Upon
mentioning the plan, I saw students informally demonstrate that they remembered many of the
hand gestures used in the faire song from the day before. Looking back in many of the posttests, I found that many students also remembered the singular conjugations (the je, tu, il, and
elle forms), but stumbled upon the plural ones (the nous, vous, ils, and elles forms). There is a
more notable spelling pattern in the first half of the verb (fais, fais, fait, fait) than in the second
half of the verb (faisons, faites, font, font). Also, when referring back to the lyrics of the faire
song, the first half of the lyrics was concrete expressions that were easier to demonstrate with
hand gestures. For example, the beginning of the song starts with “je fais la cuisine” which
means “I do the cooking”. For this part of the song, a mixing gesture was used to accompany the
15
concept. Later into the song, however, the concepts were a little more abstract and the gestures,
by consequence, were too. For example, “vous faites des progrès” means “you’re making
progress”; for this part of the song a thumbs up gesture was used to accompany the concept.
This may have played a role in the Day 2 recall of the verb faire as well.
The verbs vouloir and pouvoir experienced less of a decline in recall between Day 1 and
Day 2. This also may have been caused by a couple different factors. For example, the two
verbs are quite similar; they are “twin” verbs. Once you know one of them, the other one is
easier to figure out by letter substitution. For example, the letter “v” in all of the conjugated
forms of the verb vouloir changes to the letter “p” for the conjugated form of the verb pouvoir.
Also, there were at least two participants that commented that the verb song for faire had too
many lyrics. That may have affected the overall recall as well between Day 1 and Day 2.
Pouvoir, on the other hand, was just the verb conjugation within the lyrics of the song.
All in all, it is important to note that both testing days of the verb faire resulted in
significant data. Day 1, as mentioned before, showed the highest recall performance of any of
the three verbs. Although the Day 2 recall score was lower, the overall results of the musicmotion recall test were significantly higher than the visual recall test. This supports the research
questions from the beginning. When the verb vouloir was taught without the aid of music, it was
less memorable. When music was partnered with another teaching medium such as hand
gestures to teach the verb faire, it was much more memorable. Pouvoir, too, was more
memorable because music was used in the presentation. This idea is further supported by the
Medina’s (1990) study of second language vocabulary acquisition. She found that when music
was partnered with picture illustrations of vocabulary, the students had the strongest vocabulary
16
gain in comparison with other non-music scenarios. Her results modeled the same ideas that my
research set to further support.
Another interesting discovery that was made during this research was that the
participants did not know which teaching method was most beneficial to them. On the faire test,
the students were tested for recall of the verb and then were asked an opinion question.
Participants were posed with the following statement and had to choose one method out of the
Out of these choices, the best way for me to learn verbs is:

To see them on the overhead

To hear the teacher’s explanation

To sing

To make hand motions to act out the verb
four:
Figure 1. Student opinions
Out of these options, 55% of the students said that they learned best when seeing a verb on the
overhead. 15% said that they learned a verb best when hearing the teacher’s explanation. 30%
of the students said that they learned a verb best when getting to sing a song with it. None of
students said that they learned best when using hand motions to act out a verb.
A Pearson Correlation test was run with the opinion question data results and the recall
data discussed earlier. The finding was that there was no significant relationship between
student opinion and student recall performance. The students believed that they would do their
best by learning visually, by an overhead projector presentation. The popular opinion was not
reflected in their verb recall performance with any of the verbs used. In fact, as far as the Day 1
data shows, the best recall was found with the verb that was presented with music and hand
motions. Interestingly enough, students did not think that method would help them the best at
all; 0% students reported that as a preferred learning method. On Day 1, the poorest recall
performance among the participants was with the verb vouloir, where students saw the verb
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visually on the overhead and heard the teacher’s explanation behind the verb. Yet, 70%
commented that those methods would be most effective to helping them learn a verb best.
When the students were asked informally if they had ever taken the “multiple
intelligences” or “learning styles” test, only 2 out of the 40 participants were aware that such
tests even existed. In the end, it appears that the students were not aware about their own
learning styles.
Conclusion
This study provides more support for the use of music as a teaching tool in the classroom.
By testing three irregular verbs in three diverse manners, the data collected verified the research
questions. When new information was presented only on the overhead, some students benefited
from learning that way, but not the majority. According to the data, it was much more valuable
to use music to present the information to students. These results further support the studies run
by Medina (1990) and Schunk (1999) to show that music is a strong, influential teaching tool. In
all of our studies, we discovered that music, when partnered with another teaching medium such
as hand gestures or picture illustrations, aids vocabulary acquisition more with a partner than it
would if it were used on its own. The scenarios where music wasn’t used as a teaching method
yielded the weakest vocabulary acquisition and recall results among the participants.
These findings have important implications for both the foreign language classroom as
well as the general classroom. First of all, based on this study, music does improve recall of
newly learned information. For the vouloir, faire, and pouvoir tests, the verb recall was only
tested on a short-term basis. Imagine the recall results if the songs and hand motions were
practiced for a longer time period!
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Teaching by song or by hand motion also helps to keep new information separate from
old information learned in the classroom. This year, the 40 test participants had learned 10
irregular verbs before learning the 3 verbs in this set of testing. One student commented that she
liked the different presentations of verbs because they helped to keep the verbs separated in her
brain, rather than all mixed up together in a tangled mess. I found, too, that when grading their
verb recall post-tests, it was very rare to find a verb conjugation of a previously learned verb
from earlier in the year. The songs and hand motions added a “mental divider” between each
verb for the students, separating each new verb from older verbs in the brain, like files in a file
cabinet.
Another benefit to using music or hand motions to teach vocabulary in the foreign
language classroom is the fact that they help the teacher to meet many of the diverse learning
styles of students. It is important for teachers not to be entirely “visually” biased in their
presenting methods. It does not benefit students to present information only through the
overhead, blackboard or textbook. Some students are auditory learners or tactile, hands-on
learners, for example, and may not adapt to learning only through visual cues. By singing music
in class, an educator can reach all of those learner needs by showing the lyrics on the overhead
(visual), singing the song (auditory), and using gestures to compliment to the lyrics (tactile).
It is important to note that while educators should practice diverse teaching methods, they
also need to be aware that students may not have a grasp on which teaching method works best
for them individually. For example, in the opinion of the students in this study, it was not as
helpful to learn new information by music or hand motions. They reported that their best mode
of learning was through overhead presentation. The results from the verb recall post-tests
indicated the opposite, thus the students were not aware of their own learning styles. It might
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have been helpful for all of them to have taken a “learning styles” test before my instruction all
of the verbs. In Haley’s (2004) study, he explored the implementation of a multiple intelligence
test among many students across the United States. After students had identified their individual
learning strengths, they took more ownership over their learning and felt more empowered in
school. It is undetermined at this time whether individual learning style knowledge would have
affected the overall recall performance in the participants of this study. That would be a
recommended pre-test addition to future studies along this topic area.
All in all, based on the benefits that I have discussed above, it is important for educators
to put music and hand motions on their priority list to use in the classroom. Where should the
research go from here? The Medina (1990) study shows positive results from students learning
foreign language vocabulary with music and pictures combined; therefore, the areas of future
research that I suggest would be to see if the combination of music and hand motions delivers
better vocabulary recall results than the combination of music and pictures.
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Bibliography
De Groot, A. M. B. (2006). Effects of stimulus characteristics and background
music on foreign language vocabulary learning and forgetting. Language Learning, 56:
463-506.
Haley, M. H. (2004). Learner-Centered instruction and the theory of multiple
intelligences with second language learners. Teachers College Record, 106:
180.
Huy Lê, M. (1999). The role of music in second language learning: A
Vietnamese perspective. Australian and New Zealand Association for
Education. http://www.aare.edu.au/99pap/le99034.htm
(Retrieved Feb. 13, 2007)
163-
Research in
Lems, K. (2005). Music works: Music for adult English language learners.
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 107: 13-21.
Medina, S.L. (1990). The effects of music upon second language vocabulary
acquisition. Annual Meeting of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages. http://www.geocities.com/ESLmusic/articles/print/article02.html
(Retrieved Feb. 14, 2007)
Omaggio-Hadley, A. (1993). Teaching for Cultural Understanding. Teaching
Language in Context (pp. 383-411). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
Prichard, A., Schuster, D. H. and Pullen, C. (1980). Adapting suggestopedia to
secondary school German instruction. ADFL Bulletin, 12: 31-34.
http://www.ade.org/adfl/bulletin/v12n2/122031.htm (Retrived Feb. 14, 2007)
Schunk, H.A. (1999). The effect of singing paired with signing on receptive
vocabulary skills of elementary ESL students. The Journal of MusicTherapy,
110-124.
Slevc, R. and Miyake, A. (2006). Individual differences in second-language
proficiency: Does musical ability matter?” Psychological Science, 17: 675-
36:
681.
Appendix A: The vouloir overhead & post-test
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VOULOIR (to want)
Je veux
Nous voulons
Tu veux
Vous voulez
Il/Elle veut
Ils/Elles veulent
Vouloir means "to want". Here’s how it can be used when talking about
doing any activity:
(vouloir + infinitive of a verb)
Je veux aller. – I want to go.
Je veux regarder la télévision. – I want to watch tv.
Vouloir can also be used to talk about objects that are wanted:
(vouloir + object)
Je veux un poulet. – I want a chicken.
Je veux un gâteau. – I want a cake.
_____________________________________________________________
VOULOIR Post-test
Fill in the sentence with the verb VOULOIR below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Il _________________ un gâteau.
Nous _______________ aller à la maison.
Tu _________________ prendre un coca ?
Elles ___________________ un poulet.
Je __________________ comprendre le français.
Vous _________________ du lait ?
Elle __________________ regarder la télévision.
Ils ___________________ des oeufs.
Appendix B: The faire overhead & post-test
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FAIRE (to do/to make)
Je fais
Nous faisons
Tu fais
Vous faites
Il/Elle fait
Ils/Elles font
Faire means "to do" and "to make" in most senses that these verbs are used in
English:
Je fais mes devoirs - I'm doing my homework
Je fais un gâteau - I'm making a cake
Je fais des projets - I'm making plans
Je fais des progrès - I'm making progress
Faire is used in a number of expressions, including some related to:
WEATHER
Il fait froid - It's cold
Il fait chaud – It’s hot
ACTIVITIES THAT YOU DO
Je fais du ski - I ski
Je fais la cuisine – I cook
FAIRE = to do / to make (tune: The Itsy-Bitsy-Spider)
Oh je fais la cuisine et tu fais les devoirs,
Il fait chaud et il fait froid.
Nous faisons des projets,
Vous faites des progrès,
Ils font du ski,
Faire is easy as can be !
FAIRE Post-test
23
Fill in the sentence with the verb FAIRE below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Il _________________ un gâteau.
Nous _______________ du ski.
Tu _________________ des progrès.
Elles ___________________ la cuisine.
Je __________________ des projets.
Vous _________________ les devoirs.
Elle __________________ froide.
Ils ___________________ du vélo.
Circle one below:
Out of these choices, the best way for me to learn verbs is:
 To see them on the overhead
 To hear the teacher’s explanation
 To sing
 To make hand motions to act out the verb
Appendix C: The pouvoir overhead & post-test
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POUVOIR (to be able)
Je peux
Nous pouvons
Tu peux
Vous pouvez
Il/Elle peut
Ils/Elles peuvent
Pouvoir means "to be able to" or “can”. Here’s how it can be used when
talking about doing any activity:
(pouvoir + infinitive of a verb)
Je peux aller. – I am able to go.
I can go.
Je peux regarder la télévision. – I am able to watch tv.
I can watch tv.
POUVOIR = to be able/ can (tune:Blvd. Broken Dreams)
peux
peux
peut
pouvons
pouvez
p-e-u-v-e-n-t
POUVOIR Post-test
25
Fill in the sentence with the verb POUVOIR below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Il _________________ faire un gâteau.
Nous _______________ aller à la maison.
Tu _________________ prendre un coca.
Elles ___________________ acheter un poulet.
Je __________________ comprendre le français.
Vous _________________ acheter du lait.
Elle __________________ regarder la télévision.
Ils ___________________ chercher des oeufs.
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