Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H
Introduction
The interaction between music and the learning process has been a longstanding given and at the same time a powerful tool in the hands of educators for many generations. Even without the well structured contribution of academic research in this premise through a linguistic or educational scope, its validity is supported from experiential stories the world over. However, important research has been conducted in this proposition and strongly substantiated descriptions have provided a well-structured model of this claim. The fundamental principles were first described by pioneers in the filed of music education.
These are now being expanded in order to broaden the base upon which musical frameworks can be applied in educational activities with well-defined procedures and outcomes. Despite the fact that there now exists a wealth of relevant research looking at this topic from as varied perspectives as developmental psychology, linguistics and sociology as well as in many languages, the significance of further research cannot be overlooked. Since further research expands the reach of this powerful tool and provides acceptable grounds for its implementation, it becomes a significant aspect of education in
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H research. In this light, the proposal of this plan is to demonstrate that the incorporation of musical activities into the learning of a second language at the level of elementary school provides tangible benefits to the acquisition of language skills. The purpose of this study is to establish a niche for the further enlargement of the influence that music can exert on language acquisition so that the benefits of musical incorporation can be directed towards as many facets of education as possible. A clear demonstration that musical activities can facilitate
L2 learning in one particular language will surely provide the stimulus for similar research to be conducted in other L2 languages and hopefully these efforts are accompanied by changes in educational policies of those languages.
Therefore, this study is mainly addressing educators and policy makers, in order to convey a convincing message for the case of music and L2 learning. That however, does not exclude the possibility that other parties might show interest in being exposed to the conclusion drawn from this research; parents and ethnic communities in particular are two of the most likely unconventional audiences that this research could be addressing.
Literature Review
The research activities into the field of education have produced a remarkable depth of knowledge for educators and researchers alike. The interests of the researchers as well as the needs of the educational field at that particular point, dictated the directions that research took. Even though research in education is still in its first steps compared to other conventional fields of research which date back to millennia, it has already provided useful insights
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H and tangible benefits that are currently put into practice in today’s schools and educational organizations. Its continued support from the academic community and the relevant policies resulted in its specification in various areas, particularly with regards to language.
One of these areas is the one of second language acquisition, where the research conducted so far has provided a solid framework for further inquiry of the field of L2 education. Some exemplary works of research and academic inquiry include the work of Chaudron (Chaudron, 1988) that provides a critical overview of classroom-centered research and evaluates research that looks into the way student and teacher behaviors affect language learning. He also provides an insightful discussion into research methods by analyzing them through the contributions of traditional disciplines that have inevitably influenced the studies of L2 classrooms, and critically approaches the topic to provide a better understanding of L2 classroom research, touching upon issues such as the measuring and design of classroom practice and the theoretical definitions that need to be clearly set and outlined.
Another example is the work of Spada that shed light into the intricate and complex relationships that need to be established by the researcher with the teachers and the school community in general so that the proposed research construct will be implemented in accordance with its proposed framework.
Furthermore, Spada also provides a telling delineation of some of the obstacles that L2 research might face as well as powerful considerations for fully grasping the potential of L2 research in different context as well as from technical, ethical
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H and epistemological considerations (Spada, 2005). Furthering the analysis of second language classroom research, Ellis in his book Language Teaching
Research and Language Pedagogy devotes a comprehensive chapter to the various methods that can be employed in L2 classrooms stemming from traditional distinctions of formal and practitioner research and branching them to such principles as action research and exploratory practice, whilst also presenting them within the traditional contexts of analytical- nomological and exploratory-interpretive research (Ellis 2012) .Through all the descriptions, Ellis contributes important insights for all the different categories of second language classroom research that are pivotal for its appropriate implementation and ultimate success an instrument for the better understanding and implementation of second language acquisition.
As a result of the strong foundations created by academic inquiries just like the aforementioned, research became more focused and concentrated on specific subjects. Musical and education pioneers initiated the consideration of music as an instrument for learning like the work of Zoltán Kodály who stressed the importance of folk songs, a prosodic feature that is universal in all cultures.
In music education, folk songs can serve as the vehicle for the immersion of both aural and oral proficiency. Characteristically Kodály had said, “ The most perfect relationship between language and music is to be found in the folk song” (
Choksy, 1977). The initial indications of the utility of music in education were studies that established the connection between music and memory. Examples include the work of White that explored long-term auditory memory in combination with familiar tunes (Baddeley, 1976). Staum, conducted research
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H into intonation patterns of sentences and found that musical accompaniment provided a much better progress in correct intonation in a short-period of being exposed to the sentences (Staum, 1987). Moreover, Kellaris conducted research to validate the so-called “earworm” phenomenon that describes the connection between the attainment of long-term memory and singing of simple well-known melodies such as folk ditties (Kellaris, 2003). This provided a valuable basis for establishing a musical pedagogy that seeks to promote pronunciation, a topic that was explored by Spicher and Sweeney, who devised a framework for the utilization of folk music as a vehicle for the appropriate incorporation of pronunciation (Spicher, et al. 2007).
The linguistic and pedagogical aspects of the benefits of incorporating music in the teaching process have led to the advancement of certain techniques and recommendations in classrooms, which have also been supported by research evidence from the fields of psychology and neuroscience. For example, teachers reported that songs can quickly set a positive classroom tone (Jensen E.
2000). Similarly, evidence from neuroscience shows that learning a list of words presented through a song changes the way the brain processes verbal input
(Thaut et al. 2008). There is also a range of research reports that studied musical activities from a wide scope but specifically in children’s learning capabilities and cognitive capacities. A prolonged period of focused attention, daily practice, reading musical notation, learning of various musical structures
(intervals, scales, chords, chord progressions), and development of fine-motor skills improves the aforementioned traits. This combination of experiences has a positive impact on cognition during childhood years when brain development is
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H highly plastic and sensitive to environmental influence. This conclusion emerged from the studies that concluded that musical aptitude is associated with general intelligence (Lynn, et al. 1989), as well as literacy (Anvari, et al. 2002), but also verbal memory (Ho, Cheung & Chan, 2003), reading ability and selective attention (Hurwitz, et al. 1975), as well as mathematics achievement (Cheek &
Smith , 1999). An overall improvement in the intelligence quote was also shown through a rigorous and well controlled study that isolated musical activities and distinguished them from other non- musical extracurricular activities, with piano lessons and the Kodaly singing method providing a small but significant improvement in all the subsets of the intelligence quota (Schellenberg , 2004,).
Finally, the combination between the knowledge that inquiries into second language research have provided and the well-analyzed benefits of musical activities, has lately given rise to an interest in applying musical methodologies in L2 classrooms. There certainly exists a niche upon useful and constructive research can be conducted; each individual second language could be used in a research context and any potential benefits can help in promoting certain methodologies in improving the teaching process. Within this context, this proposal constitutes an expansion of the knowledge base in how music helps in the learning of a second language and will provide the basis for promoting musical activities in the teaching of Greek as an L2.
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Research Design
Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H
Type and setting of Study
This study proposes a quasi-experimental approach, where the assessment of whether the musical activities were of benefit to the students will be undertaken through a comparison between a control and a test classroom.
The means that this research will employ in order to assess the attainment of vocabulary, will be quantitative in nature. That is to say that even though there are some aspects of this proposal that fall into the category of qualitative description, the main focus of it will be the quantifiable data that can be generated through standardized texts and similar analytical tools.
The setting of the study will be quasi-experimental, as I will have the chance to introduce these proposals in actual classrooms of second language schools.
Because of my significant interaction with the teaching of Greek as an L2 in various organizations of the Greek population of Toronto, the setting of this research will be Greek as an L2 in elementary level-equivalent schools, and more particularly in the early classes that can receive the musical frameworks of Orff
Schulwerk that will be the main system of musical delivery. Therefore, the participants will be students of Grades SK, 1 and 2 and their teachers that will participate and introduce the novel musical elements in the teaching activities.
The procedure of Study
More specifically, the procedure of the study will be organized in a packet of class activities that will run through the entire school year, essentially incorporated in the class’ curriculum. The activities will be of a musical nature
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H but will combine elements of the curriculum and deliver them through the Orrf
Schulwerk method as well as musical activities from other principles such as the
Kodaly method. These constructs will be introduced in one classroom of one or more Grades, whilst the other classroom will proceed through the year following the curriculum without the musical intervention. The musical activities will work in tandem with conventional teaching techniques and will become and integral part of the daily teaching process for the duration of the school year. Because of that, the various musical activities will be viewed as a whole and not individually when assessing the presence or absence of their benefits. Close to the end of the school year, assessment of the extent to which the music-based theory proved beneficial to students’ learning will be assessed through tests that will be conducted in both classrooms that will generate useful data in the measurement of the variable being tested.
The two different educational approaches will be compared in terms of their efficiency in improving the vocabulary set of students and any clear advantages that can be quantified will be established through statistical analysis. It is also important to stress out the facets of research that Spada has highlighted in her report, namely the preparatory steps that need to be taken before conducting the research, for example the approach and proposition to schools and teachers, the overall agreement of the people involved, such as parents and teachers or the appropriate preparation and exposure of all the musical activities to the teacher that will be conducting them I his/her classroom. All these and similar steps might not seem important in the face of the drawing conclusions from data, however they are crucially necessary for the appropriate conduct of all the
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Class 1
Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H proposed procedures, which in turn would lead to soundly generated data
(Spada, 2005)
As aforementioned, the activities will take place in a classroom setting, where the researcher will assist the teacher, in delivering the various music education constructs. These constructs will happen in the presence of the researcher, in order to ensure that they are conducted appropriately. In addition, audio (or video) recording will also be generated in both classes, in order to provide a strong backing for the validity of any potential findings. Furthermore, in order to extend the reach of the potential benefits that this research could provide, there will be an attempt to distribute the musical activities in each one of different educational levels mentioned above, rather than just one or two. This will of course depend on the temporal, physical and organizational constraints that will be presented during the course of the preparatory part of the research.
However, it will be a target for this research proposal. Going into a bit more detail, the musical elements will have been designed on the basis of an already known curriculum and as such will be designed to deal with topics (such as grammar, intonation, vocabulary etc) that is part of the curriculum. These activities will therefore have to be produced in collaboration with the teachers of each Grade and must be approved and discussed with them. The following table provides an example of the activities that would take place in the course of one or two months in the classroom where the musical activities will take place.
Theme
-Getting acquainted
Goal, Skills, Instruments
1.Good Morning…
2. Teacher’s Name
3. Children’s’ Names
-Body percussion
-Drum
Musical Material
-Good Morning rhyme/song
-Children think of a motion
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Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
Class 7
Class 8
Class 9
Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H
-Getting acquainted
-rules in our team
-Getting acquainted
-Day time
-Night time
-Puppet
1.Teacher’s/Children’s name
2. talk, raise hand, sit, walk
1. Singing game for the names
2. Movements and actions (when we wake up)
3. Movements and actions (before we sleep)
-Puppet
-Body percussion
-Maracas
-Soh mi melody
- Instruments for different sounds
-Chimes
Together with each of their name’s syllables
-Putting all names-motions together
Good Morning rhyme/song
-Children break their names in syllables with the motion game
-Rules with important verbs
-Circle game with song for names
-Rhyme and actions/ day
-Rhyme and actions/night
Review:
Getting acquainted
Rules
Day/Night time
-Play all the musical games songs and rhymes
Things in my class
Animals
Animals
Animals/music rhythm
Weather
1. Children’s Teacher’s name
2. Things in the class phonic letter O
1.Good Morning song
2. Phonic Aa letter
3. Imitations of sounds and movements of animals
-Ball
-Breakdown the words with drum
-Puppet
-Xylophone
1. Name game
2. Phonic letter Aa
3. Phonic letter Ee
1. Name game
2. Syllables with a t+a=ta / p+a=pa
1. The sun, the rain
2. Introducing the
-Ball
-(Review) xylophone large locomotive
-Imitation
-Drum (sound of drum)
-Guiro
-Sound of rain using
-Singing Game
-Guessing game with rhyme
-TO/O …….
-Good Morning song/p
-Animal (horse) “a-lo-go” (fox) “ale-pou”
-Hop and make the sound of horse, then switch to fox with a change on beat
-Name song game/circle game
-Clapping the syllables of the word
-Animal dance
-Song with actions/τ
-Drum sound (ta-ta-ta)
-Duck sound (pa-pa-pa)
-Rhymes with sun and rain
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H vocabulary instruments
-Non-pitched intruments
Resources for the Study
With regards to the resources needed there is an obvious need for certain musical instruments that will be suitable for the age group that will be involved in the activities. Most public schools have numerous such instruments in their inventories and an approval of their use by the school for the purposes of the research would be welcomed. Special instruments and resources, such as Orff
Schulwerk, music for children Volumes 1&2, would greatly improve the appeal of the musical activities and also be in line with the theoretical background of music education provided by the Kodaly method. Similar music-related equipment such as CD players, stereos, and microphones would also be needed and can either be provided by the schools or rented. The generation of data will follow image-based tests that will be utilized in order to generate scores for each individual student in their ability to effectively use the vocabulary that was instructed during the school year. An example of this research tool is also included in the Appendix. In addition, the analysis of the data generated has to be facilitated by technology and a certain amount of it will be incorporated into the documenting, analysis and presentation of research findings.
Data
The demands of this research proposal, both in terms of processes as well as in terms of data gathering and generation of results is such, that the research will have to be undertaken by a few people. The aim is to receive help from peers that would like to participate, with the two classroom teachers being the two most
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H important participators, but also with peers that might be willing to contribute in the marking of the quantitative tests and the transcriptions.
Data analysis
As far as the data analysis process is concerned it is imperative that the establishment of any real difference between the two educational settings that will be probed through this research has to be based on sound analysis of the data generated. In terms of quantitative data, this task will be accomplished though the use of various statistical tests that can be applied to the raw data to generate some useful conclusion with regards to differences or similarities between the samples. In the case of other potential quantitative data, transcription of audio recordings from the brief periods at the beginning and end of the school period will be used, based on the principles of Lazaraton (as cited in
McKay, 2006).
). There will also be a qualitative component that will further characterize any potential difference with vocabulary use in oral discourse undertaken in the beginning and end of the school year for a certain amount of time and compared between the two classrooms based on the Hancock study, (as cited in McKay, 2006).
Ethical constraints
The ethical repercussions of the proposed research also need to be taken into account and dealt with. The participation of students in such an activity comes to mind first; there cannot be a forceful stance towards their opinion about whether they want to do whatever is being proposed or not. Similarly, the opinion of the parents and their consent also needs to be taken into account. A combined response to those two issues can be a consensual agreement between
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H student/parent and the researcher (facilitated by the adults in this agreement) that will clarify that nothing will be imposed on the student. This creates an additional constraint on the study, especially if the willingness of some students cannot be swayed by the powers of persuasion. The ethical issue of confidentiality will also have to be addressed, by ensuring that all parties interested will remain anonymous.
In order to ensure the reliability of the study, a “marker-blinded” marking scheme will be established for the correction of the tests, in order to remove any potential bias during the marking scheme. In addition, the undertaking of the different tests will provide a well-supported claim for the overall educational benefits that might or might not be produced by the musical activities. In terms of supporting the validity of the study, the involvement of the class’ main teacher in monitoring the process will ensure that the proposed activities are effectively conducted. Furthermore, audio recordings of classroom session can also provide evidence for the validity of the study and, where possible, some video recordings would be even better in providing validity and they could also be used for further analysis of potential benefits from a developmental psychology perspective.
Timeline
The timeframe of this study will be on a year- long basis, as aforementioned. This is based on the fact that such a long and frequent exposure to the proposed musical constructs strongly reinforces the validity of the findings, whether they indicate a clear advantage in using these musical activities or not. Moreover, it is also important to note that the exposure of the students in these constructs will be frequent and also viewed as natural to them. In other
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Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H words, students will view these activities as part of the normal teaching activity from the beginning of the school year. Throughout most of the year, focus will be on the proper implementation and recording of the activities, and close to the end it will shift towards the test procedures, which will be designed in a way that will be inviting and enjoyable for the children. The program should be implemented, following a descriptive/ observational phase because it is important to know about life in the classes before we can begin to manipulate instructional variables in experimental studies. Therefore, it is beneficial for the researcher to spend a few months watching, listening, and documenting the instructional behavior of the Greek Language instructors in interaction with learners in their classrooms.(Spada, 2005).
Conclusion
The need for the further expansion of the tenet that music assists the learning process into different educational contexts is made self-evident, not only because of the depth of knowledge that exists for this belief in the English language, but also because it has been shown that music works in a more fundamental way when facilitating learning. One of the contexts this can be viewed under, is the one of second language education, where research characterized the filed very well based on numerous works like the ones mentioned above. The usefulness of such research is associated with the people that are involved in education, directly or indirectly. Those people also make up the audience of this research, as it can prove to be informative and useful when taking decision or forming education policies. Teachers, educational policy makers (school trustees, public education committee members), parents and the academia would and should be interested in hearing about the results of this research. It expands their
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CTL 3799H knowledge about educational practice and it assists mostly in deciding what is best for the language education of children. The broadened knowledge of this audience will make ground for an appropriate policy shaping process that will address and incorporate the findings of this research in L2 education and also potentially create the demand for a wider research scope.
REFERENCES
Anvari, T Woodside & Levy, (2002).Relations among musical skills, phonological processing and reading ability in preschool children. Journal of Experimental
Child Psychology, 83, 111-130
Baddeley (1976) , The Psychology of Memory, New York Books, 1976
Cheek J.M. & Smith L.R., (1999). Music training and mathematics achievement.
Adolescence, 34, 759-761
Choksy L.(1999). The Kodaly Method 1.Comprehensive music education (3 rd
ed).
New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Chaudron G (1988): Second Language Classrooms: Research on Teaching and
Learning, Cambridge University Press
Ellis R. (2012) Language Teaching Research and Language Pedagogy, (1 st ed)
JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hetland, L. (2000a). Learning to make music enhances spatial reasoning. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 34 (3/4), 179-238
Ho, Cheung & Chan,(2003). Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: Cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children.
Neuropsychology, 17, 439-450
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Hurwitz, Wolff, Bortnick & Kokas, (1975). Nonmusical effects of the Kodaly music curriculum in primary grade children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 8,
167-174
Jensen E. (2000). Music with the brain in mind: Enhance learning with music. San
Diego, California: Corwin Press
Kellaris, James J. (2003). Dissecting Earworms: Further Evidence on the Song-
Stuck-in-Your-Head Phenomenon. Proceedings of the Society for Consumer
Psychology Winter 2003 Conference, New Orleans: LA, American Psychological
Society, 220-222
Lynn, Wilson & Gault, 1989, Simple musical tests as measures of Spearman’s g.
Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 25-28
McKay S.L (2006). Researching second language classrooms.
Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates Publisher s .New Jersey: Mahwah.
Schellenberg E.G.(2004), Music Lesson enhance IQ, 2, Psychological Science,
15(8), 511-514
Spada N(2005): Conditions and Challenges in Developing School-Based SLA
Research Programs, The Modern Language Journal, 89, 2005
Spicher L. & Sweeney F.,( 2007) Folk Music in the L2 classroom: Development of native-like pronunciation through prosodic engagement strategies. Connections,
1:35-48
Staum, Myra J. (1987).Music as an Intonational Cue for Bilingual Language
Acquisition. In Clifford K. Madsen and Carol A. Prickett (Eds.). Applications of
Research in Music Behavior. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Thaut M.H., Peterson D.A., Sen K.M. & McIntosh G.C(2008). Musical structure facilitates verbal learning in multiple sclerosis. Music Perception, 25(4): 325-330
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APPENDIX
Sofia-Maria Smyrnioudi
CTL 3799H
Sample of image-based test used for the assessment of children’s attainment of vocabulary. Students will be shown the images and will be asked to mark the image the shows the word that has been provided to them orally.
Τηλεόραση
Βιβλίο
Ποδήλατο
Αμάξι
Κούπα
Σκύλος
Μπάλα
Σπίτι
Ταινία
Σαλάτα
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