Channels, Spring 2017

Page 40 Long • Promoting Public Interest In the collection Music and Child Development , C. Ray Graham studied the effect of music and musical styles on children who were learning English as a second language. He observed that at the foundation of music learning “there is a continuum of involvement ranging from the totally rote learning of material, such as when kindergarteners or first graders learn ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ and perform it while standing at attention during circle time, to the learning of songs and using them for manipulating the behavior of others, as exemplified in the performance of the song ‘Hokey Pokey.’” 12 He noticed that when students simply learned the music by rote, they lost much of the meaning behind the songs. However, not all value is completely lost by teaching music in that manner for “while the material may have some effect on the children’s development of such lower level speech phenomena as rhythm, syllable timing, and articulation of certain segmental features of the language, it is unlikely that any of the syntactic or morphological features of the language will be assimilated.” 13 While some teachers simply taught music by rote, others worked to connect the foreign language terms with concrete ideas the students understood in their native language, doing so by using pictures, acting out ideas, and asking comprehensive questions of the students. Graham sought to discover the source of the children’s greater language comprehension by noting that “the key to…more in-depth processing of…linguistic material in [music] is the same as the key to language acquisition in general: comprehension of the text by the learner and interaction in which the learner has the opportunity to test his or her ‘hypotheses’ about the language.” 14 Essentially, Graham’s observations led him to the conclusion that although any type of music learning can aid in growing a student’s language literacy, the acquisition of language skills is greatly improved when students can interact and learn along with the music. Graham cautions music educators that “an attractive melody contributes greatly to the memorability of the text of a song, but at the same time it makes it possible to perform the text in a holistic way without integrating the text into the productive linguistic system of the learner… [therefore] we must be careful to make the lyrics comprehensible and to provide plenty of opportunities for meaningful interaction using the text.” 15 Connecting to the Past and the Culture Not only does music aid in children’s ability to master language, it also gives them a better grasp on history as songs place them in the shoes of those who have walked the earth before them. Nick Page gives many examples of how music and history complement each other, but he notes that when trying to sing songs from ancient times, “it would be impossible to recreate exactly what they sang [for] the music of [many] cultures was 12 C. Ray Graham, “Music and the Learning of Language in Early Childhood,” in Music and Child Development, ed. J. Craig Peery, Irene Weiss Perry, and Thomas W. Draper (New York: Springer- Verlag, 1987), 180. 13 Ibid, 181. 14 Ibid, 182. 15 Ibid.