Acquiring Vocabulary Through
Story-Songs
Suzanne
L. Medina, Ph.D.
School of
Education
Graduate Education Department
California
State University, Dominguez Hills
1000 East
Victoria Street
Carson, CA
90747
Fax: (310)
514-0396
E-Mail: info@forefrontpublishers.com
It is common
practice for teachers of first and second
language learners to read stories to children. By
engaging in this practice, teachers not only
model literacy skills, but they cultivate
listening skills and promote vocabulary
acquisition. One particular type of story, the
"story-song" is frequently used by
educators of young children. The story-song is
basically a poem with a story-line woven through
it. Furthermore, because it has been set to music
it can be sung rather than spoken.
Yet, are story-songs
simply novelty items or does the melodic element
make an important instructional contribution? An
empirical investigation of a group of 48 third
grade second language learners measured the
amount of vocabulary acquisition which was
produced when stories were sung, spoken,
illustrated and not illustrated. The statistical
analysis revealed that the illustrated spoken and
sung stories were equally effective means of
supporting language acquisition. However, close
examination of the descriptive data revealed a
definite bias in favor of the illustrated story-song.
That is, second language learners who listened to
the illustrated sung stories acquired an average
of 1.5 words by the end of the treatment, while
those who heard the illustrated spoken rendition
of the story acquired an average of 1.0 words.
During the
following two weeks, the story was not heard by
the learners, yet the gap between both groups
widened. The average vocabulary acquired by the
illustrated story- song group was 1.75 as opposed
to the illustrated spoken story group's 1.08. As
expected, the effects of music were greatest with
the subjects who knew the least amount of
vocabulary. After two weeks, they acquired an
average of 3.33 vocabulary while the spoken story
group averaged 1.5 vocabulary words. Although
this research was conducted on a relatively small
number of subjects, it points to the positive
effects which music may have upon language
acquisition. More specifically, it suggests that
illustrated story-songs may produce greater
vocabulary acquisition than illustrated
traditional spoken stories (Medina, 1993).
Research Into Practice
Teachers of
second language learners can similarly increase
the vocabularies of their learners by following
some simple guidelines.
Step 1- Select a Story-Song
Before you begin, make certain that you have
selected a story-song which will produce maximum
results. First, follow the same principles you
would use when selecting a story for your
learners. Find a story-song with a story-line
which will be of interest to your learners. In
Elley's (1989) investigation, not all stories
resulted in the same amount of language
acquisition. It is not clear at this time what
characterizes such a story, although interest
level certainly might be a critical attribute.
Also, select a song which contains an appropriate
number of unfamiliar words. According to Krashen
(1985), language acquisition occurs when the
learner is exposed to a few new words, what
Krashen refers to as "i + 1."
Acquisition will not take place if learners are
inundated by an inordinate number of unfamiliar
words (i.e., i + 9). Furthermore, the story-song
should expose students more than once to each new
vocabulary word. It is particularly helpful when
the target vocabulary words are critical to the
plot of the story. The contextual environment in
which a new vocabulary word is found should be
rich. That is, learners should be able to easily
infer the meaning of key vocabulary words on the
basis of the context (Elley, 1989).
Stories should also be rich in a necessary
requirement for language acquisition is what
Krashen refers to as "extralinguistic
support." As the term implies,
extralinguistic support refers to non-verbal
means of communicating a word's meaning (e.g.,
pictures, photos, actions). Meaning can also be
conveyed verbally as is the case when a teacher
provides a synonym or varies her intonation. This
is referred by Krashen as "linguistic
support." (See Diagram 1)
Diagram
1
Relationship of Extralinguistic Support and
Linguistic Support to Second Language Acquisition
(Click image
above to see larger image)
In short, when
selecting the appropriate story-song, both forms
of support need to be tended to. Therefore, story-song
books should abound with illustrations which
clearly communicate the significance of new
vocabulary. It is particularly helpful when
illustrations of new vocabulary words appear
numerous times in the story (Elley, 1989).
The music heard on the story-song tape cassettes
should also be appealing to the students. This
will increase the likelihood that learners will
want to hear and sing the song after it has been
learned in class. The melody line should be
simple and uncomplicated. Complex melodies
unnecessarily tax memory, forcing the students to
focus attention on learning the melody rather
than the lyrics. The tempo should also be
moderate. If the song's cadence is too brisk,
your learners will be unable to capture new
vocabulary words (Medina, 1993). Instead,
learners will hear nothing more than musical
"noise."
Step 2-
Preparing for the Story-Song
A few preparatory measures should be taken prior
to playing the story-song for your learners.
Familiarizing learners with the story content
prior to hearing the story-song will increase the
comprehensibility of the story and ultimately the
amount of vocabulary acquired. Begin by stating
the topic of the story-song. Have students share
their experiences on the topic in order to tap
their prior knowledge. Next, briefly explain what
the song is about without summarizing the entire
story-line. Finally, read the story while
pointing to pictures. Further support your
reading with other types of comprehensible input.
Elley (1989) found that using three types of
"comprehensible input" produced the
greatest amount of vocabulary acquisition: (1)
the contextual clues, (2) illustrations, (3)
other types of comprehensible inputs such as
pointing, synonyms, explanations (in the first or
second language) while the story was being read.
In order to maximize vocabulary acquisition in
your learners you would be wise to similarly
provide multiple forms of linguistic and
extralinguistic support while reading the story.
Step 3-
Introduce the Music
It is often helpful to play the instrumental
version of the story-song at this point if it is
available. If your tape recording does not
contain a separate instrumental version, then
play the sung version several days before
introducing the story-song. Students can listen
to this music while engaging in other activities
(e.g., working on an art project or while
engaging in a physical education activity). In
either case, students will have an opportunity to
become familiar with the music prior to hearing
the story-song . It is a particularly important
step if the genre of music is totally unfamiliar
to the learners. Danlan (1975) found that
learners responded differently depending upon
whether the music they were exposed to was
familiar or unfamiliar. Introducing the melody
first makes pedagogical sense for still another
reason. When humans are simultaneously exposed to
several new stimuli, they experience what is
referred to as "secondary task overloading."
This cognitive overstimulation can prevent
students from learning the skills which they are
attempting to acquire. Therefore, in order to
avoid this effect, it is advisable to first
expose students to the melody of the story-song
prior to introducing the story-song itself.
Step 4-
Present the Story-Song
Play the recording of the story-song while
pointing to the story's illustrations. Repeat
this process two to three times each day for
several days. Students may wish to take turns
pointing to pictures in the story-book as it is
heard. Play the story-song intermittently over
the next month or two. Students will most likely
ask you to play the story-song again and again.
Step 5-
Continue to Support Language Acquisition
To add variety and further support the language
acquisition process, provide different forms of
comprehensible input each time the story-song is
heard. One way to do this is to have students
create artistic works that will be used later on
during subsequent readings of the story. For
example, students can create illustrations of key
vocabulary or scenes in the story. Later on, when
students hear the story-song played, you can
point to the students' illustrations rather than
those in the storybook. Similarly, students can
create puppets, costumes or masks which can be
used to playact the story-story as it is being
heard.
The effects of music upon human learning are not
entirely understood. Yet, there is reason to
believe music can be used by educators to promote
second language acquisition. While additional
research is needed on this topic, there is reason
to believe that story-songs may result in greater
vocabulary acquisition than more traditional
spoken stories. Teachers can begin immediately to
witness the effects of music on their second
language learners. By following a few simple
guidelines they can use story-songs to boost the
acquisition of vocabulary in their learners.
References
Danlan , D. (1975)
The Effect of Four Types of Music on Spontaneous
Writings of High School Students. Research in
the Teaching of English 10: 116-126.
Elley, W. (1989). Vocabulary acquisition from
listening to stories. Reading Research
Quarterly, 24(2), 174-187.
Krashen, S. (1985). The Input Hypothesis:
Issues and Implications. New York: Longman
Group Limited.
Medina, S. (1993). The effect of music on second
language vocabulary acquisition. FEES News (National
Network for Early Language Learning, 6 (3),
1-8.
Copyright
© 2000 Suzanne L. Medina. All rights reserved.
No part of these activities may be copied or
reproduced in any form or by any means,
photocopying or otherwise, without written
permission. Exception: Teachers may duplicate
these materials as long as the copyright symbol
and statement appear on all copies made. Fax: (310)
514-0396. E-Mail: info@forefrontpublishers.com.
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