ABC Music and Me and language development

Ms. Erika attended a conference on teaching English as a second language this summer and had these thoughts about language and ABC Music and Me


Communication is a vital and essential part of each of our lives! Since I have been overseas 8 times, I have experienced firsthand the joys and trials of communicating to those of other languages and cultures. I first discovered my love for working with Internationals at 17 years when I went on my first mission trip to Taiwan. Since that time, I have been overseas 6 more times and at one time, I even anticipated living long-term in the Middle East. I did not end up living in the Middle East but I have had the opportunity to work with Internationals stateside! While living in Auburn the past 2 years, I loved working within an ESL ministry in my former church with those learning English as a second language.

The training I recently received was designed to equip us to teach Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced levels in English language proficiency. We learned how to conduct student placement interviews, basic language learning skills, planning our ESL lesson, how to introduce new vocabulary, teaching pronunciation and communication practice activities. There are four basic skills that are necessary to learn a language - listening, speaking, reading and writing. When we learned our first language, listening was the first and foremost foundational language skill. We then slowly learned how to create and mimic sounds that we heard. It is important to hear the language's individual sounds, rhythm, stress and intonation patterns so that we learned how to speak the language correctly. So it is when learning a second language! It is vital to develop and practice listening skills for any language learning.

Now that I have been teaching with Kindermusik, it is so rewarding to see that one of the major focuses of the ABC Music and Me is listening! According to Kindermusik's ABC Music and Me research "Learning to listen is a prerequisite to listening to learn, " stresses research Mayesky (1986). Listening is the first language mode that children acquire, and it provides a foundation for all aspects of language and reading development. Listening is a very large part of school learning, with students spending an estimated 50 to 75 percent of classroom time listening to the teacher,to other students, or to media" (Smith, 1992). ABC Music and Me is actually a research driven and proven method for increasing language and vocabulary. During classtime, the children are exposed to actively listening to music as well as non-musical sounds and language. We develop routines to help focus the children's attention on listening and following directions, reading stories out loud and even imitation of sounds and words, developing new vocabulary. The best part is that the child is having fun the entire time while learning!

Our ABC classes are all taught in English but we love to diversify and sometimes incorporate songs and instruments from other cultures. Occasionally we have Spanish speaking children and it is fun to see their eyes light up when we start singing a Spanish song. Kindermusik also offers Spanish home materials to help with reinforce the child's first language at home and help Spanish speaking parents connect with their child at home. No matter your first language, we hope you come join us for ABC Music and Me to Listen, Learn and Love music! We believe that music's affect on cognition and skill development is undeniable!

Erika Stewart