Using songs to enhance L2

vocabulary acquisition in preschool

children
Yvette Coyle and Remei Gómez Gracia

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This article looks at the effects of a teaching sequence of song-based activities
on the L2 vocabulary acquisition of a group of five-year-old Spanish child
EFL learners. Twenty-five preschool children received three 30-minute lessons
organized around the presentation and practice of a well-known children’s
song. Vocabulary picture tests were administered to each child immediately
before and after the teaching sessions, followed by a delayed post-test five
weeks later. The findings of this small piece of research seem to provide some
evidence to show that teaching new language through a song can lead to
the development of children’s receptive knowledge of vocabulary. However,
exposure to the song input was insufficient to develop productive knowledge
in the majority of the children. Some implications for learning English in
preschool are discussed.

Introduction Teaching English as a foreign language has been part of the statutory
preschool curriculum in Spain since 2004, when English was first
introduced to children at the age of five. The perceived success of
introducing EFL to preschool children by parents, teachers, and
educational authorities alike, meant that within a short time English
was further extended to three and four year olds, and is currently taught
extensively throughout the country. However, despite the general
enthusiasm for teaching English to young learners, very little research
has been carried out on the potential benefits of such an early start to
language learning, or on appropriate methodological proposals for the
classroom (however, see Llinares García 2007 for one such study). In this
article, therefore, we address the issue of vocabulary acquisition in young
learners in an attempt to identify to what extent preschool children can
acquire L2 vocabulary, receptively and productively, when language input
is contextualized and practised through song-based activities.

Vocabulary Learning vocabulary is an essential part of the language learning

acquisition in process. All children, whether monolingual, bilingual, or L2 learners,
young second seem to acquire new words in a three-step procedure: isolating word
language learners forms from the input, creating potential meanings, and mapping
meanings on to forms (Rohde and Tiefenthal 2000). Evidence from

276 ELT Journal Volume 68/3  July 2014; doi:10.1093/elt/ccu015

© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
 L1 acquisition has shown that young children do not need extensive
exposure to new words in order to assign meaning to them (Clark
1993). Even hearing a new word only once seems to be sufficient for
children to learn it receptively. This process is known as ‘fast mapping’.
Further exposure, however, is required for the word to become
integrated into children’s productive vocabulary knowledge.
In the case of young L2 learners, some early studies explored this
phenomenon in L2 vocabulary acquisition. Ellis and Heimbach (1997)
looked at the role of meaning negotiation (the attempts of learners to
overcome comprehension difficulties by asking their partners to clarify,
repeat, or confirm their utterances) in the acquisition of new L2 word
meanings in young five- and six-year-old Japanese ESL learners. They

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found that limited exposure to new words during individual and group
listening tasks was not sufficient to develop the children’s productive
knowledge of the word categories of ‘bugs’ and ‘birds’, and that the
children’s comprehension of the new words during the task did not
guarantee that they had been acquired (i.e. retained and retrieved
after one week). Rohde and Tiefenthal (op.cit.), however, found that
German preschool children, aged between three and six, were capable
of learning novel (fictitious) L2 words after only 24 hours. They point
out that L2 learners may also engage in ‘partial mapping’ when they
partially learn the meaning of a new word (for example using a label
which is too general: ‘man’ for all ‘adults’) or only partly memorize the
phonetic form of the word (for example /sot/ for ‘sock’). This leads them
to suggest that fast-mapping as an L2 word-learning strategy may be
less effective than in L1 acquisition since (1) new words are not always
salient in speech and can be more difficult for children to identify in the
L2, and (2) children pay less attention to a L2 which is used solely by
their teachers in the preschool context. Given the significantly reduced
exposure to the L2 that children have in a classroom situation, and the
difficulties they may experience in recognizing and understanding
new L2 vocabulary, it would seem appropriate to look for resources
which can engage children’s attention and highlight the target lexis or
language patterns to be learnt. In this sense, exploring the use of songs
would seem a worthwhile area to pursue.

Using songs in the Songs are widely held to be a valuable teaching resource in EFL
EFL classroom classrooms (Murphey 1992; Fonseca-Mora 2000). The sounds, rhythm,
and intonation in songs are believed to be important for developing
children’s pronunciation skills, while the melody and repetitive structure
facilitate the retention of key vocabulary and language patterns (Forster
2006). Action songs for younger learners are frequently accompanied
by physical movement or gestures, which reinforce the meaning and
facilitate the retention of new language. As Fonseca-Mora (ibid.: 150)
points out, ‘Singing is an easy way of memorizing something’ because
‘music seems to leave a particularly deep trace in our memories’. Songs
can also make a strong emotional impact on the learner, enhance
motivation, and engage children’s attention musically. This would seem
especially true for children with strengths in the areas of musical or
kinesthetic intelligence (Gardner 1983).

Using songs to enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition 277

 Despite these acknowledged advantages, very little research has
assessed the actual impact of songs on children’s language learning.
Some studies carried out with older learners have looked at songs in
relation to lexis, phonological memory, or general language skills.
Li and Brand (2009), for example, found that Chinese ESL students
taught exclusively through music and song made greater improvement
in vocabulary acquisition and language use than their peers who
had been taught without music. Schwarz (2012) also reported that
by listening to English pop songs outside school, Austrian teenagers
were actively enhancing their acquisition of vocabulary. Schön, Boyer,
Moreno, Besson, Peretz, and Kolinsky (2008) found that adult French
speakers could discriminate nonsense words more easily when they
were presented as a sequence of sung rather than spoken language,

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leading them to suggest that the combination of music and language
might be important for segmenting words in the early stages of
language learning. In a study with 11–13-year-old EFL learners, Toscano-
Fuentes (2010) identified a link between the children’s listening and
reading ability in the foreign language and their musical intelligence,
highlighting the importance of the individual learner differences in L2
learning.
In the search for effective resources to develop L2 learning in
classrooms, these studies provide some indication that songs have the
potential to be useful for teachers of young learners. Our intention is
to explore this potential in relation to children’s comprehension and
production of L2 vocabulary. To do so, we formulated the following
research question: Does exposure to new words within the context
of song activities lead to the acquisition of receptive and productive
vocabulary in young EFL learners?

The study The participants in the study were 25 children between the ages of five
Participants and six years old, from a semi-private school in Spain. The children had
been learning English for two years prior to the study, from the age of
three, in two 50-minute lessons per week. In their classes, the teacher
used a preschool EFL textbook that emphasized the development of
comprehension skills. In general terms, the children listened to audio-
recorded stories and songs, identified key vocabulary, and completed
worksheets in their activity books, requiring non-verbal responses such
as colouring, matching, or drawing. Less emphasis was placed on the
development of oral skills.

Teaching Three teaching sessions were carried out by one of the researchers, who
methodology also taught an after-school English club in the same school. Care was
taken to ensure that none of the children in the class had participated in
this after-school activity. The song lessons were held in three half-hour
sessions on consecutive days, partially occupying the time scheduled
for the children’s 50-minute lessons with their regular teacher, which
had now increased to three per week. The well-known children’s song
selected for the teaching sessions was ‘The wheels on the bus’, which
has a repetitive structure and lends itself easily to the use of actions
and onomatopoeias to reinforce meaning (see the Appendix). Five

278 Yvette Coyle and Remei Gómez Gracia

 words (‘wheels’, ‘wipers’, ‘horn’, ‘door’, and ‘bell’) were selected as the
target lexis for the intervention, since they were thought to be unknown
to the children. The classes were taught in English and consisted of
a sequence of activities in which the children were encouraged to
understand the song through performing actions and identifying target
vocabulary. The children were free to join in singing the song but were
not forced to do so.
The methodological sequence was as follows. In session one, the teacher
focused the children’s attention on the topic, explaining the parts of
the bus and the associated actions using visuals. They next listened
to the teacher sing the song twice, emphasizing the target vocabulary
while pointing at pictograms displayed on the Interactive White Board

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(IWB). The pupils then copied the teacher’s gestures while listening to
a karaoke version of the song. In session two, the teacher presented the
five target items on the IWB. Although the children were not specifically
required to repeat the vocabulary, many of them did so spontaneously.
This was followed by a game in which individual children pointed at the
image that corresponded to a target word. The class finished with the
children performing the actions along with the song. Finally, in the third
session, the children took turns at identifying the target images on the
IWB. This activity was performed until the key vocabulary was repeated
twice. The lesson finished with the children listening to or singing the
song again while performing the actions. Over the three sessions, the
children heard the song a total of seven times.

Data collection The data collection was carried out over a period of seven weeks. The
researcher visited the classroom only when teaching or carrying out the
vocabulary tests. Before the teaching sessions, the children were tested
to determine whether they could actively produce and/or identify the
target vocabulary in the chosen song. All the tests were carried out with
each child individually in a quiet room. The vocabulary tests themselves
consisted of a colourful cartoon picture of a bus in which images
of the five target words were clearly represented. In the productive
vocabulary test, each child was asked to name the words in English,
and in the subsequent receptive test, they were required to point to the
words stated by the researcher. This procedure was then repeated in an
attempt to overcome the likelihood of random guessing. Immediately
following the teaching sessions, both tests were repeated in the same
order, and five weeks later (including a two-week holiday period), the
children were tested again to determine whether any gains made in
vocabulary knowledge had remained over time. Throughout this period
the class teacher did not practise the song again. The sessions and
tests were video recorded and individual interviews were then held in
the children’s L1 with four of the learners, those with the highest and
lowest scores, in order to gather information on their perceptions of the
learning experience.

Data analysis The results of the vocabulary picture tests were scored by tallying the
number of words each child was able to produce orally or to identify
receptively across the three time periods. Descriptive statistics were then

Using songs to enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition 279

 applied to the data. A Friedman test was used to check for significant
differences in the test scores over time, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests
were applied to compare the mean ranks of the children’s receptive
and productive vocabulary scores (1) before and immediately after
the teaching sessions and (2) immediately after the teaching and five
weeks later. In order to give us an idea of how individual children had
performed, the scores for the each of the 25 learners were tallied to
obtain the means and standard deviations for all three tests.

Results As reflected in Figure 1, in general terms, there were statistically

significant changes in the children’s acquisition of receptive
vocabulary (x2F (2, 25) = 21.219 p = .000) from the beginning of the
study and up to five weeks later. This is suggested by a significance

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level of .000. A comparison of the mean ranks for the three sets of
scores on the picture tests indicated that there was a steady increase
in the receptive vocabulary scores over time. However, this was not
true for the children’s productive vocabulary scores, which were
not significant (.165), indicating that the song-based sessions were
insufficient to develop the children’s ability to produce the target
words.
On comparing the children’s vocabulary scores between the three
tests, we found significant improvement in the children’s receptive
vocabulary development from Pre-test to Post-test 1 (Z = −2.961, p = .03),
and from Post-test 1 to Post-test 2 (Z = −2.383, p = .17). However, the
scores for productive vocabulary did not improve significantly (Z = −1.561,
p = .119).
A breakdown of the children’s individual scores can be seen in Table 1
(over page). As regards comprehension, half of the children (n = 13)
were able to identify one or two of the words in the immediate post-test,
and two children (L17 and L18) demonstrated receptive knowledge of all
five words. However, the pre-test scores show that these two children
(L17 and L18) had been familiar with the word ‘bell’ prior to the
teaching sessions, and that another (L19) knew ‘bell’ and ‘doors’.

figure1
Changes in receptive and
productive vocabulary
scores over time

280 Yvette Coyle and Remei Gómez Gracia

Learner Receptive Productive
(N = 25) Pre-test Post-test 1 Post-test 2 Pre-test Post-test 1 Post-test 2
L1 0 1 2 0 0 0
L2 0 2 2 0 0 0
L3 0 1 3 0 0 0
L4 0 0 0 0 0 0
L5 0 1 1 0 0 0
L6 0 2 0 0 0 0
L7 0 1 0 0 0 0
L8 0 1 1 0 0 0
L9 0 1 0 0 0 0
L10 0 0 1 0 0 0
L11 0 2 3 0 1 1

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L12 0 0 0 0 0 0
L13 0 0 1 0 0 0
L14 0 0 0 0 0 0
L15 0 0 0 0 0 0
L16 0 0 2 0 0 0
L17 1 5 5 0 2 2
L18 1 5 5 0 5 5
L19 2 1 2 1 1 1
L20 0 0 5 0 0 0
L21 0 0 2 1 0 0
L22 0 0 2 0 0 0
L23 0 2 4 0 0 0
L24 0 0 0 0 0 0
L25 0 0 2 0 0 0
Total 4 25 43 2 9 9
Mean 0.16 1 1.72 0.8 0.36 0.36
SD 0.47 1.41 1.67 0.27 1.07 1.07

1
ta b l e
Children’s individual
vocabulary scores
Even so, both L17 and L18 improved their knowledge by learning
four more new words, although L19 could only recall one. The words
most frequently recalled from the song input were ‘wipers’ and ‘bell’,
which were identified by a third of the children. More children (n =
12) showed greater receptive vocabulary knowledge after five weeks
than immediately after the song sessions. In the delayed post-test, five
children increased the total number of words they could identify, and
a further seven children, who had not recalled a single word in the
immediate post-test, were able to identify at least one word. One child
(L20), who had not identified any of the words in the immediate post-
test, now recognized all five target words. Three children recognized
fewer words.
Regarding the productive vocabulary tests, only four of the 25 children
were able to produce any of the words in the immediate post-test. L18
was able to produce all five words while the remaining three children
produced either one or two words. All four children retained the ability
to produce these words over time. The target words that the children
were able to produce included ‘bell’, ‘doors’, and ‘wheels’.

Using songs to enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition 281

Discussion In general terms, most of the young learners in this study acquired
some receptive vocabulary knowledge from the song input and
follow-up activities. After five weeks, 68 per cent of the children had
learnt between one and five words. Almost half the children in the class
(44 per cent) were able to recall at least one or two of the new words
and a further six children (24 per cent) had acquired between three
and five words. Eight learners (32 per cent) failed to learn any of the
words. Given the small scale of this study, no claims can be made about
the children’s ability for ‘fast-mapping’. However, the results provide
some tentative support for the idea that young learners appear to be
able to acquire L2 vocabulary after only limited exposure to L2 input. In
addition, since the vocabulary was contextualized in a song, it could be
that the combination of language, music, and actions made particular

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words more salient than others (Schön et al. op.cit.), thus enabling
many of the children to identify and retain some of the L2 vocabulary.
Surprisingly, many children were able to recall more words one month
after the lessons had taken place than immediately afterwards, a finding
that would seem inconsistent with logical expectations of memory loss
over time. However, recent developmental studies on L1 vocabulary
acquisition have provided some evidence of children’s ability to recall
a greater number of novel and real words over a longer time period
and without further exposure or training. Specifically, the children
recalled more words one week after initial exposure than when they
were tested 24 hours later (Brown, Weighall, Henderson, and Gaskell
2012; Henderson, Weighall, and Gaskell 2013). L1 researchers have
argued that this is because children’s consolidation of new words
occurs ‘off-line’, and that prolonged periods of time are needed for new
vocabulary to gradually become integrated into existing knowledge.
It remains to be seen whether this might also be the case with the
acquisition of L2 vocabulary, but some indication can be found in
our study that the children appeared to need more time to let the new
words somehow ‘sink in’. An alternative explanation could be that
the children’s increased familiarity with the picture-test procedure
may have influenced their improved performance. Having previously
participated in a pre-test and immediate post-test, the children may
have been better acquainted both with the test mechanism and with the
researcher by the time they came to take the delayed post-test. This may
have lowered anxiety levels and helped the children perform better on
the final picture task.
As regards productive vocabulary knowledge, the limited exposure
to the song was insufficient to develop the majority of the children’s
ability to produce the new words orally. Only four learners (16 per
cent) managed to express between one and five words on both post-
tests. Several explanations for this can be suggested. Considering
Krashen’s (1985) notion of a ‘silent period’, which holds that learners
may refrain from producing the L2 for a period of time in which they
are absorbing new L2 input, it is possible that these preschool children,
who were at an initial stage in the language learning process, were
still unable to actively produce the L2. It is also likely that 90 minutes
of input-based activities that required non-verbal responses from the

282 Yvette Coyle and Remei Gómez Gracia

 children were insufficient for them to incorporate the words into their
productive vocabulary. In addition, it should be recalled that in their
regular lessons, the children were not accustomed to producing the L2
orally. It would seem, then, that additional and sustained oral practice
of the target vocabulary might be required before children can actively
produce new L2 words (Ellis and Heimbach op.cit.).
A further difficulty in this respect concerned the teacher’s use of actions
and onomatopoeias while presenting the song. Although these are
generally held to reinforce new word meanings, some caution should
be taken not to over-emphasize gestures and amusing sounds (for
example ‘swish swish’ for wipers or ‘beep beep’ for horn) at the expense
of the target words when teaching L2 songs. Ellis and Heimbach

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suggested (op.cit.: 256) that ‘Children may find it easier to learn words
that label objects which they have themselves elected to attend to’.
From the classroom observations, it became apparent that the children
had focused more on repeating the onomatopoeias and copying the
teacher’s gestures than on the target words themselves. Thus, the ludic
part of the song may have interfered in the learning of the key words
and compromised the outcome of the productive test results. In this
respect, it would seem important for teachers to be wary of distracting
the children’s attention away from the target input. While use of
gestures and onomatopoeias is indeed an effective teaching strategy,
teachers also need to ensure that the new vocabulary is learnt at the
same time.
Another issue to emerge from this study was the wide range of
variation found among individual children. Overall, eight out of
25 children were incapable of either recalling or expressing any of
the five target words. Analysis of the video recordings revealed that
these low-achievers coincided in certain behaviours. They were more
easily distracted by other children during lessons, and during the test
procedures they appeared awkward and shy. One of these learners
(L12), who was attending a speech therapist for difficulties with his
L1, rarely participated in class and seemed to suffer from a lack of
confidence. This raises the question as to whether children who are
less proficient in their L1 might experience increased difficulty in
learning new words in the L2 and thus require additional support
from the teacher. In contrast, the children who showed the greatest
improvements in receptive and productive knowledge (L17 and L18)
participated actively in classroom activities and seemed to enjoy
the music and movement. The interview data also confirmed the
high degree of motivation of L18 when she declared that she ‘loved
everything English’, whereas L24, whose performance was poor,
admitted to ‘feeling sleepy’ during some of the song sessions. In
this sense, it is important for teachers to be aware that the strengths
and talent of individual learners may also play a determining role
in word learning at initial stages of the language learning process,
with children who are more active and musically oriented, possibly
benefitting more when L2 input is contextualized in a song format
(Gardener op.cit.; Toscano-Fuentes op.cit.).

Using songs to enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition 283

Conclusions The results of this small study provide some evidence that songs can
be a valuable resource for teaching English to preschool learners.
Songs can help to motivate children and focus their attention on
key words, thus providing them with the ‘building blocks’ needed
for communication. However, limited performances of a song may
not be sufficient for language development if no further work is
done to consolidate the linguistic content so that it remains in the
children’s memories. It is our suggestion that younger learners
should be encouraged to actively reproduce L2 songs to improve
their retention of L2 vocabulary and to speed up the process of
producing new words orally. In this sense, teachers might profitably
‘narrate’ songs for the children, modelling the content and melody
using visual and gestural support, in the same way as they would

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tell a story, checking the children’s comprehension through
questioning and prompting them to repeat key words and language
patterns. Children could increase their oral participation in the song
by completing unfinished sentences, singing the repetitive lines,
‘retelling’ the song both with and without the music, or by joining
in with karaoke versions. With older children, teachers could write
their own song lyrics and match them up with well-known melodies
to practise specific language content. Once familiar with the song,
the children could ‘dictate’ the song lyrics for the teacher to write
on the board and then read the written text aloud for pronunciation
practice or, in small groups, children could invent their own verses
and ‘teach’ them to their peers. These activities, which require
some ability to read and interact in the L2, may be more suitable for
children of a slightly older age group than the preschool learners
referred to in this study. In this way, by using songs as a source of
L2 input and oral practice, teachers might help children to develop
stronger representations of L2 content and to retain and produce
their knowledge for future use.

Final version received January 2014

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for young learners’. Encuentro 16: 63–8.
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childhood: effects of semantic training on
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Experimental Child Psychology 116/3: 572–92.
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284 Yvette Coyle and Remei Gómez Gracia

Llinares García, A. 2007. ‘Young learners’
functional use of the L2 in a low-immersion EFL
context’. ELT Journal 61/1: 39–45.
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Peretz, and R. Kolinsky. 2008. ‘Songs as an aid for
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incidental EFL vocabulary acquisition from pop
y la inteligencia musical del alumnado’.
Unpublished PhD thesis, University of
Huelva, Spain.
The authors
Yvette Coyle is Associate Professor at the
University of Murcia in Spain. Her research
interests include young learners, classroom
interaction, and foreign language writing. She
has published mainly in the area of teaching
methodology.
Email: ycoyle@um.es

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songs’. Unpublished Masters thesis, University of
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la relación existente entre el nivel de adquisición
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Remei Gómez trained as a music teacher at the
University of Almería in Spain. She currently
teaches music and English at a primary school
in Granada. Her professional interests include
bilingual education and teaching music to
children.
Email: remeigg@gmail.com

Appendix The wheels on the bus go round and round

Round and round, round and round
The wheels on the bus go round and round
All through the town.

The wipers on the bus go ‘Swish, swish, swish,

Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish’
The wipers on the bus go ‘Swish, swish, swish’
All through the town.

The horn on the bus goes ‘Beep, beep, beep

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep’
The horn on the bus goes ‘Beep, beep, beep’
All through the town.

The door on the bus goes open and shut

Open and shut, open and shut
The door on the bus goes open and shut
All through the town.

The bell on the bus goes ‘Ding, ding, ding

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding’
The bell on the bus goes ‘Ding, ding, ding’
All through the town.

Using songs to enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition 285