Teaching Reading - Singing and Songwriting Support Early Literacy Instruction

RUNNING HEAD : Early Literacy Education

A Critique of Smith 's Singing and Songwriting Support

Early Literacy Instruction

Name

Subject

A Critique of Smith 's "Singing and Songwriting Support Early Literacy Instruction

Introduction

There has been a popular phrase that purports that music is a universal language . Even in the past , the relationship between music and language has been addressed by musicians , philosophers , and scholars (Bernstein , 1976 . The musicologist Curt Sachs (1943 ) proposed that music began with singing . Comparisons between music and language are prompted by the strong similarities

between the two . Both have an inherent structure and evolve over a temporal continuum , both have a meaning for the listener , and are innate expressions of human capacities . In music and in language there is a phonetic , a syntactic and a semantic level

When children go to school , their experiences extend and enrich language learning . While some children come to school with an extensive ability to communicate , others need help in developing a rich repertoire of shared meanings . The subjects in school are embedded in the development of many verbal communication skills . When mastered , the children can easily learn concepts through songs as they become an aid to thinking

In this case , we can deem that music and language are both modes of communication , yet they have different goals . Generally speaking , while the primary aim of language is to communicate thought , one of the main goals of music is to heighten emotions and express them aesthetically Music is born out of the need to express ourselves and to communicate aesthetically through the abstractness and the characteristics of sound (Aiello Sloboda , 1994 ,

. 42 . As young children enjoy listening and talking in natural settings , music can be a useful tool in the learning process of children . The lyrics of familiar songs and nursery rhymes give children the opportunity to repeat familiar words and phrases in a joyful way

The magnanimous impact of music to literacy has been supported by a study by Smith (May 2000 . In the article entitled Singing and Songwriting Support Early Literacy Instruction , Smith provided examples of singing and songwriting activities that can support early literacy instruction in the areas of letter names and sounds , phonemic awareness , print conventions , background knowledge , vocabulary decoding , and writing . Smith recommended that these methods can aid readers to adapt and expand upon his ideas to create their own singing and songwriting literacy activities

Summary of Smith 's Article

Smith (2000 ) obtained previous studies behind the advocacy of using the arts in education . He mentioned that Dean and Gross (1992 , Eisner (1992 ) and Hanna (1992 ) all agreed that art , music , dance , and drama activities can be used effectively in a variety of academic , social , and personal benefits for students . Smith suggested that meta-analyses of arts education research studies inferred that music activities in particular are strongly associated with nonmusical curricular outcomes . In fact , many studies have proven that music activities can augment students ' academic performance (Miller Coen , 1994 , social skills (Surace , 1992 , and content learning...