CHAPTER 5: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
5.6 Theme four: the impact of the use of musical rhymes
The above responses of the participants explained the different musical rhymes and songs they employed in teaching ECCE children language and communication skills and other relevant skills. They use three major types of songs namely, action songs, online songs, and speech development songs. The participants chose songs based on the theme or content to be taught. There are songs to teach the children about different animals in the water and on the land, courtesy, colours, weather, seasons, days of the week, numbers, and so on. While these songs convey content, they also enhance language development. Those educators who were musically literate composed simple songs to teach their children, while others relied on downloading children’s songs from the Internet.
The participants stated that they incorporated songs into all the learning activities.
However, two of them confessed that there were topics that they still taught using traditional teaching methods, but that there were very few of these. They mentioned songs incorporated with dramatic play; songs to support children to develop speech, language and communication skills; movement and matching songs for physical development; songs to teach children tolerance, to help them to develop socially; and songs for cognitive development. The respondents also mentioned nonsensical songs, purely for the purpose of calming hyperactive, disruptive, and emotionally unstable children. One of the participants stated that she used a series of isiZulu songs to teach the children, because isiZulu speakers constituted the majority of her class.
5.6 THEME FOUR: THE IMPACT OF THE USE OF MUSICAL RHYMES
Definitely music aids the children’s language development. Whenever I use a song to teach them, even after the lesson they continue to sing the song repeatedly and through that they are able to develop how to talk and say the right thing. Especially the use of isiZulu songs to teach them how to communicate are very effective. I told you initially that we didn’t use music like this in my former school. I can tell that the use of music in this school has a significant impact on the children’s speech development. The children are very sharp in responding to questions. I believe that the use of rhymes aids children’s speech development faster than the traditional ways of teaching. (Interview with PC on July
22, 2019)
The other participants below disclosed that they did not have specific content for children aged three and four as they were too young for such content. However, they used music to teach them respect and courtesy. According to Participant D, there was a great development in their communication, especially at age five:
We do not have specific content on communication skills because we are an English-speaking school, but we use music for virtually all the activities and children learn quicker when you teach them with music, including speech development. As you can see, we are a multiracial school, so we use music to teach the children about different cultures and about tolerance for other races, thereby teaching them courtesy, and teaching them how to talk in a polite way. And we witness great development in them, especially at age five.
They could make simple polite sentences and could respond to questions from the teachers. Some of the children that were restless and did not pay attention when they were new could now communicate well and respond to questions. (Interview with PD on July 18, 2019)
Similarly, Participant A agreed that music improves children’s language skills acquisition, especially their speech development, as a result of the repetition and rhythm:
From my observation of the children, great improvement was noticed in their general performance and especially their ability to listen and comprehend
what we are teaching. Also, the use of call-and-response songs where the children are made to repeat the songs several times help them a lot in communication. The use of rhymes, with a clapping rhythm to teach them listening skills, facilitates their language skills acquisition, because as we ask them to repeat the rhymes, they are learning the speech vocabularies imbedded into those rhymes. The vocabularies are blocks for speech development. (Interview with PA, July 12, 2019)
Participant E concurred with Participant A that singing songs repeatedly improves speech development. She emphasised the importance of explaining the words and meanings of the songs to the children before singing them, in order to enhances the children’s language development through full engagement and understanding:
Music definitely aids the holistic development of children’s language and communication skills. In all the songs I sang for the children, I will first explain the words that may be difficult for the children, ensure that they understand the words and what the songs stand for. As the children repeatedly sing the songs, they could easily convert that to speaking, thereby their ability to communicate is enhanced. Besides, music has a strong effect on the cognitive development of the child and a child with high cognitive development can intelligently express themselves and can easily learn other skills. When I started with these children some of them were not coping because the teacher that was with them before me did not use music to teach them, but because I am musically inclined you can see the improvement in the way they respond to questions. (Interview with PE on July 15, 2019) The responses of the participants revealed that music has a very positive impact on the development of the total child. They mentioned that the repetitive nature of musical rhymes supported the children’s development of speech and listening skills. The songs used were not just any songs, but were songs with various skills incorporated into them for the children to learn. The songs were chosen to purposely teach the children specific skills. Even though the educators unanimously stated that there is no specific language and communication skills content for children aged three and four because of their age,
they all agreed that songs are very effective tools for helping children to develop language and communication skills quickly.
5.7 THEME FIVE: BARRIERS TO ECCE EDUCATORS’ USE OF