Rhymed Vocabulary Input and Involuntary Rehearsal: Iranian Pre-school Learners

Abstract

Music and rhyme are indeed inseparable constituents of the human language in general and can undoubtedly play a double role in enhancing the communicative skills of the users of each given language if its innate prosaic and metric features are manipulated properly. Relatedly, when it comes to the issue of Second Language Acquisition a teacher can rely to a great extent on the potential power of music and rhyme since these features can facilitate the learning process through their numerous merits. In addition, it can be claimed, that aspect of learning in SLA which might take the advantage of the musical and rhythmic features of a language to a great extent is vocabulary learning for children as new learners. To find the extent to which such a claim is valid, the present study is to focus on a sample of Iranian Pre-School Children’s EFL program revolving around vocabulary learning based on a three week syllabus designed to include vocabulary material in form of bilingual (Farsi- English) content-based poems. At the end of the six week syllabus through some oral quizzes the level of their proficiency in absorbing the new vocabulary were measured by trying to evaluate their recall or the involuntary vocabulary rehearsal. Taking the outcomes into consideration, finally it was revealed that the children had shown a greater knowledge of the new vocabulary items they were exposed to through poetry than those ones taught by ordinary non-prosaic language.