The Early Reading and Music partnership

Abstract

There is broad agreement, in relation to the high gravitas of ‘the big six’ in teaching early reading, the pillars of effective reading instruction (Moats, 1999; NRP, 2000; Konza, 2014). Notwithstanding, there exists a body of evidence that indicates the arts, in particular music, enhance and motivate other learning, helping young children to become readers. This suggests the explicit teaching of early reading and music together can yield powerful learning for students, the conflation of which improves and accelerates both reading and music mastery. This research investigates whether participation in music instruction has beneficial effects on young children’s learning and acquisition of early reading skills; specifically, if a link exists between early reading and music acquisition. There are three parts to this research: a) literature review; b) email surveys/ semi structured interviews; c) classroom observations. Results suggest that music serves as a natural bridge to literacy, strengthening auditory processing, and scaffolding learning phonemes and graphemes. Music aids memory because the beat, melody and harmony carry semantic content, clarifying meaning. Children learn with less effort and remember information more easily when rhyme and rhythm are present. Nursery rhymes, poems and action songs engage children through playing with language, suggesting that a transdisciplinary pedagogical approach is a potential solution to challenges currently faced in education in relation to disengagement from traditional schooling and declining reading levels. An early reading and music partnership is an approach to learning that may benefit young learners along the road to becoming readers.