The mozart effect in the foreign language classroom a study on the effect of music in learning vocabulary in a foreign language

Music being an important component of Brain Based Learning and its effects on vocabulary learning in a foreign language was explored in this study. The study was conducted at Hacettepe University, School of Foreign Languages and aimed at determining the effect of music on learning and retaining new vocabulary in a foreign language. A secondary aim was to find whether musical intelligence had any effect on learning vocabulary with a music-based syllabus. A syllabus based on brain based learning principles that comprises music as its main component for vocabulary instruction was devised and implemented for 6 weeks. The experiment group got music based vocabulary instruction while the control group followed the same syllabus without the music component. Data have been collected by means of pre and post tests; student written feedback and an interview with random selected students in the experiment group to collect qualitative data. It has been found at the end of the study that the experiment group outperformed the control group with the number of words they learned. The experiment group also retained more words as music acted as a means to code the new vocabulary into the long term memory.

Brain Based Learning ,

Vocabulary ,

Mozart Effect ,

Music ,