The effect of bilingual music therapy on the expressive language of Spanish speaking children who are learning English in early childhood classrooms

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of bilingual music therapy on expressive language output in special needs children learning English in early childhood classrooms. Eleven English language learners participated in either an English-only control group or a Bilingual experimental group. In the English-only group, the researcher utilized Western songs, and spoke and sang only in English. In the Bilingual group, the researcher sang traditional Latin American folk songs in Spanish and English, and communicated with the students bilingually. Pretest and posttest data were analyzed on the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey-Revised (WMLS-R) and the school district's Pre-Kindergarten Assessment Chart (PKAC) to determine gains in expressive communication within each group and differences between control and experimental groups. While improvement was noted on the WMLS-R, t tests showed it was not statistically significant. PKAC scores were analyzed graphically. Students' PKAC data revealed improvement in expressive language bilingually, with the Bilingual group experiencing greater improvement.