How can educators incorporate music when teaching vocabulary to ESL students?

Utilizing Makey Makey

Xueyi Luo and Yiqi Xie

Makey Makey was used in a Pre-K online music language class with four and five year old students. The teachers used Makey Makey to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to build student engagement before students learned how to play the song “Little Star” by using the “fruit notes.”

Students learned how to create a music sheet so that they could play a song with a music sheet independently using the name of fruits. By the end of the lesson students were able to use vocabulary related to fruits including banana, grape, orange, kiwi, apple, and lemon.