ALIA FARHANA BT AB AZIZ (TESL 2) ELEMENTS AND BENEFITS OF NURSERY RHYMES/CHILDREN SONGS IN ESL CLASSROOM.

According to Cambridge Dictionary Online (2013) , nursery rhymes is defined as a short and usually very old poem or song for young children. These rhymes or children songs have been introduced to young children since thousand years ago and are a part of many cultures. Nursery rhymes and children songs are not merely songs that are enjoyable to children, but the elements that contained in these catchy rhymes also give benefits to children in multiple of ways. The benefits of nursery rhymes and children songs include, develop linguistic intelligence, improve aesthetic development, enchance social skills, inculcate moral values, and the utmost the important is, they are the source for edutainment purpose for children. First and foremost, nursery rhymes and children songs help children to improve linguistic intelligence. This is due to the repetitive structures element that contained in the nursery rhymes. The repetition of phrases or words really help children in widening vocabularies and remembering words. Young children often respond well to the rhyme and repetition of nursery rhymes such as Polly Put the Kettle On, Hickory Dickory Dock , and others. They are proned to remember the words easier when the chorus is repeated several times. Next, the use of sight words in the nursery rhymes and children songs also help children in developing linguistic development. As we know, the most frequently used and repeated words in the English language are known as sight words. Sight words offer important clues about the meaning of a sentence (Brummitt-Yale, 2012). This means that with sight words that contained in the songs, children are able to understand the meaning of the songs easily which is also important for their language development. Second, nursery rhymes and children songs also help in improving aesthetic development. According to Mayesky (2011), aesthetic development refers appreciation and feeling of wonder for things relating to beauty. In this context, nursery rhymes and children songs can develop appreciation and hidden talents of children in arts, such as dancing, singing, drawing, role-playing or even writing. Perhaps by using the elements of body movements and gestures during singing nursery rhymes, can develop the potential of children in performing dance while extended activities after singing nursery songs such as drawing characters, creating simple lyrics and acting can stimulate creativity and imagination of the

children. Besides, nursery rhymes and children songs also contained the elements of simple melody and catchy rhyme which can nurture a love of sounds and rhythms in children. Songs and music play are the good form of self-expression (Raising Children Network, 2014) . By listening to catchy tunes, children will be able to express themselves by imitating and singing them loudly. Lastly, nursery rhyme comes with interesting and colourful illustration is good for childrens aesthetic development. Numerous collections of nursery rhymes feature charming illustrations full of descriptive detail which explore and expand the rhyme's theme in a comforting and entertaining way (Wikibooks , 2011). Chidren will immerse to their own world of imagination while trying to connect the attractive illustration with the songs that they heard. This early exposure can help to develop aesthetic sensitivies of young children. Next, another benefit of nursery rhymes and children songs is enhancing social skills between the children. Chen (2009) suggests that many of nursery rhymes are based on cooperative play and require social interaction between children. For example, while singing, they have to clap their hands together and if a few of them did not follow the tempo, the melody is not well be heard. There are also parts where children have to move in circle and hold friends hands together. At the same time, this can strengthening the bond between children and teachers as well as encouraging them to interact well with their classmates. On the other hand, if parents take initiative to introduce the nursery rhyme earlier when the children are still toddlers, it can actually create a strong bond between parents and children. It is a way to be close, particularly for new parents, who don't know what their role is yet; they can use the rhyme as a prop that enables play (Sinker, 2012). The interaction while parents act out or recite a nursery rhyme together will prepare children for more social interactions later on when they start school. Children will remember these rhymes and can be a social tool as they interacts with other children in school. Besides, there is hidden benefit of nursery rhymes and children songs which is still not being realized by many. They can inculcate good moral values. This is closely related with the elements of nursery rhymes and children songs which contain appropriate language for children and encourage children to do good deeds. For example, Honesty is true, Brush your teeth, Say please and Thank you and a lots more collection of good manners song specially created for children. At the same time, teacher can teach pupils moral values in an entertaining and enjoyable way which is stress-free for children. As we know, children often imitate what see and hear everyday without the ability to filter which one is bad, and which

one is good. It is important for teachers and parents to obey another elements of children song and nursery rhymes which is age appropriate and free from any sexual, politics and racism content. As what being said by Killpatrick (1993) , music can play a positive role in moral development by creating sensual attractions to goodness, or it can play a destructive role by setting children on a temperamental path that leads away from virtue. Thus, we as parents and teachers have to be alert and choosy enough to choose songs that is appropriate for children. Songs that are appropriate with childrens age usually are more considerate about the sensitive issues so that the children are not influenced in practising bad values in their lives. Last but not least, nursery rhymes and children songs serve as an edutainment source for children. It cannot be denied that children can learn in fast pace by using music and something that catch their attention. With various of nursery rhymes and children songs in market today, children can learn to count, spell, remember days of the week as well as remember their parts of body. For example, the song 1,2 buckle my shoes , 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught the fish alive can be use teach numbers. While the ABC song, Phonic songs can teach children to spell ABC and their sounds. Besides, as children move around and use body movements to enjoy music and entertain themselves, they can learn to remember parts of body using Head,Shoulders, Knees and Toes song. All these songs benefit pupils not just for entertainment, but also activate the cognitive process in their brains. How this happened? This begins as "rote memory" (short term) but does evolve to conscious thought and long-term memory as children mature and songs that have meaning are sung repeatedly by individuals (Carlton, 2014). To conclude, nursery rhymes and children songs can make many valuable connections to our children's language capabilities, aesthetical development, social interaction, good morality and emerging academic success. As brain research begins to support the importance of learning through music, we must continue to find useful ways to make the gifts music provides essential in our daily routine. While nursery rhymes and children songs possesses awesome meaning and great value in and of themselves, children will never be able to realize this unless we begin to share these gifts every day. Music's gifts abound around us. Let us use them now to make significant differences in ourselves and with all our children.