Accelerate English and Spanish Learning Through the Magic
of Signing Songs: All Children Deserve the Gift of Many Languages

Signing Songs Enhances Language Acquisition
One of the most accelerated language learning strategies we have experienced is signing songs. Our bilingual colleague, Marissa Zamora-Pearson, first demonstrated this powerful teaching strategy to us 20 years ago. We have been incorporating American Sign Language (ASL) into our teacher training ever since. Creating meaning through body language, facial expressions, and hand gestures boosts the brain's connection for learning and enhances language comprehension. When children combine singing and signing, they experience "Total Emotional Body Response" to language and the levels of learning soar — especially for the hardest-to-reach children. This kinesthetic engagement builds enthusiasm for learning and personalizes meaning while keeping the children actively focused and engaged in joyful language learning.

Sign Language Bridges Comprehension Between English and Spanish
Once children can effortlessly sing and sign a favorite song in their first language, teachers provide a shared reading experience using a Big Book or language chart to demonstrate how the spoken word connects to print. Then when teachers sing the same lyrics and melody pattern in the second language, children hold the meaning of the words in sign as they develop the sounds of English or Spanish. Our bilingual and ESL colleagues have used this strategy successfully with the predictable language patterns of the following well-loved children’s songs and rhymes: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear (Osito, Osito); Goodnight Irene (Buenas Noches Irene); The Opposite Song (La Canción de Opuestos); The More We Get Together (Entre Más Nos Reunimos); I Love the Mountains (Amo Los Montes); I Can Read Colors (Se Leer Colores); I Have A Cat (Yo Tengo Un Gato). These songs are highly rhythmic, repetitive, and engaging. The concepts are easily comprehended through sign language.

Teachers who are not native Spanish speakers need to provide children with authentic Spanish language models when using songs to bridge Spanish and English. The CD, Music is Magic for Teaching Spanish, with noted Hispanic linguist and recording artist Hector Pichardo, was developed with feedback from bilingual and ESL teachers for this purpose. It helps all students develop the syntax and beauty of these songs in Spanish.

Experienced bilingual and ESL teachers are enthusiastic about the powerful language gains seen when they engage students in singing and signing songs. Both English and Spanish speaking children benefit from increased vocabulary, reading fluency, comprehension, and enthusiasm for learning. This is a promising strategy that deserves more extensive research.

"Signing songs is a natural and joyful way for my second-language learners to make the bridge to English." Marissa Zamora-Pearson. (She is currently teaching in a Spanish immersion program at the award winning Government Hill Elementary School, Anchorage, Alaska.)