The Effect of Background Music on Vocabulary Recall and Retention of Children Learning English as A Foreign Language

The present research was done in order to examine whether addition of background music in the classroom would have any effect on Iranian children’ vocabulary recall and retention. The participants were 34 elementary level learners from two classes studying in an institute in Iran. They were female students ranged in age from 7 to 11. They were randomly divided into two groups of experimental and control. Each group consisted of 17 learners. Their first language was Persian. First, a vocabulary test consisting of 30 multiple choice items was administered to both groups as pretest. Then as treatment, the experimental group studied their lessons while the background music was being played, while the control group studied their lessons in the absence of background music. After 20 sessions, the participants in the two groups were given the same vocabulary test as posttest. The data were analyzed through SPSS. The findings revealed that the experimental group significantly improved the vocabulary recall and retention better than the control group. Moreover, the background music had a positive effect on young learners’ motivation in language learning and their paying attention to the teacher.