produced positive results in the area of vocabulary recall. For example, studies with primary students by Medina
(1990) investigated effectiveness of vocabulary acquisition with the use of music and story illustrations, and a
study by Schunk (1999) examined the effect of signing when coupled with singing on receptive vocabulary
skills.
Based on research using background music to aid verbal phrase recall, Fonseca Mora (2000) asserts that songs
have a positive outcome on the students’ language acquisition and that lexical patterns stored in long-term
musical memory can be retrieved with ease at a later date for mental rehearsal, memorisation or during oral
interaction. Wilcox (1995) studied the pronunciation of target vocabulary in adult learners through use of music
cues to aid prosodic memory, which is confirmed by research into vocabulary recall attached to visual or
auditory cues (Brown & Perry, 1991), and research into music-dependent memory using background musical
cues with specific target vocabulary (Balch, Bowman & Mohler, 1992). Brutten, Angelis and Perkins (1985)
explored this research further by testing oral proficiency using musical ability and memory in English language
learners and suggested that innate musical abilities and verbal memory may have accounted for score variances.