ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to investigate kindergarten children`s pitch-matching accuracy when singing with ``la`` versus singing with the text based on vocal modeling. The test was provided as a type of echo activity and the children followed the recorded music sample. Singing is the most frequent activity in the kindergarten music curriculum. However the majority of kindergarten teachers teach songs in limited ways. In order to introduce a new song teachers usually sing with ``la`` or ``loo`` first to help children accurately match the pitch. This study questions which would lead children to recognize and reproduce more accurately: singing with ``la`` or singing the melody. The participants were 192 children in public kindergartens in Seoul South Korea. The participants were 4 and 5 years old. Three raters assessed children`s singing according to the revised Singing Voice Development Measure rating scale. The correlation coefficient for the three raters ranged from r=.81 to r=.97. To analyze the differences between the two types of singing a paired t-test was conducted. The results indicated that children can sing with the text more accurately than singing with ``la``. Mean differences of 4-year-old-children are slightly larger than mean differences of 5year-old-children. The results provided the pedagogical implication for teaching a song to young children. Teachers may need to provide more varied and more appropriate approach to teach a song.

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