ABSTRACT

The present study examines children’s songs in two teacher guidebooks to provide a basic resource for future revisions of the new kindergarten curriculum. A total of 49 songs from the Nuri curriculum teacher guidebooks for age 5 years and 84 songs from the elementary integrated-subjects teacher guidebooks for first grade were analyzed for this study. The songs were analyzed in terms of genre, theme and activities area, lyrical style, and musical elements; the analysis is presented as descriptive statistics. The study finds that the genre of most of the songs in the two guidebooks is original (the original songs had the highest frequency in both). Second, there were highly involved “animal, plant, and nature” theme and group activities in the Nuri curriculum guidebooks but “school and I” theme and Enjoyable Life subjects in the elementary integrated-subjects guidebooks. Third, the lyrics style was both statement style and question-and-answer style in the former and statement style in the latter. Last, the musical elements used were mainly 4/4 beat, C major, and one- or two-line forms in both guidebooks. Also, the included songs were mostly octave vocal range and fourth interval, but there was not a high proportion with a traditional melody.

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