TRIGGER VOCABULARY LEARNING VIA HIP-HOP/LITE FEET MUSIC

This session demonstrates a warm-up class activity (online/face-to-face) that can promote vocabulary learning and retention, utilizing hip-hop music (LITE FEET, a faster-paced hip-hop music/style) as a means to engage students in learning. Vocabulary is a crucial component of second language acquisition; however, teachers often struggle to form an instructional emphasis on word learning (Berne & Blachowicz 2008). To facilitate such a challenge as well as students’ learning capacities, using hip-hop can serve as a greater motivation to the learners at all levels. Hip-hop originated in the South Bronx, New York has grown into a cultural movement on a world-wide scale, and its strength lies in the diversity of its concepts (Schloss 2009). The elements of hip-hop can be incorporated into teaching practices in any content area (Adjapong et al. 2015). Recent research shows that a complex brain network (visual, aural, kinetic, etc.) stores and retrieves information more efficiently than a small network (e.g. visual only) (Macedonia 2015). Further, learning is triggered by novelty and emotional engagement (cf. Immordino-Yang 2011), which accordingly indicates that information combined with emotion becomes a long-term memory. Therefore, cultivating states of curiosity and playfulness is essential to promote learning. With hip-hop music beats, (1) students use multiple components while emotionally and enjoyably engaging in an activity, and (2) hip-hop music creates a space where self-expression will be appreciated, which contributes to students’ self-confidence (Seidel 2011). To help produce long-term, durable retention of knowledge, follow-up ‘active recall’ exercises (cf. Klemm 2017) are recommended for better student outcome.