UAH Insight

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UAH education major Emily Park researches music, literacy correlation

Over the years, learning your ABCs involved singing a song about them. Today, researchers are using music to improve language and learning skills.

Emily Park of Huntsville enjoys playing the piano. But for her, music is more than enjoyment; it’s also a teaching tool. When Park graduates from UAH and begins teaching next year, she wants to bring her knowledge, a love of learning and music.

Park is a senior with an elementary education major and music minor. For her Honors Program thesis, she’s studying the correlation between music education and literacy development.

Her research has involved articles, music educational journals, books, and interviews with teachers and researchers. She focused primarily on grades K through 6, but expanded it to even include high school SAT scores.

"I started out looking at the correlation between musical activity and child literacy," Park said. "I looked at articles that support both sides, but there are so many supporting connections. Many of her supporting findings came from classroom teachers.

"There is a connection between phonemic awareness development and pitch discrimination. Language has a rhythm. And children learn to identify pitch discriminations in music and in phonemes (sounds in spoken language)."

Park learning from her research that a child drawn more to music than reading may have a reading interest sparked through music and vice versa. "Music motivates learning," said Park, "There is high evidence that there is something going on."

Park has wanted to become a teacher since the age of 5. Her playtime involved being a make-believe teacher to her two younger brothers. "Sometimes they wanted to be the teacher, but I wouldn’t let them."

Park will begin her student teaching in January, and graduate in May 2008. Her teaching preference would be fourth or fifth grade. "I love the level of interaction you can get from that age group. They can think abstractly."