Towards a Music-based Framework for Content and Language
Integrated Learning in Preschool
Luca A. Ludovico
1
and Claudia Zambelli
2
1
Laboratorio di Informatica Musicale, Dipartimento di Informatica, Universit
`
a degli Studi di Milano,
Via Comelico, 39 - 20135, Milano, Italy
2
Universit
`
a degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 1 - 20126, Milano, Italy
Keywords:
Content and Language Integrated Learning, CLIL, Preschool, Music, Multimedia, IEEE 1599.
Abstract:
This paper aims to discuss the applicability of the approach known as Content and Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL) to preschool. CLIL is a form of language immersion where the learners’ second language
represents the medium of classroom instruction. The novel idea is to use music and related multimedia con-
tents in order to foster bi- and multi-lingualism by addressing children aged from 3 to 6. In this context,
we will propose a computer-supported education environment which adopts IEEE 1599, an XML format
originally designed for the representation and synchronization of music and media contents. Its multi-layer
approach represents a valid tool to support multiple interconnected descriptions, thus fostering abilities and
reinforcement techniques typical of CLIL. Finally, we will present an example aiming to test the efficacy of
the proposed approach in real-world use cases.
1 INTRODUCTION
Musical language is a sophisticated mean of expres-
sion: on one side, it is necessarily rooted in the
composer’s cultural background; on the other side, it
has an amazing capacity to take on forms that come
from the surrounding world, assuming new shapes
and identities. This relationship between identity
and otherness can reach extraordinary levels of artis-
tic perfection, providing a precious opportunity for
a lifelong education to the globalized world (Ferrari,
2012).
Music can be a powerful way to teach and learn
before reading and writing abilities have been ac-
quired. By scaffolding children’s early musical ex-
periences and investigations, their engagement in the
world of sound as well as their trans-modal redesign
of known literature and song repertoire help children
establish strong, confident, vibrant, and creative iden-
tities in learning, communication, and performance
(Tomlinson, 2013).
A new music pedagogy based on an integrated
approach is currently emerging. The goal is to en-
hance that educational cross-component able to influ-
ence key aspects of the growth such as expressiveness,
autonomy and sociality, in accordance with the fun-
damental concepts of pedagogical activism (Dewey,
2005).
Music is able to influence the construction of per-
sonality because it promotes the integration of per-
ceptual, motor, affective, social and cognitive dimen-
sions (Willems, 2011) by relating basic aspects of hu-
man life (e.g., physiological, emotional and mental
spheres) with key elements of music (e.g., rhythm,
melody and harmony). The abilities of listening, ex-
ploration and analysis are fundamental for the devel-
opment of general meta-cognitive skills of the child,
such as attention, concentration, and control. In this
sense, music is both an opportunity and a crucial edu-
cational strategy. For example, through music young
students can develop the aspects of analysis and syn-
thesis, problematization, argumentation, evaluation
and application of rules. As it regards the ability to
read and understand, children have the possibility to
train their transcoding skills moving from the mu-
sical domain to the verbal language in order to de-
scribe what they heard (Branca, 2012).
Music-based pedagogy can be promoted by (and
through) technology. Ad hoc approaches, techniques
and devices can be employed to make children in-
teract with the world of sound, develop their cogni-
tive and social skills, learn how to transpose, listen,
look and discriminate sounds in meaningful learn-
ing contexts (Profumo, 2012). For example, musi-
cal games let children improve perceptual and motor
skills, grasp concepts, remember musical patterns, in-
Ludovico, L. and Zambelli, C.
Towards a Music-based Framework for Content and Language Integrated Learning in Preschool.
In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2016) - Volume 1, pages 75-84
ISBN: 978-989-758-179-3
Copyright
c
2016 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
75
vent ideas, experience music in group and build self-
confidence (Young and Glover, 1998).
In our opinion, music and technology can be prof-
itably coupled to create multi-layer learning environ-
ments whose main goal is the integration of hetero-
geneous skills and abilities. Integration is a keyword
also for a teaching methodology known as Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Conse-
quently, the idea discussed in this paper is to adopt
music as a means to convey contents as well as
cognitive abilities to young children in a computer-
supported CLIL context.
This work is structured as follows: Section 2 re-
calls the basic concepts about CLIL; Section 3 de-
scribes the state of the art about the adoption of CLIL
in conjunction with music and its current diffusion
as a preschool didactic tool; Section 4 is focused on
the MUSICLILY project, namely the framework that
implements the proposed approach; Section 5 intro-
duces the concept of multi-layer pedagogy resulting
from the previous discussion; Section 6 provides an
overview about IEEE 1599, namely the markup lan-
guage adopted to encode information in a multi-layer
and Web-compliant format; finally, Section 7 presents
a case study in order to test the efficacy of our ap-
proach.
2 A SHORT OVERVIEW OF CLIL
The locution Content and Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL) refers to methodologies employed
in teaching situations where a second language is
used as a medium for teaching non-language content
(Mehisto et al., 2008). CLIL encourages a cross fu-
sion of didactic subjects which currently is a rel-
evant educational trend (Coyle et al., 2010) by
approaching subject contents through the target lan-
guage and acting as a bridge that connects learning
aspects into a coherent whole where interdisciplinary
elements prevail (Agolli, 2013).
The CLIL initiative was launched in 1994 in con-
junction with the European Commission. In fact, mul-
tilingualism was and it is still considered at the
heart of European identity, and in this sense languages
are seen as a fundamental cultural aspect of Euro-
pean citizenship (Directorate-General for Education
and Culture, 2006). The idea was originated by a dis-
cussion among experts, above all in Finland and the
Netherlands, on how to bring the language-learning
excellence typical of a restricted number of institutes
into mainstream government-funded schools and col-
leges.
CLIL aims to develop in children both lower and
higher order thinking skills, according to Bloom’s
taxonomy of cognitive objectives (Bloom, 1956).
CLIL is mainly focused on the latter skills, even if
these are dependent on an earlier acquisition of the
former abilities. Consequently, such a methodolog-
ical approach is more cognitively engaging for both
students and teachers. On one side, this fact may in-
crease the demands and difficulty of CLIL, but on the
other it also leads to increasing engagement and mo-
tivation (Pinner, 2013).
Another aspect to consider is the difference
between Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills
(BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Profi-
ciency (CALP). The acronym BICS refers to conver-
sational fluency in a language, whereas CALP refers
to student’s ability to understand and express, in both
oral and written modes, concepts and ideas that are
relevant to success in school (Cummins, 2008). In
CLIL, teachers have to address CALP rather than
BICS, and students have to know content-specific vo-
cabulary for the topic they are learning (e.g., technical
terms), as well as a suitable language to carry out ac-
tivities during the lesson (e.g., sentence starters).
According to some researches, one of the key as-
pects in CLIL lessons is the input (Krashen, 1982;
Krashen, 1985). The second language (L2) offers
learners a substantial amount of comprehensible in-
put, essential for L2 acquisition. Content is conveyed
by the teacher as a way of facilitating understanding,
and the input is represented by the language to which
learners are exposed (Costa and Coleman, 2010). All
constructivist comprehension theories underline the
importance of input in the construction process. How-
ever, the input as such is not important for success-
ful processing, rather the significance it has for the
comprehender is fundamental. Cognitive psycholo-
gists argue that a comprehender can only process in-
put successfully if he/she can relate it to what is al-
ready part of his/her body of knowledge. Social con-
structivists carry their argument even further: in their
opinion, only input in which the comprehender can
get engaged or involved in can be processed and
will finally lead to a construction which he/she can
make use of (Wolff, 2003).
In order to provide an effective input, educators
need to know what CLIL exactly is, mastering both
the methodology and a specific language for con-
tents. Consequently, specific professional training is
required for teachers. Among a number of initiatives,
it is worth citing CLIL4U
1
and the British Council’s
CLIL project.
2
1
http://languages.dk/clil4u/index.html
2
http://www.britishcouncil.org/europe/our-work-in-
europe/content-and-language-integrated-learning-clil
CSEDU 2016 - 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
76
3 STATE OF THE ART
In this section we will focus on two aspects that are
fundamental for this proposal: i) CLIL in preschool
education, and ii) the use of music as a means to con-
vey content in a foreign language.
In most educational systems that encourage an
early study of a foreign language, preschool and
school curricular approaches are rather similar, usu-
ally consisting of general lessons that include foreign
culture, art and craft activities. A great importance is
given to the development of phonemic awareness and
vocabulary, and these goals are traditionally achieved
through reading and writing assignments.
In the educational systems open to CLIL experi-
mentation, this methodology is usually applied to sec-
ondary education (Costa and Coleman, 2013; Llinares
and Whittaker, 2006; Whittaker et al., 2011) or even
to academic learning (Strotmann et al., 2014). An in-
teresting review of CLIL across multiple educational
stages, ranging from primary to tertiary level, is con-
tained in (Dafouz, 2009).
Conversely, the application of CLIL to pre-
primary school is a relatively novel idea. In this sense
it is worth citing a pilot project in Spanish curricular
infant education described in (Esteban, 2015). An-
other relevant initiative aiming to examine the effects
of general L2 exposure vs. specific language exposure
was carried out in a semi-private school located in
Lleida. Since this institute offers preschool, primary
and secondary schooling thus covering three edu-
cational stages the experimentation involved very
young students who were monitored in their progress
and performances (Saladrigues and Llanes, 2014). Fi-
nally, reference (Haces Tam
´
es, 2015) proposes the use
of nursery rhymes as resources to teach English in
preschool education through CLIL methodology. In
all the mentioned activities, CLIL has been consid-
ered effective not only to learn another language and
curricular contents, but also to foster cognitive devel-
opment, communication abilities and cultural aware-
ness in very young children (Sakurai, 2015; Sok
´
oł,
2015).
Didactic experiences designed for preschool ed-
ucation can encompass motivating games and short
activities to make children improve their listening
and speaking skills. Content learning in this early
stage of life is facilitated, and the acquisition of a
foreign language can be integrated into basic cur-
ricular topics such as numbers, colors, animals,
etc. (Fern
´
andez L
´
opez, 2014).
On the other hand, music is publicly recognized
as a universal feature of human cognition: every hu-
man is born with the ability to appreciate it (Brandt
et al., 2012). Music gives students motivation, cre-
ates a group and a good atmosphere for learning, al-
lows the development of language and communica-
tion abilities, prepares both the ear and the brain to
listen to, assimilate and produce sounds. Songs and
rhymes can be used to teach new words, increase vo-
cabulary, introduce a specific lexicon, and improve
pronunciation (Atta-Alla, 2012). Moreover, songs are
memorable for a long time. In this sense, a recent re-
search has confirmed the long-held belief that singing
in a foreign tongue can facilitate language learning
(Ludke et al., 2014).
Music quite naturally provides opportunities to
practice patterns, math concepts, and symbolic think-
ing skills, all in the context of a joyful noise, which
makes it attractive and engaging even for very young
children. There are multiple and heterogeneous ways
to participate in music activities, and such experiences
can be easily adapted for a range of developmental
levels and skills depending on the learner’s age (Par-
lakian and Lerner, 2010).
Recalling the concept of input introduced in Sec-
tion 2, music lessons offer three distinct sources of
language input (Willis and Paterson, 2008):
1. the language used to manage classroom activities
and to set up music experiences;
2. the process itself that leads to a performance
(audience participation in rhythm games, use of
home-made instruments, etc.);
3. the actual words and phonological features of
songs, rhymes, musical stories, etc. performed by
the audience or already available as media con-
tent.
Finally, it is worth underlining the availability of
research results about the integration of music in
CLIL experiences (Kunc
´
ı
ˇ
rov
´
a and Vojtkov
´
a, 2013),
but mainly as a diversification of music lessons in
secondary school. Besides, these works do not take
into account the possibilities offered by information
and communication technologies, an aspect that con-
versely will characterize our proposal.
4 THE MUSICLILY PROJECT
MUSICLILY is a project currently under develop-
ment at the Laboratorio di Informatica Musicale
Universit
`
a degli Studi di Milano in cooperation with
external experts of the educational and pedagogic
domain. MUSICLILY aims to unveil original and
innovative ways to learn content and language in
preschool by using music as a privileged medium.
Towards a Music-based Framework for Content and Language Integrated Learning in Preschool
77
The final goal is to design and implement a multi-
platform, publicly-available environment addressing
young learners. Because of their age, the approach
has to be playful and mainly based on visual ele-
ments and multimedia. Consequently, music, video,
and graphical contents will be integrated into a unique
framework explicitly designed to encourage CLIL. As
we will explain in Section 7, text contents can be em-
bedded too, in order to foster reading abilities even at
an early age.
Such a framework will be accessible on a wide
range of devices, including tablets and desktop com-
puters, interactive whiteboards, smartphones, etc.
Virtually any network-connected device equipped
with an HTML5 browser should be able to support
MUSICLILY.
In our vision, this framework will be suitable for
different purposes:
As a way to introduce a specific topic from scratch
While playing and experimenting the device in
a CLIL context, children will experience a stim-
ulating learning environment that integrates still
graphics, audio, video, etc.;
As a learning reinforcement environment Dur-
ing the exposition to a new lexicon, children will
find a number of hints and multimedia stimuli to
deepen the meaning of new words and link them
to other domains (e.g., multiple translations of a
term, contextualizations of words through stories
and songs, etc.);
As a playful evaluation tool For example, at
the end of a CLIL session about a specific topic
(say farm animals), the teacher could ask stu-
dents to locate a given subject on the interface
(e.g., spelling out an animal’s name in another
language). In this way, the teacher can evaluate
if children have learned the meaning of lexicon
and realized the connection between the oral word
and the corresponding image. If results are not
satisfactory, reinforcement techniques can be em-
ployed as additional scaffolds.
Moreover, children can work alone, in pairs or in
little groups. When working with classmates, they
can experiment the so-called cooperative learning.
Social constructivism theories argue that knowledge
is acquired in a context, and – in this sense – coopera-
tive learning encourages the development of commu-
nication skills and positive interdependence (Coonan,
2007).
MUSICLILY aims to make children the protago-
nists of their learning. Since it is available on any
network-attached device, the proposed learning ap-
proach does not necessarily occur only in a classroom.
Preschool learners can find a “red thread” from school
to their every-day life, thus applying what they expe-
rienced at school also to other contexts. For example,
activities occurring at home may involve also parents
in the learning process.
Needless to say, this initiative implies both the-
oretical and practical problems. As it regards the
former aspects, mainly concerning pedagogical ap-
proaches and technological challenges, we are ad-
dressing them in the present paper. Conversely, the
latter aspects require further investigation and will be
discussed after the release of an early version. Nev-
ertheless, in Section 7 we will provide a concrete ex-
ample of content encoding and a discussion about its
possible uses.
5 A MULTI-LAYER
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH
Considering the psychological and cognitive charac-
teristics of young people, preschool contents must be
organized from a global, comprehensive and interdis-
ciplinary perspective rather than developing CLIL in
unrelated areas. Such an approach focused on spe-
cific topics but covering cross-curricular contents
seems the most effective model to be implemented in
a bi- or multi-lingual preschool class.
As stated in (Glu
ˇ
sac, 2012), CLIL exists in differ-
ent guises on a continuum where content-based edu-
cation is at the softer end and bilingual education is
at the harder one. As a consequence, we can recog-
nize hard or strong CLIL, where teaching and learning
are primarily content-driven, and soft or weak CLIL,
which is mainly language-driven. The version we are
adopting stands in the middle, thus it is sometimes
referred to as mid or comfortable CLIL: its aims are
dual-focused and learning occurs as a combination of
both language and content.
Moreover, our goal is to realize a multi-layer ped-
agogical environment based on the role of music not
only as a privileged medium to convey content, but
also as a way to create a complex network of cor-
related information. In fact, a class is composed by
many children, each one presenting his/her own way
to learn. In accordance with the theory of multiple
intelligences presented in (Gardner, 2011), we want
to provide multiple inputs, multiple interaction modes
and multiple ways to employ this environment, so that
the resulting learning experience can be a student-
tailored one.
The current proposal can be defined “multi-
layered” because, given a specific topic, it embraces
different methods and media - each one with its
CSEDU 2016 - 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
78
own features, granularity and level of abstraction - to
achieve the final educational goal. Foreign langua-
ge, music and technologies are the main actors that
are used in an integrated manner to foster a stratifica-
tion of skills, in accordance with Coyle’s four Cs
(Coyle, 2002): Communication (i.e. improving over-
all target language competence), Content (i.e. learn-
ing the knowledge and skills of the subject), Culture
(i.e. building inter-cultural knowledge and understan-
ding), and Cognition (i.e. developing thinking skills).
In order to achieve this goal, we give a particu-
lar importance to the Vygotsky’s theory of Zone of
Proximal Development (ZPD). Such a concept, pre-
sented in (Vygotsky, 1978), establishes two develop-
mental levels in the learner: the actual developmental
level, which is determined by what the learner can do
alone, and the potential level of development, which
can be established by observing what the learner can
do when assisted by an adult or a more capable peer
(De Guerrero and Villamil, 2000). ZPD is strictly
connected to scaffolding, namely a set of strategies
and instruments encouraging an interaction between
teacher and learner that helps young students to build
or improve their knowledge (Berk and Winsler, 1995).
Computer-based solutions and technological de-
vices can be the answer to the mentioned needs, since
they can implement those audio-visual aids required
to involve young learners and overcome the typical
problems caused by a new language in preschool-
age children. In addition to traditional resources al-
ready in use at schools (blackboards, textbooks, pup-
pets, etc.), technological resources such as interactive
whiteboards and the Internet can foster the acquisition
of linguistic competence in an entertaining and moti-
vating way. As stated in (Coyle et al., 2010), CLIL
requires to organize cognitively challenging materials
by providing effective scaffolding supported by some
model-view-controller frameworks. Learning activi-
ties such as songs, dances, storytelling, etc. can be
presented orally and visually, but also through suit-
able media support (Garc
´
ıa Esteban, 2013).
In order to realize CLIL activities in a multi-layer
and computer-supported environment, we need: i) a
suitable digital format to represent music and music-
related information, and ii) a framework able to of-
fer an engaging learning experience to preschool chil-
dren. These aspects will be discussed in the next sec-
tions.
6 THE IEEE 1599 FORMAT
IEEE 1599 is a standard internationally recognized by
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE), sponsored by the Computer Society Stan-
dards Activity Board and designed by the Technical
Committee on Computer Generated Music.
IEEE 1599 employs XML (eXtensible Markup
Language) to describe a music piece in all its aspects
(Baggi and Haus, 2009). The goal of the format is
to provide a comprehensive description of music and
music-related materials referring to the same music
piece within a single document.
Comprehensiveness in music description is real-
ized through a multi-layer environment. The XML
format provides a set of rules to create strongly struc-
tured documents, thus IEEE 1599 can implement the
multi-layer feature by arranging music and music-
related contents within six layers:
1. General Music-related metadata (i.e. catalogue
information about the piece);
2. Logic Logical descriptions of the original score
in terms of music symbols (e.g., notes, rests, ar-
ticulation signs, etc.);
3. Structural Identification of music objects and
their mutual relationships resulting from musico-
logical analyses or other kinds of investigation;
4. Notational Score graphical representations (e.g.,
different editions, part extractions, piano reduc-
tions, etc.);
5. Performance Computer-based descriptions and
automatic performances of music (e.g., MIDI or
MPEG4 formats);
6. Audio Digital or digitized audio/video tracks
(e.g., complete recordings with different perform-
ers, audio covers, excerpts, etc.).
In order to provide a rich network of intercon-
nected and synchronized descriptions of the same en-
tities, music events are uniquely identified in the en-
coding. In this way, they can be described multiple
times in different layers (e.g., the graphical aspect of
a chord and its audio performance) as well as mul-
tiple times within the same layer (e.g., different per-
formances of the same chord). In formal terms, the
multi-layer environment provided by IEEE 1599 si-
multaneously supports two synchronization modes:
1. An Inter-layer Synchronization, that takes place
among contents described in different layers,
where heterogeneous categories of information
(i.e. additional descriptions of the same entities)
are stored;
2. An Intra-layer Synchronization, that occurs
among the contents of a single layer, where homo-
geneous information (i.e. concurrent and/or alter-
native descriptions of the same entities) is stored.
Towards a Music-based Framework for Content and Language Integrated Learning in Preschool
79
Synchronization is not strictly required: an IEEE
1599 document would be valid even if it does not con-
tain synchronizable media objects. Nevertheless, this
format shows all its potential when the document is
rich both in homogeneous and in heterogeneous de-
scriptions of the same music entities.
A detailed description of IEEE 1599 is beyond the
scope of this work. For further details, please refer to
the official IEEE documentation or to scientific works
that cover specific aspects of the standard (Baggi and
Haus, 2013).
One of the typical application fields of IEEE 1599
is music education, as discussed during the 4th In-
ternational Conference on Computer Supported Edu-
cation (Barat
`
e and Ludovico, 2012). In the past, the
format and its related technologies have been adopted
to foster the acquisition of music skills. Conversely,
using music as a tool to scaffold extra-music abilities
and knowledge is an innovative aspect of the current
proposal. In this sense, IEEE 1599 is suitable for the
MUSICLILY initiative for a number of reasons:
It is an international standard explicitly designed
to represent music content, and MUSICLILY is
exactly focused on the use of music in CLIL con-
text;
It is flexible enough to host not only music, but
also a great number of related materials, including
still graphics, video, and text. The characteristics
of IEEE 1599 let programmers design and imple-
ment rich and engaging environments, as required
by the preschool audience expected for MUSI-
CLILY;
It supports full synchronization among embedded
contents, a feature that can be exploited to rein-
force learning;
It is XML-based and consequently fully compli-
ant with W3C recommendations for Web applica-
tions. In fact, already-available IEEE 1599 play-
ers have been realized through W3C languages
and formats such as HTML5, JavaScript, and
PHP;
It is a free format, well documented by dedicated
Web sites and portals, official specifications and
scientific papers.
These aspects will be discussed and exemplified
through the following case study.
7 CASE STUDY
In order to test the efficacy of our proposal, we will
apply a music-based and computer-supported CLIL
methodology to a specific topic, namely the teach-
ing of farm animals in one (or many) foreign lan-
guage(s). Farm animals provide a typical lesson sub-
ject in preschool learning, often reinforced by multi-
media learning materials or visits to animal exhibits,
zoos and museums (Tunnicliffe, 1995).
The final goal will be to design and implement
through a computer-based approach a multimedia les-
son about farm animals, where multilingual audio is
used to link and synchronize a number of related mul-
timedia contents.
Music and sound can be key elements in this
kind of educational initiatives. For example, the pro-
nounce of animal names implies a listening activity,
animals themselves produce sound (whose transliter-
ation sometimes differs significantly from language to
language), there are songs and rhymes about animals,
etc.
As discussed in Section 6, IEEE 1599 can be
used to aggregate and synchronize information. It
has been conceived for music-centered descriptions,
nevertheless extensions to fields such as live theatrical
performances (Barat
`
e et al., 2012), city soundscapes
(Ludovico and Mauro, 2009), and concert promotion
(Barat
`
e et al., 2015) have been investigated in the past.
The common thread that links these extended uses of
the format is the centrality of music and audio. In this
case, instead of describing a music score, an IEEE
1599 document is used as a sound-driven aggregator
of information related to farm animals. This process
requires a reinterpretation of some aspects of the for-
mat, as detailed below.
7.1 From Music Symbols to Farm
Animals
In a traditional IEEE 1599 representation, we would
find a logic description of music events (typically
notes and rests), and the possibility to link lyrics,
music scores and audio tracks. If we were able to
adapt the meaning of such concepts in response to our
needs, then we could benefit from the multi-layered
approach of IEEE 1599, as well as reuse the soft-
ware tools already available to create, view and in-
teract with content.
Let us review in this new light the six-layer struc-
ture presented in Section 6:
1. General - Now this layer can list author infor-
mation, lesson title and details, and link the ad-
ditional lesson materials that cannot be synchro-
nized to audio contents;
2. Logic - Since IEEE 1599 specifications do not
provide a strict interpretation for the concept of
CSEDU 2016 - 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
80
event, we can adapt it to our specific needs. For
example, if a storytelling or a song will pro-
vide the canvas, each scene, or line, or word, or
phoneme, or even note (when music is available)
can be considered as an event to be identified
and encoded. Please remember that the events in
the Logic layer are the anchors available for all
other descriptions within the remaining layers: the
choice of the granularity is strategical. This layer
allows also the encoding of lyrics, so the text can
be transcribed into written form, too;
3. Structural - For our purposes it is unlikely that this
layer is filled;
4. Notational - All the graphical representations that
can be synchronized to lesson contents should be
put here. Purely by way of example, such rep-
resentations can include a transcription of animal
names and/or sounds (also in different languages),
a picture version of the storytelling and its trans-
lations, interactive animal drawings and mapped
scenes accompanying the reading, a simple score
for the music tune (if available), etc.;
5. Performance - For our purposes it is unlikely that
this layer is filled;
6. Audio - All the audio and video objects that can
be synchronized to lesson content should be put
here. Purely by way of example, such represen-
tations can include multilingual audio tracks for
the storytelling, live recordings of animal sounds,
vocal sketching of animal sounds by people from
different Countries, short video clips showing real
animals in their habitat, etc.
The examples above give only a broad idea of the
rich learning environment that can be realized through
IEEE 1599. Heterogeneous contents can be used to-
gether in a fully synchronized environment as scaf-
folding and reinforcement elements.
7.2 Towards a Multimedia-integrated
CLIL Experience
The final goal of MUSICLILY is to release a Web-
based prototype publicly available on a wide range
of network-attached and browser-equipped devices.
Actually, a Web application that supports IEEE 1599
and provides users with advanced tools to enjoy mu-
sic in a multi-layer environment is already on line,
3
but its Music Box area mainly addresses traditional
scores. From one side this implementation shows that
the approach discussed so far can be concretely im-
plemented, but on the other side we firmly believe that
3
http://emipiu.di.unimi.it/
preschool CLIL requires an ad hoc interface. Conse-
quently, our future efforts will consist in a children-
oriented customization of the existing technological
framework.
Another problem to solve is the possibility for
teachers to prepare student-tailored materials, possi-
bly with little effort in terms of time and money re-
sources. Unfortunately, available IEEE 1599 author-
ing tools being focused on music are not com-
pletely adequate yet. For instance, the list of events
of the Logic layer has to be produced manually, while
in the music case it would be automatically exported
from a notation software through a plug-in. Con-
versely, as it regards audio and graphical mapping
tools, also for music the current approach is not fully
automated, but only computer-aided: music symbols
have to be manually identified in the score, and sim-
ilarly tempo has to be tapped while listening to the
audio track. As a consequence, even if materials are
clearly different, the use of mapping tools does not
substantially differ and they can be easily reused in
this new light.
7.3 An Example
For the sake of clarity, we prepared an example for a
hypothetical lesson on farm animals in a multilingual
class. The canvas is a simple story about a day in a
farm, when animals are awakened by the crowing of
the cock.
In this context, the logic events namely those
events whose occurrence triggers synchronization
among heterogeneous contents could be the verses
of the tale. This is not a fine granularity indeed, but
it is precise enough to enable a number of features, as
detailed below. Please note that the choice of a master
language is not required, provided that each localized
version of the tale contains the same number of verses
with comparable semantics. Consequently, the name
of logic events should be generic (e.g., verse 01,
verse 02, etc.), since the details about their seman-
tics (e.g., the verse itself translated in multiple lan-
guages, its pronunciation, etc.) are demanded to other
layers.
As it regards visual contents, we embedded and
mapped a number of pictures containing not only the
graphical representation of animals, but also localized
strings with their names and sounds, one drawing per
language. During fruition, mappings become evident
to the user through highlight effects on animal shapes
and/or labels. For the sake of clarity, in our example
we adopted only English and Italian as reference lan-
guages, but inter-layer synchronization would support
countless alternatives, thus going far beyond bilin-
Towards a Music-based Framework for Content and Language Integrated Learning in Preschool
81
Figure 1: Two alternative graphic files contained in the No-
tational layer and showing animal sounds in English and
Italian language respectively.
gualism. If on one side we could expect differences
among animal names in different languages, some rel-
evant discrepancies in the onomatopoeic translitera-
tion of their sound are quite surprising. For instance,
let us compare the cock’s crow shown in the upper and
in the lower part of Figure 1: “cock-a-doddle-doo” vs.
“chicchirich
`
ı”.
As it regards audio contents, they currently in-
clude the Italian and the English version of the tale,
properly linked verse per verse to the corresponding
logic events. Besides, for each animal sound we pro-
duced both a real recording and a number of vocal
sketches by native speakers.
Unfortunately XML documents are too verbose to
include a complete code listing, even for a simplified
example like this. However, the IEEE 1599 docu-
ment and all related multimedia objects have been
integrated into a compressed archive that is available
at the following URL:
http://www.lim.di.unimi.it/download/clil example.zip.
Such a complex network of linked information
fosters multiple fruition models. First, it is possible
to launch a listening activity in any language and pas-
sively watch one of the visual representations, where
graphical elements are properly highlighted and/or re-
placed by new ones in accordance with synchroniza-
tion. For instance, when an animal is mentioned in
the tale, its shape is colored on screen.
Another fruition model is to change either audio or
graphical contents in real time, for instance switching
from a language to another, or from a kind of repre-
sentation to an alternative one. In this way, when an
animal is cited the user can choose to watch one of the
still drawings or one of the video fragments without
losing synchronization.
Finally, it is possible to interact with contents, for
instance by clicking on sensitive areas of the interface
and causing a prompt response by the system. An ex-
ample of fruition is to let children click animal shapes
and labels, thus triggering one of the audio documents
associated, so as to create a mind association among
shapes, graphemes and phonemes in a foreign lan-
guage.
This kind of experience can be further im-
proved thanks to additional stimuli accompanying
the computer-based solution. For example, teachers
can encourage learning by distributing extra materials
(e.g., printable coloring pages, like the one shown in
Figure 2), or organizing activities such as classroom
games, cultural visits, and school trips.
Figure 2: Additional material to reinforce learning: a print-
able coloring page.
8 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE
WORK
In this work we have described an educational pro-
posal based on the integration of three domains: in-
formation technology, music, and foreign languages.
Since our approach makes them tightly intercon-
nected each other, it can be difficult to establish the
exact role played by each of them. In fact, each do-
main can be seen as the input, the medium or the ed-
ucational goal of the initiative.
For instance, if we wanted to implement a stan-
dard form of CLIL, namely a learning experience
where a specific topic is treated in a foreign lan-
guage, then audio could provide the input (e.g., a
CSEDU 2016 - 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
82
song, a nursery rhyme, a narration, etc.) and com-
puter tools could be used to implement multimedia
fruition. Alternatively, interaction with technologi-
cal devices could be seen as the input, while music
or other multimedia contents as a way to encourage
an early use of technologies within a playful environ-
ment. Similarly, a learning experience could address
educational aspects that go beyond the specific topic
in this case a given school subject would be the in-
put including for instance computational thinking or
multi-layer fruition of contents.
As a final remark, let us focus on the concept of
language cited in the definition of CLIL: it is worth
underlining that not only a foreign language in a strict
sense, but even music, computer languages and for-
mats, and human-computer interaction models can be
seen as alternative forms of expression. This com-
plex network of interconnections among heteroge-
neous domains, as well as the versatility of the roles
played by each component, can be easily justified
through the multi-layer approach mentioned above.
The use of music as a playful and engaging way
to convey information on one side, and the support
obtained from computer technologies on the other are
fundamental to involve young learners in CLIL ac-
tivities, such as in a preschool context. Moreover,
lesson topics can be suitably chosen in order to get
further benefits from this articulated approach. For
example, if the lesson is about musical instruments or
city soundscapes, a multimedia environment where a
music-oriented format plays a key role will prove to
be a flexible, powerful and effective learning tool.
As it regards future work, please note that – at the
moment of writing MUSICLILY is only an educa-
tional proposal. Both the pedagogical bases and the
technical aspects have been already explored, and re-
search has shown promising prospects, but ad hoc im-
plementations and validation activities are required to
test the efficacy of our approach.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge the members of the
Laboratorio di Informatica Musicale for their partic-
ipation in the IEEE 1599 initiative. MUSICLILY is
a research project partially funded by the Universit
`
a
degli Studi di Milano.
REFERENCES
Agolli, R. (2013). A penetrating content and language in-
tegrated learning (CLIL) praxis in Italian mainstream
education: Stemming novelties and visions. Research
Papers in Language Teaching and Learning, 4(1):138.
Atta-Alla, M. N. (2012). Developing adult english language
learners’ vocabulary skills through children’s rhymes
and songs. English Language Teaching, 5(11):79.
Baggi, D. L. and Haus, G. M. (2009). The new standard
IEEE 1599, introduction and examples. Journal of
Multimedia, 4(1):3–8.
Baggi, D. L. and Haus, G. M. (2013). Music Navigation
with Symbols and Layers: Toward Content Browsing
with IEEE 1599 XML Encoding. John Wiley & Sons.
Barat
`
e, A., Haus, G., and Ludovico, L. A. (2015). Mul-
tilayer formats and the semantic web: A music case
study. In Proceedings of the Audio Mostly 2015 on
Interaction With Sound, AM ’15, pages 2:1–2:8, New
York, NY, USA. ACM.
Barat
`
e, A., Haus, G., Ludovico, L. A., and Mauro, D. A.
(2012). IEEE 1599 for live musical and theatrical per-
formances. Journal of Multimedia, 7(2):170–178.
Barat
`
e, A. and Ludovico, L. A. (2012). New frontiers in
music education through the IEEE 1599 standard. In
Cordeiro, J., Helfert, M., and Martins, M. J., edi-
tors, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference
on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2012),
volume 1, pages 146–151. SciTePress - Science and
Technology Publications, Porto, Portugal.
Berk, L. E. and Winsler, A. (1995). Scaffolding Chil-
dren’s Learning: Vygotsky and Early Childhood Edu-
cation. NAEYC Research into Practice Series. Volume
7. ERIC.
Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy ofeducational objectives.
New York: David McKay, 356:1998–1999.
Branca, D. (2012). L’importanza dell’educazione musicale:
risvolti pedagogici del fare bene musica insieme. Studi
sulla formazione, 15(1):85–102.
Brandt, A., Gebrian, M., and Slevc, L. R. (2012). Music and
early language acquisition. Frontiers in psychology, 3.
Coonan, C. M. (2007). Insider views of the CLIL class
through teacher self-observation–introspection. Inter-
national Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilin-
gualism, 10(5):625–646.
Costa, F. and Coleman, J. (2010). Integrating content
and language in higher education in Italy. Ongo-
ing research. International CLIL Research Journal,
2010(3):19–29.
Costa, F. and Coleman, J. A. (2013). A survey of English-
medium instruction in Italian higher education. In-
ternational Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilin-
gualism, 16(1):3–19.
Coyle, D. (2002). Relevance of CLIL to the European
Commission’s language learning objectives. 2002).
CLIL/EMILE the European Dimension. Finland: Uni-
COM.
Coyle, D., Hood, P., and Marsh, D. (2010). Content and
language integrated learning. Ernst Klett Sprachen.
Cummins, J. (2008). BICS and CALP: Empirical and the-
oretical status of the distinction. In Encyclopedia of
language and education, pages 487–499. Springer.
Towards a Music-based Framework for Content and Language Integrated Learning in Preschool
83
Dafouz, E. (2009). CLIL across educational levels: Experi-
ences from primary, secondary and tertiary contexts.
Richmond Publ.
De Guerrero, M. and Villamil, O. S. (2000). Activating
the ZPD: Mutual scaffolding in L2 peer revision. The
Modern Language Journal, 84(1):51–68.
Dewey, J. (2005). Art as experience. Penguin.
Directorate-General for Education and Culture (2006).
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at
School in Europe. Eurydice, European Commission.
Esteban, S. G. (2015). Soft CLIL in infant education bilin-
gual contexts in Spain. International Journal of Lan-
guage and Applied Linguistics, 1:30–36.
Fern
´
andez L
´
opez, P. (2014). The use of audiovisual stories
in the preschool CLIL environment.
Ferrari, E. (2012). Understanding otherness through music.
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 47:674–
678.
Garc
´
ıa Esteban, S. (2013). Three frameworks for develop-
ing CLIL materials. Encuentro, 22:49–53.
Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple
intelligences. Basic books.
Glu
ˇ
sac, T. (2012). CLIL and one-to-one classes. Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in Teach-
ing English to Young Learners, page 63.
Haces Tam
´
es, B. (2015). Nursery rhymes for content and
language integrated learning in preschool education.
Master’s thesis.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second lan-
guage acquisition. Oxford Pergamon.
Krashen, S. D. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and
implications. Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd.
Kunc
´
ı
ˇ
rov
´
a, J. and Vojtkov
´
a, N. (2013). CLIL in music for
secondary schools. Master’s thesis, Department of En-
glish Language and Literature, Faculty of Education,
Masaryk University.
Llinares, A. and Whittaker, R. (2006). Linguistic analy-
sis of secondary school students’ oral and written pro-
duction in CLIL contexts: Studying social science in
english. Current Research on CLIL, page 28.
Ludke, K. M., Ferreira, F., and Overy, K. (2014). Singing
can facilitate foreign language learning. Memory &
cognition, 42(1):41–52.
Ludovico, L. A. and Mauro, D. A. (2009). Sound and the
city: Multi-layer representation and navigation of au-
dio scenarios. In Barbosa, A., Gouyon, F., and Serra,
X., editors, Proceedings of the SMC 2009 - 6th Sound
and Music Computing Conference, 23-25 July 2009,
Porto - Portugal, pages 19–24. SMC, Porto, Portugal.
Mehisto, P., Marsh, D., and Frigols, M. J. (2008). Uncover-
ing CLIL. China: Macmillan Publishers Limited.
Parlakian, R. and Lerner, C. (2010). Beyond Twinkle, Twin-
kle: Using music with infants and toddlers. YC Young
Children, 65(2):14–19.
Pinner, R. (2013). Authenticity of purpose: CLIL as a way
to bring meaning and motivation into EFL contexts.
Asian EFL Journal, 15(4):137–158.
Profumo, F. (2012). Indicazioni nazionali per il cur-
ricolo della scuola dell’infanzia e del primo
ciclo d’istruzione. Ministero dell’Istruzione,
dell’Universit
`
a e della Ricerca.
Sakurai, S. (2015). Bilingual education in primary school:
aspects of immersion, CLIL, and bilingual modules.
Language and Education, 29(1):83–85.
Saladrigues, G. and Llanes,
`
A. (2014). Examining the im-
pact of amount of exposure on l2 development with
CLIL and non-CLIL teenage students. Sintagma: re-
vista de ling
¨
u
´
ıstica, (26):133–147.
Sok
´
oł, M. (2015). Helping preschool and primary school
children to develop phonemic awareness and bilingual
literacy skills in the light of SLA theories. Master’s
thesis, Institute of Iberian and Ibero-American Studies
and College of English Language Teacher Education,
Warsaw University.
Strotmann, B., Bamond, V., Lopez-Lago, J. M., Bailen, M.,
Bonilla, S., and Montesinos, F. (2014). Improving
bilingual higher education: Training university pro-
fessors in content and language integrated learning.
Higher Learning Research Communications, 4(1):91–
97.
Tomlinson, M. M. (2013). Literacy and music in early
childhood. SAGE Open, 3(3):2158244013502498.
Tunnicliffe, S. D. (1995). Talking about animals: Studies of
young children visiting zoos, a museum and a farm.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and de-
velopment. Readings on the development of children,
23(3):34–41.
Whittaker, R., Llinares, A., and McCabe, A. (2011). Writ-
ten discourse development in CLIL at secondary
school. Language Teaching Research, 15(3):343–362.
Willems, E. (2011). Las bases psicol
´
ogicas de la educaci
´
on
musical. Editorial Paid
´
os.
Willis, J. and Paterson, A. (2008). English through music:
effective CLIL lessons for young learners.
Wolff, D. (2003). Integrating language and content in the
language classroom: Are transfer of knowledge and
of language ensured? ASp la revue du GERAS, (41-
42):35–46.
Young, S. and Glover, J. (1998). Music in the early years.
Routledge.
CSEDU 2016 - 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
84