English sinks in better with pop music

Recent research from the University of Twente shows that studying the English language is easier for pupils when pop music is being used. In addition, the pupils are more motivated as a result. The Groove.me teaching method was examined for this purpose. Groove.me is the first global teaching method that enables children to learn English with pop music.

The UT research was conducted among 341 children from a total of 31 different primary schools in the Netherlands. Researcher Marjolein van Klink: "The results consistently show that pupils who use Groove.me are more motivated to learn English than pupils who use another method. They are happy to learn and find the subject and lessons fun." Taking all the results into account, the impression is that Groove.me pupils have more fun learning, learn English at least as well as other pupils and go through the lessons with relative ease. It motivates pupils and makes them happy to be working with English, both inside and outside the classroom.

In 2012, Groove.me appeared to be a world first in the field of education. It was the first teaching method where children learn English using English-language pop music. After its launch, the teaching method almost immediately received the prestigious international Comenius award. Schools have also embraced the teaching method. More than 1,000 primary schools are using it. Now, it is also scientifically proven that the teaching method has advantages over traditional methods.

Learning English in first years of primary school

The digital teaching method with pop music has also been launched for the first years of primary school (for infants and children in what is referred to as 'group 3' and 'group 4'). The teaching method was developed by the publishing firm Blink Educatie. Director Jorien Castelein: "We are extremely pleased with the research results and all the positive feedback from both pupils and teachers. More and more schools are starting to teach English at a very young age. At such an early stage, children pick up English very quickly, and parents also prefer a primary school where their children learn good English."

In Groove.me for the first years of primary school, characters are also used in addition to pop music. There are English-language Bobo (the blue rabbit) songs for infants (group 1 and 2), and existing pop songs in group 3 and 4 played by DJ Okki. Groove.me for group 1 and 2 consists of eight themes: school, autumn, family, winter, animals, spring, my body and summer. The themes are thus aligned with the themes used by nursery school methods and are easy to fit into the annual rhythm. The themes for group 3 and 4 are rather more extensive: eight themes for group 3 and eight themes for group 4. The content of these themes matches the themes of group 1 and 2, although a different approach is employed or the subject is expanded on.