No description available.

In linguistics, prosody encompasses the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech, and this plays an important role in the language-learning process. This study seeks to understand this phenomenon further, providing novel language learning data with nursery rhymes as a vehicle to teach adults foreign words. Building on models of Dynamic Attending Theory and Phonological Short-Term Memory, it was theorized that the accuracy of foreign word learning is predicted by the prosodic cues present in the word’s learning context. This experiment included 3 tasks to explore this theory. Task 1 tested how accurately the participant processed the beat of a musical sequence. In Task 2, participants learned foreign words in a nursery rhyme context. Finally, in Task 3, participants were asked to identify which words they recognized from a large list of foreign words. Results showed a significant effect for prosodic cues’ influence on word memory. Specifically, temporal and rhythmic cues hierarchically facilitate phonological short-term memory, as represented in this paper’s proposed theoretical model. A potential link was also found between individual rhythmic ability and memory of foreign words. Overall, the present thesis offers a theoretical understanding of the use of nursery rhymes during adult foreign language learning / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / In linguistics, prosody encompasses the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech, which plays an important role in the language-learning process. When adults don't have the meaning of words to rely on, they often use these rhythmic cues to remember them better. This research involved three tasks: processing the beat of music, learning foreign words through nursery rhymes, and then recognizing those words from a list. The results showed that rhythmic and timing cues are helpful for remembering words. Also, individuals with better rhythmic skills may demonstrate better word memory. This study suggests that using nursery rhymes could be an effective tool for teaching adults new languages.