The Effect of Background Music (BGM) on Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

In the 1970's, Lozanov developed "Suggestopedia" in which background music (BGM) was effectively used in teaching vocabulary. Over the past decade, the idea of using BGM has been adopted to the development of audio taped materials for language learning in Japan. However, not much scientific proof of its efficacy has yet been offered. Thus, this study examines whether or not the use of BGM is effective in learning vocabulary. Half of the subjects learned 100 words for a week by using a bilingual word list and an audio tape in which the 100 words were recorded over BGM, and they were compared to the other half who used a tape without BGM. Results indicated that subjects who used a tape with BGM performed significantly better on a test of long-term memory than those who learned from a tape without BGM.