Rhyme and Rhythm: The Input of Nursery Rhymes and Metered Verse into the EFL Curriculum

This contribution to the 3rd International Conference to the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the Vilnius Pedagogical University (September 25-26, 2008) repeats the main argument of the previous article arguing for the use of spoken nursery rhymes in the teaching of English with the difference that a qualitative distinction is made between nursery rhymes which have stood the test of time and those which fail. It is argued that the key difference is that ‘failed’ nursery rhymes have one or several flawed rhythmic aspects whereas the successful ones have very clear and repeatable rhythms. This difference also supports my thesis that nursery rhymes contain a practical taxonomy of basic English rhythms and that their input into the EFL curriculum is a convenient and enjoyable method to practise and to master basic English rhythms.

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