Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia

This study describes comprehensively the musical characteristics of the Sarikei’s Foochow children in relation to the cultural environment in which they live. The description of music characteristics covers the aspects of the use of voice, rhythm and singing languages. Methodology used in this study...

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Main Author:	Wong, Annie Kai Sze
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English English
Published:	2011
Subjects:	Music - Study and teaching (Elementary) - Sarawak Ethnicity in music - Sarawak Voice
Online Access:	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/19465/1/FEM_2011_5.pdf
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id	my-upm-ir.19465
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-upm-ir.194652014-05-19T04:07:39Z Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia 2011-03 Wong, Annie Kai Sze This study describes comprehensively the musical characteristics of the Sarikei’s Foochow children in relation to the cultural environment in which they live. The description of music characteristics covers the aspects of the use of voice, rhythm and singing languages. Methodology used in this study is ethnographical fieldwork which includes structural and casual observation of children’s music learning process supplemented by dialogues with the teachers and parents. The use of voice of the Foochow children takes place in the form of singing, game and voice exclamation, which can be further divided as the singings of familiar, modified and self composed song, imitation of sound, verbal prescription of movements, emotional expression, and, the exploration of voice colors. The ubiquitous interplay between children’s speech and the voice play resembles the strong influence of the Foochow dialect, which can be observed in many instances like the use of onomatopoeia, Foochowized intonation of certain terms, exclamation syllabus of certain words, among others. The use of rhythm of Sarikei Foochow children, on the other hand, is observed in their number counting, vocabulary chanting, general activities in their kindergarten, as well as in their games. The structural features in the use of rhythm such as head emphasis, extension of end syllabus, and, the even distribution of duration, are consistently observed; which suggests its close relation to the rhythmic features of Southern Chinese dialects in general. Observation on the use of different singing languages which are Malay, English, Mandarin and Foochow revealed that children singing in familiar languages are found to be able to memorize the text faster, were more motivated to learn, and had higher level of concentration. The use of Foochow dialect, their mother tongue, has given a remarkable impact on the children’s motivation and behavior in singing, which surpassed their musical responsiveness when other languages were used. The outcome of study showed that linguistic environment, religion, lifestyle, and family influence contributed to children’s development of musicality and creativity. Further study could involve other dialect groups of the Chinese communities in Malaysia to further explicate the many ways cultural environment shapes the musicality of a child. Music - Study and teaching (Elementary) - Sarawak Ethnicity in music - Sarawak Voice 2011-03 Thesis http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/19465/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/19465/1/FEM_2011_5.pdf application/pdf en public masters Universiti Putra Malaysia Music - Study and teaching (Elementary) - Sarawak Ethnicity in music - Sarawak Voice Faculty of Human Ecology English
institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
collection	PSAS Institutional Repository
language	English English
topic	Music - Study and teaching (Elementary) - Sarawak Ethnicity in music - Sarawak Voice
spellingShingle	Music - Study and teaching (Elementary) - Sarawak Ethnicity in music - Sarawak Voice Wong, Annie Kai Sze Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia
description	This study describes comprehensively the musical characteristics of the Sarikei’s Foochow children in relation to the cultural environment in which they live. The description of music characteristics covers the aspects of the use of voice, rhythm and singing languages. Methodology used in this study is ethnographical fieldwork which includes structural and casual observation of children’s music learning process supplemented by dialogues with the teachers and parents. The use of voice of the Foochow children takes place in the form of singing, game and voice exclamation, which can be further divided as the singings of familiar, modified and self composed song, imitation of sound, verbal prescription of movements, emotional expression, and, the exploration of voice colors. The ubiquitous interplay between children’s speech and the voice play resembles the strong influence of the Foochow dialect, which can be observed in many instances like the use of onomatopoeia, Foochowized intonation of certain terms, exclamation syllabus of certain words, among others. The use of rhythm of Sarikei Foochow children, on the other hand, is observed in their number counting, vocabulary chanting, general activities in their kindergarten, as well as in their games. The structural features in the use of rhythm such as head emphasis, extension of end syllabus, and, the even distribution of duration, are consistently observed; which suggests its close relation to the rhythmic features of Southern Chinese dialects in general. Observation on the use of different singing languages which are Malay, English, Mandarin and Foochow revealed that children singing in familiar languages are found to be able to memorize the text faster, were more motivated to learn, and had higher level of concentration. The use of Foochow dialect, their mother tongue, has given a remarkable impact on the children’s motivation and behavior in singing, which surpassed their musical responsiveness when other languages were used. The outcome of study showed that linguistic environment, religion, lifestyle, and family influence contributed to children’s development of musicality and creativity. Further study could involve other dialect groups of the Chinese communities in Malaysia to further explicate the many ways cultural environment shapes the musicality of a child.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Wong, Annie Kai Sze
author_facet	Wong, Annie Kai Sze
author_sort	Wong, Annie Kai Sze
title	Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia
title_short	Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia
title_full	Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia
title_fullStr	Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed	Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia
title_sort	use of voice and music making among six-year old foochow children in sarikei, sarawak, malaysia
granting_institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
granting_department	Faculty of Human Ecology
publishDate	2011
url	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/19465/1/FEM_2011_5.pdf
_version_	1747811388391161856

Use of Voice and Music Making Among Six-Year Old Foochow Children in Sarikei, Sarawak, Malaysia

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