The Role of Music in Child Language Development: A Study of Nursery Schools in Enugu State

This study examines the role of music in facilitating language development among nursery school children in Enugu State, South East Nigeria. Early childhood researchers have consistently identified music as a powerful scaffold for phonological awareness, vocabulary acquisition, and sentence structure comprehension in young children. In Nigerian nursery schools, music is commonly used as part of morning activities and transition routines; however, its deliberate application as a language development tool remains inconsistent and undertheorised. This research investigates how nursery school teachers use music in daily instruction, the types of songs and musical activities employed, and whether these activities are consciously linked to language learning objectives. A mixed-methods design is employed, combining classroom observation in 15 nursery schools across Enugu North and Enugu South local government areas with structured interviews with 30 early childhood teachers. A validated language development screening tool is applied to 80 children across experimental and comparison classrooms to assess relative language competence. The study draws on recent early childhood education research and music cognition literature. Findings are expected to demonstrate positive associations between intentional music use and language competence and will provide practical recommendations for nursery school curriculum design in south-eastern Nigeria. Keywords: Music, language development, nursery school, Enugu State, early childhood.