Abstract:

In 2013 Malta celebrated its first victory of the Junior Eurovision Song Context (JESC). The island enthusiastically not only transformed Gaia Cauchi (i.e. the 11-year old Maltese winner) into a national hero but also started preparing to host the contest a year later in November 2014. History repeated itself a couple of months later when in 2015 Maltese singer Destiny Chukunyere won the context for the second time.

Keeping the popularity of the context at its forefront, this paper intends to present the findings of an academic research project conducted in Malta. The main aim of the project was to investigate the pros and cons resulting in preschool learning contexts once JESC songs are proposed/used as pedagogic resources. This study, investigated primarily whether and to what extent pedagogic benefits can be reaped from such a popular music context whose primary and sole target audience (i.e. as indicated by its name) are juniors – including those at preschool levels - around Europe.

To start with, this paper will initially present the outcomes of a social-semiotic multimodal thematic analysis based among others on insights by [Kress, 2010] and [Balzan 2015]. In the first part of the paper I will present the main outcomes of my comparative thematic analysis of each of the fourteen winning songs which have won the festival since the first JESC edition in Denmark in 2003. I will give examples of themes derived from JESC songs and will discuss critically ways these should be introduced and/or tackled within the preschool learning context.

In the second part of the paper, also based on my comparative multimodal thematic analysis of the winning songs, I will then move on to formulate a list of practical suggestions through which, once the JESC songs are used critically, the stakeholders at the preschool stage could benefit. Among others, I will give practical examples showing how preschool students could be helped to gradually:
• start observing physical characteristics of the singers (including appearance, race, gender etc.) through which they could become aware of multiculturalism and differences around them;
• start identifying linguistic differences and therefore observe and formulate the idea of the richness and variety of languages used around Europe;
• appreciate different musical aspects including genres, voices, rhythms, instruments etc.). Through such appreciation students can start developing their musical skills;
• start developing their inter- and intrapersonal communicative skills such as in cases when asked to work in pairs and/or in groups;
• start developing their own creativity through the interpretation of one or more JESC songs using different modes (i.e. oral, artistic).

Furthermore, I intend to conclude the paper with one final suggestion. I intend to refer to contexts - other than Malta - where the JESC might not enjoy great popularity. Through a set of examples, I aim to show that the above-mentioned suggestions could also serve to initiate reflective thinking in educators who are willing to critically evaluate non-JESC related musical resources which they might consider to use with preschoolers under their supervision.

References:
[1] Balzan J. (2015) The Educational Value of the Junior Eurovision in the Early Years learning Context. Malta: University of Malta.
[2] Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London: Routledge.