| Shrnutí: | Songs are popular resources with teachers of young language learners. In addition to important socioemotional and
developmental outcomes, a common assumption is that songs will help support learning the target language. This
systematic review narratively synthesises evidence from intervention research on the effects of using songs in
second or foreign language classrooms on linguistic outcomes among children aged 2–18 years. 1862 potentially
relevant reports were identified. After screening, 60 intervention studies from 23 countries were located that
assessed the relationship between using songs in the classroom and substantive linguistic outcomes. These were
vocabulary acquisition, grammatical learning, and speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. While most of
the assembled literature made positive causal claims about the relationship between singing songs and these
outcomes, a majority were not appropriately designed to support these claims. Our formal assessment of the
robustness of the designs and other methodological characteristics of the included studies suggests that it is not
possible to draw firm causal inferences about the effect of using songs on linguistic outcomes. This systematic
review makes the case for conducting further robustly designed intervention research to better inform our
understanding of the linguistic effects of using songs to teach young language learners.
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