By inclusive education, we mean nurturing all children in the classroom—whether a typical mainstream learner, a linguistically gifted child, a child from a socially disadvantaged background, children with various special educational needs, or children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Ensuring inclusive foreign language education for young learners requires strategies that accommodate diverse learning needs, abilities, and backgrounds. Songs and rhymes serve as powerful, multisensory tools that foster linguistic development while creating an accessible and engaging learning environment for all students, including those with diverse cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional profiles. Their rhythmic and melodic structures facilitate comprehension, memory retention, and pronunciation, supporting learners with different learning styles and abilities.

Drawing on qualitative research conducted through semi-structured interviews with several target groups of respondents (musicians, teachers, and parents of children) and their experiences with teaching foreign languages to young learners, we will examine how rhythm and music-based strategies support differentiation, reduce anxiety in young learners, and encourage their participation in foreign language learning through music, repetition, play, and movement. Thus, this presentation explores the extent to which, according to the respondents’ perspectives, songs and rhymes can actually be used to enhance the implementation of an inclusive approach in teaching—examining whether this is not only theoretical knowledge among in-service teachers but also a practice actively applied in the classroom.

By the end of the session, participants will gain insights into how the use of songs and rhymes fosters a more inclusive foreign language classroom, enhancing engagement, communication, and social interaction among all young learners.

Keywords: Young learners, rhymes, songs, foreign language education, inclusive approach.