Nursery rhyme has rich melody of English in it, and, over the centuries, it has enchanted not only children but also adults worldwide. It is also used in teaching English to young children in non-English-speaking countries. The same is true of Japan. Public interest in early childhood English education has rapidly increased lately and many English materials based on nursery rhymes or songs have been published. As a result of this growing interest in English education for young children, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has made English mandatory subjectfor the 5th and 6th grades in 2020. The purpose of this study is to introduce some nursery rhymes into early childhood English education in a Japanese kindergarten to draw their attention to the phoneme and suprasegmental phonology of English and raise more awareness of foreign cultures. In this study, three nursery rhymes will be taught to children and analyze their outputs to clarify nursery rhymes that promote young Japanese children to understand the phonological features of English language.

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