{"id":2833,"date":"2016-03-28T23:59:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T23:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/?p=2833"},"modified":"2016-03-28T23:59:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T23:59:19","slug":"music-language-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/2016\/03\/28\/music-language-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Music &#038; Language Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve just written a post for Alan Dick&#8217;s blog <a href=\"https:\/\/letsstudyalanguage.wordpress.com\" target=\"_blank\">Let&#8217;s Study a Language<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/letsstudyalanguage.wordpress.com\/2016\/03\/28\/music-language-learning\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/letsstudyalanguage.wordpress.com\/2016\/03\/28\/music-language-learning\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I hope you enjoy it! \ud83d\ude42<br \/>\n<!---\nMusic &amp; Language Learning\n\nIn this post I would like to talk about something very important for anyone learning a language: music. Especially the question: is it good to use music for learning a language? Can it boost your learning process? Is there any harm in it?\n\nWell, first of all, let me just make it clear I am no specialist in linguistics, speech therapy or anything. I am just sharing my opinion based on over twenty years of language learning and teaching.\n\nMost students I\u0092ve met claim that music helps them considerably when learning a language. Most of these students spend years studying and yet are unable to make simple, correct sentences in the target language. So, is there any correlation between those two facts?\n\nYou could say that, despite their feeling otherwise, music has not helped them progress at all. But, then, I ask you: isn\u0092t it also possible that their perception is correct and, without music, their progress would have been even slower?\n\nWell, I guess we will never know. And I don\u0092t think it really matters, actually. What matters is that, for these students, music was something that kept them studying. It works as a motivating factor for them. Considering all the factors that exert a negative influence on a language student\u0092s dedication and progress, I say any source of positive motivation should be considered a valuable resource.\n\nNow, to the more technical aspects of the subject: is there a correct way of using music to improve your language learning? How can you make the most of it? Can it harm your progress in any way?\n\nOne thing you must have in mind is: the language used in songs is, usually, different from the spoken language used for everyday communication. More specifically:\n\n\n<ul>\n \t\n\n<li>rhythm and intonation in a song are dictated by metrics and melody; rhythm and intonation in speech depend on different factors, which can vary from language to language, but usually are related to differences in meaning or expression.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>vocabulary in a song\u0092s lyrics are chosen for poetic reasons, be it for related to meaning (for instance, if the author wants to express a nuance of meaning) or form (if the author wants a word to rhyme with another word, or to fit a specific rhythm melodic line); vocabulary in everyday speech is based on\u0085 well, it just consists of the words we commonly use.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>vocabulary and expressions used in a song may be meaningful only ad hoc, i.e., a word or expression may be coined by the author of a song; when used out of context (i.e., in a conversation, with people that don\u0092t know that specific song), it may be confusing or utterly meaningless.<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>a variation of the previous point: songs come and go according to fashion; even if a word or expression from a song gets to be widely known, it can be considered dated after some time. You could end up using an expression considered obsolete. Or, the opposite: you might sound excessively slangy, if you use expressions that, despite being known by virtually everybody, haven\u0092t been accepted in the common language yet.<\/li>\n\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\nYou should also keep in mind that songs are accompanied by instruments; it often happens that you \u0093mis-hear\u0094 a word because of interference of simultaneous instruments playing \u0096 drums are the usual culprit.\n\nSo, does this all mean that you should NOT use music to help your language learning?\n\nNo, sir! No, ma'am!\n\nI\u0092m not saying that music is a bad thing for your learning. I\u0092m just saying that, if you want it to really help you improve your language skills, you have to be aware of its limitations. As with any tool, you need to know how to use it properly. If not used correctly, it could be of no help at all - worse, it could even hinder your progress.\n\nSo, how can you escape the traps indicated above?\n\nThe most practical way I see is to ask the help of a native speaker. Nowadays it is extremely easy to find people who will be willing to help foreigners learn their native languages. When you find someone to help you, there are basically two things you should ask:\n\n\n<ol>\n \t\n\n<li>Does the language used in the song correspond to the language of everyday speech? Does it use any words or expressions that I should avoid?<\/li>\n\n\n \t\n\n<li>How do you pronounce the lyrics, when taken out of the song and put as continuous text? How is the natural rhythm and intonation of each sentence?<\/li>\n\n\n<\/ol>\n\n\nFor the first point, you should try to find out if the language used in the song can be used in a conversation or in a more formal text, for example. A good example is the pronoun 'thou' in English. You could find it in a song, but you will never see it used in a conversation - and, if you use it, people will probably think you are doing some sort of joke.\n\nFor this second point, you just need to ask your native informant ( \ud83d\ude42 ) to read the lyrics, was naturally as possible, as if it was just any text. You could just copy the lyrics without line breaks and ask the native speaker to read the resulting text aloud, without telling them it is from a song. Then you will have a better idea of how the language in the song can be used in a real situation.\n\nAs I said in the beginning, these are just my own impressions on the subject. I myself rarely use songs for my own language learning, but it is an important resource used in every school I\u0092ve worked so far and I have had the opportunity to use it quite a lot with my students, as well as learn about their personal experiences with it.\n\nWhether it directly improves your progress or not, the important thing about music is its role as a motivation factor. Music is fun, and, if you are having fun when learning a language, you probably will want to go on, even if you learn something wrong here or there. Just keep in mind the points indicated above, and enjoy your journey!\n\nDo you have any experiences in using music with the purpose of learning a language? Do you want to share your thoughts? Please, do so! Your contribution will be welcome!---><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve just written a post for Alan Dick&#8217;s blog Let&#8217;s Study a Language: https:\/\/letsstudyalanguage.wordpress.com\/2016\/03\/28\/music-language-learning\/ I hope you enjoy it! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2300],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oderalon.net\/linguae\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}