Language reception through music

Music is a very effective tool that should play a larger role in the EFL/ESL classroom because it offers a great variety that appeals to the students. Most children enjoy music and therefore it should increase their interest in learning a new language in a very entertaining way.

Educators need to be willing to incorporate music in their lessons in order to better enhance their students’ learning. Music can be used to remove language barriers and should be implemented as early as the first grade. More music in every language classroom will inspire more students to become creative and independent. Music will allow educators and their students to understand each other and connect in a new way.

In the following video, you’ll hear an experienced English teacher tell you about the POWER of music and how to make it WORK for YOU! Plus, you’ll hear how she learned Spanish the same way.

Learning Language Through Music

Music and Languages

In order for children to develop and grow as learners, their difference in interests and intelligences must be taken into account. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner is extremely important when it comes to teaching children and young adults. Gardner explains that, “It’s not how intelligent you are, but how you are intelligent”. Gardner hypothesizes that there are eight different intelligences, which included mathematic, linguistic and musical intelligence. When teaching foreign languages to children and adolescents, there are numerous methods that can be used to enhance the students’ learning and interest, and music is most definitely one of them. Language learning and music relate to each other since music and speech connect through sounds and are used to convey a message, although language is precise and music mostly emotional. Many adolescents see song lyrics as sources that carry messages to reassure them that they are not alone in the world and that other people have gone through similar things that they might have experienced. Therefore, it is clear that music is often healing and may be used as a teaching tool. Music contains authentic, informal language that is natural to the ear. Songs offer precious resources that develop students’ abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing Music tends to leave a deep trace in our memories, which is possible due to the fact that it is related to factors that are affective and unconscious as well as possibly less energy- demanding because musical perception starts before birth.

Most people learn song lyrics faster than words and melodies tend to store easier in the memory even though the meaning of the words might not be clear.

“Through the use of songs, rhymes and music, children are able to retain much larger amounts of information’s”.

Music is a way to enhance children’s learning procedures and the reasons for music’s success lie within the brain. Sound waves come into our ears and from there they transform into nerve impulses. These impulses are then sent out to areas in the left and right temporal lobes for processing. The functions that are used to process music and singing are stored in the brains other functions that include emotion, memory and language. This shows even more clearly why music is such a positive method to use for teaching a second language. Music is a natural source to the human race and therefore it was surprising to see how little it was used in language lessons.

In the following video you’ll find tips, methods, practising tests to apply to different levels, and how to use song to lead a discussion among students:

Teaching English with Songs

Letters

Children usually learn the alphabet from an early age and since almost every child knows how to sing their ABCs in their native language it is ideal to teach it in the target language as well. Teaching through songs allows young learners to be aware of imitation of sounds while watching the graphic representation of that specific sound, which would be advantageous when they’ll need to form words, and later the meaning of the words.

Numbers

Teaching numbers through music is also a fun way for young children to learn. Most children already know how to count in their first language and quite a few will even know how to count in the target language as well. With this method students can learn in an easy way the several tasks we perform with numbers: counting our fingers, tell the time, understand how many days, months, people, animals and things exists, and so on.

Using Music To Teach Adolescents

Language learning becomes more challenging as the children grow older because the vocabulary increases. Emotions become more relevant and more emphasis is placed on grammar, correct spelling and pronunciation. Spelling and grammar become more important as pictures and visual aspects slowly disappear from the textbooks as the years pass. Teaching adolescents is giving and the tasks vary from using background music while the students study in the classroom, to analyzing song lyrics and everything in between. When brainstorming for assignments, background music can also be helpful because it can help with building emotions and creativity. Song lyrics are a task on their own when it comes to using music for learning because they contain so many variable assignments that include creativity, grammar, spelling and increased vocabulary. When lyrics have been placed into the music and they have been stored in the memory, their meanings can be discussed and analyzed where the students should be encouraged to use the target language. It has been shown that students’ comprehension is better when tales are told with repetitions, comprehension checks and gestures. Adolescents can relate to most lyrics and often connect them to their own experiences in life so a wide range of vocabulary will help the students to improve their comprehension skills and add on to their vocabulary, grammar and correct spelling. Through music, grammar can be taught in a new way. Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and more can be introduced through music to break up the usual routine.

Background Music

For adolescents, listening to music is very often connected to their feelings, so background music can be incredibly powerful to use in the classroom to enhance the students’ creativity and a peaceful state of mind. “Music stabilizes mental, physical and emotional rhythms to attain a state of deep concentration and focus in which large amounts of content information can be processed and learned”. Since most adolescents like to work with music at home, this method will likely be appreciated in the language classroom.

Song Lyrics

When choosing songs with lyrics it is important to begin with songs that the students are familiar with so that the teacher can see where their students’ interest lies and also to get their full attention. As time goes by, the teacher can start using songs that are new to the students, yet appealing enough to engage them. The songs should have challenging vocabulary that is interesting and has a wide range. They should also contain language that can be analyzed and interpreted in many various ways. Songs, chants, poems, and raps will improve memory of content facts and details through rhyme, rhythm, and melody. There are so many different genres of music so the teachers need to be open minded and willing to explore music in many forms for all levels.

Grammar

Teaching grammar can easily be done through song lyrics that are written especially with that in mind. There are also popular songs that teenagers can relate to that teach grammar. An example of a grammar exercise could be to learn about nouns and verbs through a pop song. Many song lyrics that can be found in pop songs include a good amount of grammar exercises, such as; “She loves you” by The Beatles that teaches the present tense, “Yellow” by Coldplay that teaches irregular past tense verbs, “Lately” by Stevie Wonder where the students can learn about present simple and continuous and “Every breath you take” by The Police that teaches future continuous, and is also ideal to use for other activities such as analyzing lyrics and creating discussions.

Pronunciation

What learners need to concentrate on when learning pronunciation is to be able to communicate successfully with other non-native speakers of English from different L1 backgrounds? Music is such a good way to teach pronunciation to children of all ages. It is good for learners to hear a variety of pronunciations so that they will know what suits their personalities.

Figurative language

In order to expand the students’ vocabulary, it is important for them to become familiar with figurative language. Within figurative language I include metaphors. Often, metaphorical expressions vary between the first and the second languages and that creates problems for the students. Therefore metaphors should be discussed and compared for better comprehension of the target language.  Music is a perfect tool to teach this, as there is figurative language and metaphors in so many songs of all genres. Pre-listening, it is a good idea to explain what figurative language and metaphors are. The teacher could write a few examples on the board and have the students brainstorm for a few minutes. Post listening, the teacher goes through every sentence of a song with multiples metaphors with the students verbally and asks for their input. It is good to ask the whole class at once instead of one particular person to get a discussion going. Going through figurative language and metaphors though music is a successful teaching method.