Whether a language learning goal is a belated New Year’s resolution or a lifelong ambition for your students, having the right attitude and the right tools is the key to achieving fluency. Music is one such tool that can be used to boost the success of your language lessons.
Unbeknown to most, there’s a strong connection between music and language. Music has been proven to strengthen an individual’s language learning abilities.
Renowned composer Mozart was famously multilingual and spoke several languages, including Italian, French, and German. With a musical influence, learners can easily master the rhythm, tone, melody, and pitch of a new language.
In addition to this, music has been proven to improve our abilities to memorise large volumes of information in a fun and engaging way. Improved pronunciation and use of vocabulary are two more advantages of teaming music with language learning.
Here are just a few ways that you can incorporate music into your language lessons to help your students succeed on their own language learning journeys.
Make your own music
Unlock the marvellous memory boosting abilities of music and let creativity flow by getting your students to pick their favourite tune and add their own language learning lyrics.
Music makes things memorable, which is great news if you want students to memorise a particular phrase in their target foreign language.
To help your students find the perfect song for their target phrase, determine the number of syllables in the sentence, and find a song or nursery rhyme with the same number of syllables. Swap the original lyrics with the target phrase and get singing. Remember, repetition is key.
Listen to foreign tunes
The foreign language you’re looking to teach is likely to have a back catalogue of songs to explore. While students may not be as familiar with them as their preferred genres, with plenty of listening and repetition, these foreign songs can quickly become favourites. Foreign songs can also be mined to expand your student’s vocabulary.
A better understanding of a foreign language can be gained by expanding your student’s musical horizons. As the British Council explains, even breaking down the title of a song can help students improve their knowledge:
“Here are a couple of examples of the types of questions you can ask:
For John Lennon’s wonderful ‘Jealous Guy’:
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‘What is a ‘jealous guy’?’
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‘What are three things a jealous guy might do?’
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‘What kinds of jealousy are there?’
For Queen’s classic ‘We are the champions’:
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‘What is a champion?’
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‘What kinds of champions are there in the world?’
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‘What activities have champions?’
Such questions tend to work really well as conversation starters, so group three or four learners together and then get feedback from each group on their thoughts. If you think it would help, make this your first step, i.e., before the initial listening.”
Create the perfect learning environment
As well as aiding language learning directly, music has the power to set the scene and create an ideal environment for better learning. Playing a certain song when your students enter the room can settle their minds to ready them for the lesson ahead.
Those looking to change the tempo from a high energy activity to a more calming segment of the lesson will also feel the benefits of playing relaxing background music.
Music is extremely emotive, and can be used to manage feelings and lift moods to ensure all students are perceptive and keen to learn so much more. It can also provide a great way to personalise language lessons to each student’s needs and interests.
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