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Written on January 30, 2012 by aarongmyers in Knowledge, Resources, Tips and Ideas
In early December I was pleased to be able to meet todays guest author Susanna Zaraysky for lunch here in Istanbul. Susanna is an accomplished language learner and a bit of an expert in using music to learn languages something I havent done a lot of. I am excited to have her share her expertise with us today.
language learning shows that not only is the previously considered critical period of language acquisition longer than previously thought but that multilingual people are mental jugglers. Music is a way to keep your language juggling fluid and natural. Its so simple. Yet sometimes it feels like I am talking to the wall when I tell people how lyrical songs can help people learn language. Ive given presentations about my book, Language Is Music, to the US State Department (the Foreign Ministry of the US), various universities and to the Defense Language Institutein Monterey, California and I got many dumbfounded looks from language teachers when I explained how to use songs to teach language. Really? I can use songs to teach grammar?
Yes.
The neurological links between language and music are vast but the basic thing to remember is that music activates more parts of the brain than language does, on both the right and left sides of the brain. So if you remember something to a tune, you are more likely to recall the information than if you just read it or heard it spoken. Have you ever heard a song on the radio that you havent heard in a decade and you surprise yourself by singing all the lyrics? Music and catchy jingles can stick in our minds for years while names of people, places, verb conjugation charts and memorized data disappear. Example: Just yesterday, I was writing an email to someone in Spanish and telling him that I needed to dust off my Thai cookbook to remember the recipe for Thai coconut milk soup for a Lunar New Year party with my friends. Id never used the word dust off in Spanish before, but I recalled it from the song Aunque no est de moda by Silvio Rodriguez, where the singer says:
Desempolvemos algo las pasiones lejanas algo de aquellos sueos sin ventanas. (Let us dust off something from our distant passions,something of those windowless dreams).
My words about Thai coconut milk soup were not as poetic or romantic as the words from the song, but it was my memory of the song lyrics that made me think of the word desempolvar in Spanish.
Tips on listening and using music to learn languages 1. LISTEN then talk
Watch this video to understand the fundamentals of how to listen to a foreign language to learn. This five minute video can save you many hours of painful work later on to
polish your accent. If you listen first to your target language, before speaking, you have a better chance of having good pronunciation. If you launch into speaking from Day One, you are likely to be speaking with a poor accent and it will be hard to rewire your brain later on to produce different sounds after you may have solidified your speaking patterns.
Theres a reason we have two ears and one mouth. Listen first, speak later, then learn the grammar and write. Dont rush into speaking. Learn the sounds of your languages first. It does not matter if at first you do not understand. You may start singing along without even knowing what you are singing. You are not only learning the rhythm of the language, you are learning new vocabulary.
Relax and close your eyes. Turn off the lights. Lie down, sit in a comfortable position or play. At first, dont try to understand the words, just listen. Your mind needs to be calm in order to absorb the sounds. Your ears need no other distractions to properly hear all the high, medium and low frequencies of the language. Do this regularly.
what they are listening to. Its best to find songs that tell a story so you can learn a story line. Stay away from music with profanity or inappropriate content.
www.lyrics.com www.azlyrics.com www.smartlyrics.com www.elyricsworld.com If you cant locate the lyrics on the lyrics websites, just type in the name of the song in quotes in a web search. If you dont know the name of the song, type in the refrain or the lyrics you do recall.
Prepare a vocabulary list from the songs and quiz yourself. Delete certain words from the verses of the song and fill in the blanks.