ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

Rosa Nez

Hallam, S. (2010). The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of
children and young people. International Journal of Music Education, 28(3) 269-289.

The power of music: Its impact on the intellectual, social and personal
development of children and young people

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze linguistically and critically an

article. We have selected this piece of writing because it will be useful for
another subject. The article comes from the International Journal of Music
Education. The issue deals with the possibility that knowledge of music can
enable other knowledges development. Therefore, this journal article
synthesizes research findings of different authors in different intellectual
development ending making suggestions for future research and a conclusion.
To start with, we have to know that we analyze an article where the author
mentions different authors opinions. For this reason, it requires an effort to find
the own authors opinion. Nevertheless, when she writes it, she glimpses her
position with a lot of elements and linguistics strategies.
Having in mind linguistic, pragmatic and functional aspects of language, we are
going to start with the first categories of Hedging. This type belongs to the use
of modal verbs, such as can, may or might, all of them with an epistemological
value. In other words, these verbs are useful for expressing the authors opinion
about the diverse research, which are formulated by other authors, without
showing her own point of view. For instance, in the following sentence this may
produce functional changes in how the brain processes information; the author
is not sure about this information because the human brain function is not
already known. On the other hand, it has been very difficult for us to find
intensifying modal verbs as do, have or will. These modal verbs are always
accompanied by the pronoun we which has only been used by the author when
the other authors views were based on studies whose results have been
demonstrated. For example, the ease with which we do this depend on our prior
musical and linguistic experiences and the culturally determined tonal schemed
or language to which we have become accustomed (Dowling, 1993).
In the second place, we analyse the category that belongs to intensifiers. We
observed a large amount of them which are known as amplifiers or maximizes.
The intensifiers tend to influence listeners reception of what it is said
(Partington, 1993). There are a lot of amplifiers and it is due to the fact that the
author agrees with the other authors views although she does not express her
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ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

Rosa Nez

accord directly. For instance, the children who received the music instruction
showed significantly greater gains in phonemic awareness However, we have
not found boosters, although the author glimpses that she agrees with the
studies of other authors. The other intensifiers are named downtoners and they
have a lowering effect. In this article it has been very difficult to find them, so we
only could locate just, slight and sufficiently. An example is the sentence, the
ability to perceive slight differences in phonemes appeared to depend on the
ability to extract information about the frequencies of the speech sounds (Lamb
& Gregory, 1993).
Analysing the text we have seen a large variety of linking words, the author
uses these words to help us to connect ideas or sentences, they help to
establish a logical argument. The great majority of them show chronological
order or a sequence, such as when or as. Another linking word that appears
many times is as, it shows a cause and an effect. For instance, when students
(aged 13-15) were taught to judge symmetrically structured musical phrases as
balanced or unbalanced using traditional instructions about the differences, or
participating in musical experiences, activity in different brain areas was
observed.
In order to continue with analysing the article, the author uses the passive voice
as a resource to highlight the most relevant events within the sentences, seeing
that the important fact is not who executes the action. An example is, as
learning continues and particular activities are engaged with over time
myelinization takes place. Or this knowledge is implicit, learned through
exposure to particular environment, and is applied automatically whenever we
listen to music or speech. In this case, the function is behind this strategy
choice is not to show his own opinion because many investigations have not
been demonstrated scientifically. However, in all contexts of the article it is
possible to understand the favourable authors opinion.
To conclude this deeper analysis, the nominalization is not frequently used
through the text, although we can find some of them, such as the transfer of
learning from one domain to another depend on the similarities between the
processes involved. Or learning occurs without our conscious awareness.
As far as I am concerned, the author uses many times the verb seem in the
entire article, but she does it with more intensity when she writes the
conclusions. I think that the use of this linguistic choice means that she doubts
about the truthfulness of the information. However, the author uses positive
amplifiers to express that she agrees them, but without confirm it.
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ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

Rosa Nez

What is the function there are behind the linguistic choice ...
I found modalities verbs in this text and usually when the author use this modality it is
because ... one example is : (copy the example)

All this useful vocabulary it is indicated to show the position of the author, help to identify the
position of the author Identify the voice of author

which are used to emphasize

such as

unable

In particular, deeper analysis applied / provide