Music to my ears…

I recently found an article about the correlation between music and language acquisition (article here). When I stop to think about how I use language in the classroom, it has a musicality to it. For example, the intonation of my voice when I ask a question, make an exclamation, or whisper to add emphasis or a sense of secrecy. Music requires both sides of the brain. According to another article written by Susanna Zaraysky (article here), music activates more parts of the brain than does language. She made a very profound statement “Music makes the puzzle of a foreign language come together”. This is true when you think about the rhythm, tone, timbre, flow, and accents of foreign languages.

Using music to teach makes a lot of sense. Helping students to learn and/or memorize songs in the target language that you are teaching will activate parts of their brain, parts that will help to store the information about the sounds, patterns and grammatical structures of language.

In her article, Susanna, also suggests activities to use in the classroom to incorporate music.

At my school, the world languages department has a music week at the beginning of the school year. We typically choose a different genre for each level of language study. I have typically chosen songs that I thought were popular and that students would enjoy; however, next year I am going to select songs that have particular grammatical structures that I want to target.

I have also used a number of children’s songs and nursery rhymes, and will look at incorporating more of them.

As a musician myself, I understand more and more the benefits of using music in my French classroom.