Hi everyone! I just got back from a nice little holiday and am as excited as ever to learn how researchers and educators are using music to enhance language learning all over the world. This week, I shall take you to sunny Spain where two researchers from the university of Huelva conducted an intervention study with grade 6 students (Toscano-Fuentes & Fonseca, 2012).
In this study, researchers analysed the effectiveness of a musical approach to teaching English as a foreign language. Each of the 49 participants had been studying English since grade 1 with the same teacher. In order to quantitatively measure the students' progress following the intervention, each participant took a general English language test at the beginning and end of the school year, the PLAB (Pimsleur Language Aptitude Battery) test to measure auditory and linguistic aptitudes, and the Seashore test to measure musical abilities. To gather some qualitative data, the researchers asked the students to fill out a questionnaire at the end of the intervention to measure their satisfaction with the program. The researchers’ classroom observations were incorporated into the analysis as well.
During the intervention, instrumental music from the Baroque and Classical periods was played in the background during classroom explanations as well as during independent and group work. Moreover, each day the students listened to and/or sung a song from one of their textbooks (either Jazz Chants or Raps! For learning English). These were supplemented with additional songs by English-language singers and bands. The main aim of these listening activities was to improve listening skills, pronunciation, and intonation, as well as learn or review vocabulary and/or grammatical concepts.
Unsurprisingly, Toscano-Fuentes and Fonseca's findings indicated that students with more advanced auditory aptitudes also had more musical ability and vise versa. Nevertheless, following the intervention, all of the students’ showed improvement! The largest changes were observed in receptive skills (listening and reading), however, productive skills (speaking, writing, and correct grammar usage) also improved following the musical intervention.
When analyzing the student surveys, 98% of the participants found working with songs in class enjoyable and 94% appreciated the use of background music. 92% feel they are more competent in English following the intervention while 94% feel more motivated to learn with this new methodology. It is also worth noting that prior to the intervention the class had difficulties working in groups and would most often work with the same partners during each activity. Despite this, during the intervention the researchers observed them branching out more and more frequently and in the student surveys 96% stated that they enjoyed working with all of the students including those from the other classes. So not only did music help students hone their language skills, it made class more enjoyable, and helped them with their interpersonal skills!
What's more, according to Toscano-Fuentes and Fonseca's classroom observations, incorporating background music improved student behaviour both towards each other and their teacher. The use of songs and narrated stories with accompanying music not only increased the oral input the students received in the target language, but also helped students relax. In addition, it improved the overall classroom environment by increasing student bonding, making students' more accepting of one another, and creating a sense of community. This made the students more comfortable and willing to take risks, make mistakes, collaborate with one another, and communicate in English more frequently in class.
Following the intervention, Toscano-Fuentes and Fonseca noted the importance of teachers having a variety of diagnostic tools at their disposal to periodically assess students’ auditory and linguistic abilities as well as verbal memory skills. In having access to such tools, they feel confident that educators can create lessons that better target the needs of their students, particularly if they struggle to discriminate the sounds of the target language, interpret and remember oral input, and process grammatical concepts. Furthermore, the researchers believe that integrating music into the language classroom can improve student concentration, provide a connection to their personal interests, stimulate their creative processes, reduce distracting noises, create a relaxing, motivating, and productive atmosphere, more efficiently develop communicative skills in the target language, and activate prior linguistic knowledge. Frankly, I couldn't agree more!
Until next time music and language lovers!
Sources:
Toscano-Fuentes, C., Fonseca, M. (2012). Music as a facilitating tool of learning English as a foreign language. Teoría De La Educación 24(2), 197-213. doi:10.14201/ted.10361