Of all of the studies that I have read up to this point, this one may excite me the most. That is because for the first time, researchers have been able to gather quantitative data that supports what many educators and learners have thought for a long time: singing aids foreign language learning (Ludke, Ferreira, & Overy, 2013)! As a singer, language learner, and future educator myself, I look forward to reaping the rewards of this research-backed method in both my future classrooms and my future learning endeavours.
In this study, researchers gathered sixty adult participants, all of whom were native English speakers, to learn 20 phrases in an unnamed, unfamiliar language (which was later revealed to be Hungarian). One third of the participants learned the phrases by listening to a spoken recording, another third of the participants learned them by listening to a rhythmic speaking recording, while the remaining third learned them by listening to a sung recording. All of the recordings were preceded by a recording of the equivalent English phrase and were spoken or sung at the same speed. An equal number of men and women participated in the study and each participant’s phonological working memory, mood, language aptitude, language-learning history, and musical training and ability were tested and accounted for.
Prior to the experiment commencing, the participants were given a short practice session to help them become familiar with the format of the ‘listening and repeating’ portion, which was as follows: 1. Spoken English phrase followed by a one second pause 2. Spoken/rhythmically spoken/sung Hungarian phrase followed by a one second pause
3. Spoken/rhythmically spoken/sung Hungarian phrase again followed by an eight second pause so the participant could repeat the Hungarian phrase aloud to the best of their ability.
Following the practice session, the participants began the first of three 5-minute ‘listening and repeating’ rounds. For the first round, the twenty Hungarian phrases were displayed on a screen while their recording was being played. For the following two rounds, the same process was repeated with the same 20 Hungarian phrases, however, the phrases were not displayed on the screen.
Following the ‘listen and repeat’ portion, the participants completed five Hungarian tests to assess how well they retained the phrases and their meanings. The first test was a multiple-choice Hungarian vocabulary test where participants matched a Hungarian word with its English meaning. The second test was a Hungarian production test where the participants heard the twenty English phrases in a random order and then attempted to reproduce their Hungarian equivalents orally. It is important to note that all participants were asked to speak their answers even if they were in the singing group. The third test was an English recall test where participants heard the twenty Hungarian phrases (in the same format as they did during the ‘listen and repeat’ section) in a random order and attempted to remember their English equivalents. The fourth test was a Hungarian recognition test where participants were asked to identify which spoken recordings of the Hungarian phrases were correct and which had incorrect syllable placements. For example, “Megismételné, kérem was changed to Megistelméné, kérem” (Ludke, Ferreira, & Overy, 2013). The fifth test was a Hungarian conversation test. For this test participants heard an audio recording of a Hungarian phrase and were required to respond orally with a Hungarian phrase that might make sense in that context. They were given partial marks if they responded with the Hungarian phrases for “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand”. As this was the last test and was completed 20 minutes after the final ‘listen and repeat’ session, the researchers considered it to be a ‘delayed recall’ test.
Each participants’ sessions were recorded and their oral responses phonetically transcribed. These transcriptions were later analyzed without the researchers knowing which group they belonged to (spoken, rhythmically spoken, or singing). After analyzing the results and regrouping them, the singing group had the highest mean scores on 4 of the 5 tests (the multiple choice test, the Hungarian production test, the English recall test, and the Hungarian conversation test). For the Hungarian recognition test, they tied for the highest mean scores with the speaking groups. The most notable advantages for the singing group were observed in the Hungarian production test and the Hungarian conversation test. This is particularly encouraging for teachers (and students) seeking to improve speaking and conversational skills in the target language!
Until next time music and language lovers!
Sources:
Ludke, K. M., Ferreira, F., & Overy, K. 2013. Singing can facilitate foreign language learning. Memory and Cognition doi: 10.3758/s13421-013-0342-5
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