By Merissa Moore
Music is one of the most wonderful forms of art and artistic impressions known to humans. Unlike visual arts, music can only be perceived and appreciated in time, not just space. Also, playing and even listening to music stimulates many sections of the human brain. By just listening to the musical piece, we manage to perceive the texture of the sound, rhythm (which involves the motor function of the brain), and various creative patterns used by the composer. And if the music contains lyrics, it can also help us learn the language it’s written in.
Music and Our Brain
There have been lots of studies talking about the strong influence that music has on our brain. Long story short, music initiates some real fireworks in our brain. We catch the rhythm, tone, pitch, and even words and pronunciation as we listen to the music, let alone when we play it. In this case, our memory works too, activating our brain almost entirely and making it work at its full potential.
All the processes described above often highly stimulate us, largely increasing our learning capabilities for some time. That’s why listening to songs in another language is so useful as you learn this language. If it doesn’t help, you can always find here the best online translation services to take care of language problems in your life. In most cases, however, music and lyrics do help you learn new languages, and here are only a few quick facts as to how they do it.
- By stimulating our brain. As it was said before, only by listening to music, we activate many parts of our brains responsible for physical movement, thinking, perception, and learning. The main trick here is in the interconnectedness of the brain neurons that become even more flexible and connected by the electric impulses that our brain creates when it enjoys music. Thus, our learning capabilities increase, and we can learn a new grammar rule or some words (or anything else, essentially) much faster.
- By exposing us to pronunciation. In most cases, when singers perform songs, they don’t simulate any particular pronunciation and use their native one even in the studio. This is unlike the news announcers or voice artists that undergo special training that allows them to read the text using a pronunciation understood by many people. This is very hard to perform while singing, so you’ll often hear performers using a more natural way to pronounce the words.
- By exposing us to informal language. The songs are very rarely written in a formal, academic, or otherwise professional style. And when they are, it’s usually made for a comedic effect. Lyricists typically write the way they feel, often using slang and colloquial language, sometimes even disregarding the grammar rules. This way, you’ll learn not only what’s written in textbooks and learning materials but also the way people speak.
- By creating patterns. The lines of lyrics often rhyme using particular words. Simultaneously, they are sung in a certain rhythm, tempo, and with a certain feel. All of these opens a vast space for associating and memorizing the words in the lyrics faster.
- By letting us have fun. Listening, playing, or singing along to the music is an enjoyable activity. And just as it’s delightful, it’s also extremely engaging. There are lots of games that you can play with music as you learn a new language. And just like in the point described above, this allows you to create connections between the activity and learned material, thus, increasing your learning capabilities by a mile.
Music to Your Ears
Learning can sometimes be challenging. But this can be easily solved by adding some fun to the process. And there’s barely anything else that’s as fun as music, and for a good reason. With its ability to immediately activate nearly all parts of our brains at once, music can become a universal and the most effective assistant for language teachers. And if you’re learning the language on your own, music can be even of greater use, allowing you to learn more at a much faster pace.
BIO:
Merissa Moore has traveled and worked enough to be 100 percent sure in her writings. At the same time, she doesn’t seem to have had enough. Merissa continues to travel and learn new things every day to share all those experiences with you.
