Languages and music
Wednesday, 8th July 2009
Everyone loves music, and a catchy tune (irrespective of what language the lyrics are sung in) will always stick in your mind.
Let’s face it, the lyrics of some English songs are so unclear that people make up their own versions anyway! Take, for example, U2‘s ‘She Moves in Mysterious Ways’ whose title and principal line (according to MSN) has apparently also been interpreted as “Shamu the mysterious whale”…
Music is a great way to enhance language learning, often without even making too much effort. It is often the case that in countries where a large percentage of the population speak (or understand) English well, many of the songs played on the radio and on tv music channels are in English - Germany to name but one. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that music by English-speaking artists should dominate the entire world (as the French will agree- they have an actual regulated quota in place that ensures at least 40% of songs played on the radio are in French!), or that listening to foreign language songs alone will make you fluent, but it serves as a useful example of how it can help.
Music and lyrics have long been used in the classroom, not only to practise listening skills, but also to make the lessons more interesting, but perhaps this is something that needs to be looked at on a wider scale in the current era? Language learning in the UK has been suffering of late, and the young especially are said (in general) to show little interest in becoming multilingual. Given that teenagers are famous for their interest in music, maybe there is more than we could be doing to link music and language learning for this age group.
With so many bilingual superstars and icons in the charts today (Jennifer Lopes, Christina Aguilera and Shakira to name but a few), there must be options to explore - not an easy feat I imagine, but one worth considering nevertheless…
Tags: teenagers, children, language learning, language, german, learning, french, spanish, english
Posted by Laura Lippert 2009-07 under Passion for language, Making Progress,
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