Having recently become a mother, I have become keenly interested in maternal language development. Being involved in second language (SL) education as a learner, teacher and researcher, I have always been intrigued by the similarities which exist between learning a first
language and learning subsequent ones. Many popular methodologies for teaching SL have their roots in the ways in which children acquire their mother tongue. Most recently the communicative/ experiential approach to teaching SL has promoted the idea that SL is learned best through real language experiences. Providing SL students with situations in which they are faced with a communicative need parallels the day-to-day environment in which young children are immersed.
One particular phenomenon which has recently peeked my interest is the connection between music and language development. Upon returning to work after a maternity leave, I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see that one of the articles recently published in the Canadian Modern Language Review, dealt with the link between SL learning and music. Based on the premise that similarities exist between the underlying structure of language and music, this particular study sought to demonstrate the potential educational value (in terms of both musical and linguistic learning) of an integrated music/SL program (Lowe, 1998). One comment that I felt particularly telling was from a teacher who said that students learned without realizing it. From my limited experience with my beginning language |
learner, I too can already see the educational value of music. Not surprisingly, the teacher and students who took part in this study reported that they looked forward to the activities which combined language and musical learning. Most parents and teachers can certainly attest to a relatively high level of enjoyment when children are exposed to music.
Lowe's (1998) article definitely goes far beyond a simple discussion of the value of music as a tool to learning a SL. Despite this fact, it does make some very noteworthy pedagogical points about the effectiveness of an integrated and experiential approach to SL learning. For example, it was noted early on in the teaching process that although objectives were music based, students were learning language (Lowe, 1998). In this particular case music was the vehicle through which SL learning was taking place. The content-based approach to SL teaching, with which many immersion teachers are very familiar, is also based on this principle - that language can be successfully learned through content areas rather than as a subject onto itself (i.e., language arts). Another intriguing observation made in this particular piece of research was the fact that students exposed to a music-based SL curriculum demonstrated creativity not only in terms of music but also in language. Creativity, as most SL teachers are well aware, is a highly desirable skill for SL learners to acquire as it fosters the spontaneous and experimental use of language. Music has also been described by SL educators and an |
excellent way to expose learners to some cultural aspects of the SL. In Shrum and Glisan's (1995) handbook for contextualized language instruction, they point to music as an ideal way to integrate culture with SL a content based or whole language SL curriculum. The authenticity of musical selections is also important as it exposes SL learners to authentic documents, a practice promoted by a communicative/ experiential methodology.
In a recent article published in Japanese Association for Language Teaching (JALT) journal, Kanel (1997) looks at the value of using popular music as an authentic means of developing listening skills. Using a cloze type exercise, the study showed the song-based version of this activity, was as effective as traditional methods (if not more so in some cases) in increasing listening comprehension (Kanel, 1997). Some teachers shy away from using target language (TL) music as they fear students will experience frustration due to limited understanding. If music is chosen carefully this is rarely the case. In fact, TL music usually does the contrary by increasing learner motivation. Do mothers or fathers not sing or play music to their babies because they are afraid they won't understand all the lyrics? This question seems almost ridiculous in the area of mother tongue learning so why is it a sensible one in the field of SL learning? It may often benefit our SL students to look more carefully and seriously to ways we all learned our first language. In this issue of Le Lien, we will continue to explore this topic by giving some practical ideas for integrating music into a SL program. |
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