Good Vibrations: Connections Among Memory, Musical Ability, and Second Language Acquisition, and the Skillful Employment of Music in the Foreign Language Classroom

Matthew M. Kalin

This paper was completed and submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master Teacher Program, a 2-year faculty professional development program conducted by the Center for Teaching Excellence, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, 2020.

ABSTRACT

The mission of the United States Military Academy Department of Foreign Languages is to educate and train the Corps of Cadets in language acquisition, cultural competence, and regional expertise, so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character who can leverage foreign language learning to bridge cultural chasms and build relationships critical to the Army, and to inspire each graduate for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army. This paper is intended to support the language acquisition pillar of the Department of Foreign Languages’ mission by providing background research, contemporary analysis, and practical application drawn from the connections among memory, musical ability, and second language acquisition. To that end, this paper introduces the topic, discusses the nature of memory, explores music and musical ability, and presents some key aspects of second language acquisition. The paper then traces connections among those three subjects, after which it provides applications for the use of music in the foreign language classroom. Before concluding, the paper addresses some critiques about the application of music in teaching and learning languages. Ultimately, this paper concludes that music is an effective tool in enhancing second language acquisition, and that teachers should skillfully employ music in the foreign language classroom.

INTRODUCTION

Language and music seem to be innately connected: both involve the production of sound with the generation of vibrations projected through the air, sign language excluded; both support the conveyance of meaning or expression usually in a social setting, sign language included; and the capacities for both develop in human beings at a very young age. Interestingly, the prospectus from a 2008 conference in Dijon, France titled “Musique Langage Cerveau” (“Music Language Brain”) states that “Les similitudes entre ces deux activités ne sont donc pas superficielles: la musique et le langage pourraient être deux expressions d’une même compétence pour la communication humaine” (“The similarities between these two activities are therefore not superficial: music and language could be two expressions of the same competence for human communication”).1 No species aside from human beings creates language and music, so it makes sense that music and language could express the same competence of communication.

1 Jackendoff, “Parallels and Nonparallels,” p. 195.

1 If music and language are somehow connected as a communicative human competence, then one can logically theorize that development in the capacity of one might positively affect the capacity of the other. For “while speech is symbolic, sound is the bearer of its message.”2 This paper explores the research and literature about that hypothetical connection at the cognitive level, while also proposing practical applications of the research for classroom use. More specifically, this paper is intended to support the language acquisition pillar of the Department of Foreign Languages’ mission by providing background research, contemporary analysis, and practical application drawn from the connections among memory, musical ability, and second language acquisition. To that end, this paper introduces the topic, discusses the nature of memory, explores music and musical ability, and presents some key aspects of second language acquisition. The paper then traces connections among those three subjects, after which it provides applications for the use of music in the foreign language classroom. Before concluding, the paper addresses some critiques about the application of music in teaching and learning languages. Ultimately, this paper concludes that music is an effective tool in enhancing second language acquisition, and that teachers should skillfully employ music in the foreign language classroom.

MUSIC AND EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

As stated in the introduction, language and music can be considered as a connected expression of human communication. However, language and music might not only be two distinct expressions of this uniquely human skill. Rather, language could actually be considered as a form of music. If we view musical ability as a priori to language, it can provide a better framework for understanding the development of the two in the young human brain, and later in the adult brain. Children are born with an appreciation for music, well before they are able to speak. According to Brandt, Gebrian, and Slevc, “Spoken language is introduced to the child as a vocal performance, and children attend to its musical features first. Without the ability to hear musically, it would be impossible to learn to speak.” Research in this area shows that music and language are “deeply entangled in early life and develop along parallel tracks.” For this reason, it is more useful from the perspective of human development to describe language as “a special type of music in which referential discourse is bootstrapped onto a musical framework.”3 The idea, then, is that children have an innate musical ability that can be used for the transmission of language. To provide a more concrete example of how language is attached to and transmitted by a musical framework, consider how adults speak to infants. Commonly known as “baby-talk”, think about the tones that adults use when speaking to young children—that is, the sort of “goo- goo-ga-ga” language reserved for infants. In the linguistic world, this infant-directed speech is known as motherese, and it is characterized by high-pitched, slow, and rhythmic patterns. Furthermore, “the use of motherese appears to be a cultural universal, and intentions expressed in infant speech can be understood even across very different languages and cultures.”4 So naturally, one might wonder why this is a near-universal cultural phenomenon. Why is it that people talk to infants using this sing-song style of speech?

2 Brandt et al., “Music and Early Language Acquisition,” p. 3. 3 Ibid., p. 1. 4 Ibid., p. 7.

2 According to the research, it is possible that “infant directed speech and singing serves as an aid for language learning by capturing and engaging attention and communicating affective information, and later by enhancing the important patterns in language (such as vowel categories and word divisions, e.g.).”5 It seems that motherese is an evolutionary trait, universal in the human species, that serves to facilitate the transmission of language from one generation to the next in a musical format. In other words, “infants use the musical aspects of language (rhythm, timbral contrast, melodic contour) as a scaffolding for the later development of semantic and syntactic aspects of language. Infants are not just listening for affective cues nor are they focused exclusively on meaning: they are listening for how their language is composed.”6 For greater detail, note the following figure7 which explains parallel development of music and language in children from the ages of six months to twelve months. In the figure, blue text is used to annotate parallel development, while purple text is used to annotate related development. Black text annotates development of language only. In the figure, it is plain to see how the development of music and language in the infant brain is clearly intertwined.

This interconnectedness of music and language development at a young age is noteworthy, because it underscores how “it is our innate musical intelligence that makes us capable of mastering speech.”8 This connects back to the idea stated in the beginning of the section that, perhaps, instead of developing on two separate paths in the human brain, language is in actuality a special type of music that stems from the innate musical intelligence found in all human infants. In the subsequent section, this paper will discuss how such a musical intelligence

5 Brandt et al., “Music and Early Language Acquisition,” p. 7. 6 Ibid., p. 6. 7 Ibid., p. 7. 8 Ibid., p. 10.

3 can influence mastery of speech at the adult level, and similarly how music can also play a role in improved second language acquisition later in life.

MUSIC AND ADULT SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

In the previous section, we established that music and early language development is intertwined in the brain of the infant and the child. As the human brain matures, the connection between music and language may seem to be less apparent. However, that connection never truly dissipates over time. “Although the initial entanglement of music and language gradually unravels over the course of development, the fact that underlying deficits in musical hearing are associated with a variety of language impairments argues for the idea that although music and language grow apart, they are never truly separate in the brain.”9 Additionally, if deficits in musical hearing are connected to language impairment, one might assume that cultivation of musical hearing could be connected to language improvement. Or put more simply, one might assume that musical training later in life would result in improvements in language learning. Research shows that, in fact, musical training later in life does result in linguistic advantages, such as better understanding of pitch, emotional cues, and timing contrasts. These advantages also increase “the ability to perceive and learn second language sound structures.”10 These advantages of musical training, and their positive impacts on second language acquisition, would be believable enough from a perspective of logic. But we can scientifically support these assumptions by an examination of the physiological aspects of the human brain. Musical training can positively impact second language acquisition because “the neural regions underlying speech and music perception show significant overlap even in adults, with both types of stimuli recruiting a bilateral frontal-temporal network.”11 It is not enough, however, to simply state that the neural regions of speech and music perception overlap. Curious minds would inquire exactly how, and by what mechanisms, musical training assists with the brain’s processing of language. Researchers hypothesize that musical training influences the neural encoding of speech because “both music and speech use pitch, timing, and timbre to convey information,” and years of processing these cues through musical training “may enhance their processing in the context of speech.” In this way, music drives “adaptive plasticity in speech processing networks” in the brain.12 Patel’s OPERA hypothesis proposes that this music-driven adaptive plasticity occurs when the following five conditions are met: Overlap – anatomical overlap in brain networks processing acoustic features in music and speech; Precision – music placing higher demands on these networks than speech; Emotion – musical activities in these networks eliciting positive emotion; Repetition – musical activities in these networks are often repeated; and Attention – musical activities engaging these networks require focused attention.13 According to the OPERA hypothesis, “when these [five] conditions are met, neural plasticity drives the networks in question to function with higher precision than needed for ordinary speech communication. Yet, since speech shares these networks with music, speech

9 Brandt et al., “Music and Early Language Acquisition,” p. 8. 10 Ibid., pp. 10-11. 11 Ibid., p. 4. 12 Patel, “The OPERA Hypothesis,” p. 1. 13 Ibid., p. 1.

4 processing benefits.”14 This explains why, at the neurobiological level, music and musical training positively influence language ability. The following figure15 depicts auditory pathways in the brain, with the circles showing the precise locations where the actual music-drive adaptive plasticity occurs.

Other studies conducted by Marques and Moreno demonstrate evidence for “an interconnection between language and music, and an explanation for the often reported higher- language learning ability of musicians.16 One such study shows that musical expertise results in increased pitch discrimination, equally applicable to both musical pitch and linguistic pitch in first and second languages. “These types of findings support the idea that music can facilitate second language acquisition and language acquisition in general.”17 Additional studies show that musical training is at least as beneficial for language improvement as supplementary reading lessons, and possibly even more beneficial.18 Other studies show that songs in particular can help second language learners “acquire new patterns of stress and rhythm, strengthen pronunciation skills, and make an emotional connection to the language of choice.”19 All of these studies highlight the idea that musical training and music itself positively influence language ability in general, and second language acquisition in particular.

14 Jancke, “Relationship between Music and Language,” p. 2. 15 Patel, “The OPERA Hypothesis,” p. 2. 16 Moreno, “Can Music Influence Language and Cognition?”, p. 338. 17 Ibid. 18 MIT, “How Music Lessons Can Improve Languages Skills,” p. 1. 19 Pavlenko, “Do Musicians Make Better Language Learners?”, p. 2.

5 APPLICATIONS FOR MUSIC USE IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

If music and musical training positively influence language ability and second language acquisition, then it makes to incorporate music into foreign language programs. At this point in the paper, as we progress in greater detail to practical applications in the foreign language classroom, we should introduce some terminology that is particular to second language acquisition. “L1” is used to refer an individual’s native language; “L2” is used to refer to an individual’s second language, or target language. Since music and music training improve cognitive processes used in language acquisition as described in the previous section, “integrating music training into L2 programs or encouraging concurrent music and language training can potentially improve foreign language pronunciation, receptive phonology, and reading skills.”20 In addition to the more detail neurological analysis in the previous section, a secondary conceptional analysis of brain structure and functions can help explain why music can be beneficial to learning in a classroom setting. “The left hemisphere of the brain expresses thoughts in words, while the right hemisphere of the brain controls actions, problem resolution, memory, and emotions. Most learners use the right hemisphere of the brain to process music, and since most instructions relies heavily on left-brain approaches, music opens an opportunity to learners who have a strong right brain orientation.”21 This means that music can serve as an intermediary between the two sides of the brain, creating greater opportunities for greater numbers of students to learn and actively engage in classroom material. In greater detail, we know that “songs bridge the [brain’s] hemispheres, strengthening retention through a complementary function as the right hemisphere learns the melody, the left, the words.”22 Furthermore, “when a learning activity combines both left and right hemispheres simultaneously engaged in a particular activity, an ideal learning situation is established and the most productive learning occurs.”23 This is an absolutely essential aspect of the learning process, and a key point of this paper— “music possesses an invaluable key to incorporate the whole brain in the learning process.”24 By incorporating music into the classroom, teachers can generate more effective learning environments for their students. The question, then, is how exactly to incorporate music into the foreign language classroom effectively. Music can be used as a memory aid to teach students new vocabulary. It is true that recalling words that are new or unfamiliar can become quickly frustrating to learners. However, studies suggest that “simple musical song can transform ordinary text into information that is effectively retained and recalled when needed.”25 In the foreign language classroom, and in the French classroom in particular, simple songs with recognizable or easily memorable melodies like “Sur le Pont d’Avignon” (“On the Avignon Bridge”) can be used to teach basic grammatical structures such as prepositions. The idea of involuntary mental rehearsal, known as “din” in psychology, can also be leveraged in the classroom through the use of catchy and enjoyable music. Din is the “phenomenon occurring after a period of contact with a foreign language in which the new

20 Zeromskaite, “Potential Role of Music in Second Language Learning,” p. 85. 21 Salcedo, “Effects of Songs in the Foreign Language Classroom,” p. 21. 22 Guglielmino, “The Affective Edge,” p. 20. 23 Anton, “Combining Singing and Psychology,” p. 1170. 24 Salcedo, “Effects of Songs in the Foreign Language Classroom,” p. 21. 25 Ibid., p. 22.

6 information repeats without the speaker’s intentional effort.”26 This repetition can be prompted to occur musically by getting a catchy song stuck in a student’s head. This sort of “musical din” then can be “an indication that the natural language acquisition process is taking place.” In fact, “songs seem to offer an advantage in memorizing phrase constructions more easily and they tend to ‘stick’ in the student’s head like a hammering tune we cannot stop humming.”27 Another way that the employment of songs and music in the classroom can aid in learning, both inside and outside the classroom, is that they help mitigate some common memory killers. Common memory killers include stress and anxiety, information overload, fatigue, and multitasking.28 Music help to mitigate these memory killers by reducing stress and anxiety, limiting information flow, energizing the student, and capturing attention.

CRITIQUES

Although the evidence is extremely convincing, some authors and researchers still urge caution when it comes to attributing too much weight to the connection between language and music. For example, although he seems to be a prolific proponent of musical training to improve language acquisition, Ray Jackendoff urges “caution in drawing strong connections between language and music, both in the contemporary human brain and in their evolutionary roots.”29 Similarly, researchers McMullen and Saffran express some doubt about their own conclusions. Even though they themselves have drawn parallels between linguistic and musical faculties during development, they note that “there remains a good deal of neurological evidence for cortical separation of these functions in adults, and some imaging evidence as well.”30 However, their reservations expressed in a 2004 article are post-dated by Patel’s scientifically convincing OPERA hypothesis, published in 2011. My assumption is that greater scientific inquiry, with more modern neurobiological techniques, will continue to confirm the strong link between music and language.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

Although it is unlikely that the United States Military would add music training to the curriculum, it is certainly feasible to incorporate music into the classroom environment. Based on the overwhelming evidence that music aids with second language acquisition, it is advisable to include musical activities when developing both syllabi and lesson plans. The most easily accessible way to make this musical incorporation is through the use of songs in the classroom. “The use of songs could replace excessive readings, which would not only relieve some language performance anxiety but also possible improve the long-range potential for better pronunciation. Songs provide a way for beginning students to repeatedly hear the native pronunciation in a natural occurrence until they are comfortable enough to produce speech.”31 It is essential that language teachers enable students to effectively understand and communicate authentically. It is hard to find a more authentic form of communication than a

26 Salcedo, “Effects of Songs in the Foreign Language Classroom,” p. 22. 27 Ibid., pp. 22-23. 28 UNC, “Learning Languages,” p. 4. 29 Jackendoff, “Parallels and Nonparallels,” p. 203. 30 McMullen & Saffran, “Music and Language, p. 304. 31 Salcedo, “Effects of Songs in the Foreign Language Classroom,” p. 27.

7 song, for “a song is an ideal marriage of poetry and music, and is one of the most authentic expressions of people, their feelings, and their everyday life.”32 As we continue to improve our classrooms for the educational benefits of our students, foreign language teachers should strive to include music to promote authentic and effective language learning.

32 Salcedo, “Effects of Songs in the Foreign Language Classroom,” p. 27.

8 Bibliography

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Guglielmino, Lucy M. “The Affective Edge: Using Songs and Music in ESL Instruction,” Adult Literacy and Basic Education Vol. 10 (1986): 19-26.

Jackendoff, Ray. “Parallels and Nonparallels between Language and Music,” Music Perception Vol. 26, Iss. 3 (Spring 2009): 195-204.

Jancke, Lutz. “The Relationship between Music and Language,” Frontiers in Psychology Vol. 3, Art. 123 (April 27, 2012).

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “How Music Lessons Can Improve Language Skills: Study Links Piano Education with Better Word Discrimination by Kindergartners,” ScienceDaily (June 25, 2018) [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180625192827.htm].

McMullen, Erin; and Saffran, Jenny R. “Music and Language: A Developmental Comparison,” Music Perception Vol. 21, No. 3 (Spring 2004): 289-311.

Moreno, Sylvain. “Can Music Influence Language and Cognition?”, Contemporary Music Review Vol. 28, No. 3 (June 2009): 329-345.

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Pavlenko, Aneta. “Do Musicians Make Better Language Learners?”, Psychology Today (July 5, 2017) [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-bilingual/201707/do-musicians-make- better-language-learners].

Salcedo, Claudia S. “The Effects of Songs in the Foreign Language Classroom on Text Recall, Relayed Text Recall, and Involuntary Mental Rehearsal,” Journal of College Teaching & Learning Vol. 7, No. 6 (June 2010): 19-30.

University of North Carolina. “Learning Languages,” The Learning Center [https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/learning-a-second-language/].

Zeromskaite, Ieva. “The Potential Role of Music in Second Language Learning: A Review Article,” Journal of European Psychology Students Vol. 5, No. 3 (2014): 78-88.

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