Music Helps Learn New Languages

Music has been praised for many benefits but now it has been proven that it can help learn new languages.

Nature Neuroscience

The April 2007 issue reveals that playing a musical instrument actually enhances the brainstem's sensitivity to speech sounds. So, not only does instrument training improve the quality of sound but it can also train the brain to pick up new sounds used in language. Experience with music at a young age "fine-tunes" the brain's auditory system. [Northwestern University, sciencedaily.com, March 13, 2007]

Tones

While the English language does not use many intonations, other languages do. When we ask a question in English, the tone will rise at the end of the sentence. However, raising the tone or lowering it in English does not change the meaning of the word. In other languages, that is not the case. In Chinese, using an upward or downward tone totally changes the meaning of the word. The word "mi" in Mandarin means "to bewilder" if the tone is rising, "to squint" if level, and "rice" if falling. [Northwestern University, sciencedaily.com, March 13, 2007]

Auditory Neuroscience Lab

Nina Kraus, director of Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, says, "Increasing music experience appears to benefit all children -- whether musically exceptional or not -- in a wide range of learning activities." Kraus, senior author of the study, also added that her research team discovered that children with learning disabilities can improve decoding with auditory training.

"Our findings underscore the pervasive impact of musical training on neurological development. Yet music classes are often among the first to be cut when school budgets get tight. That's a mistake," says Kraus.

Benefits of Music

So, not only does music provide enjoyment, it has been found to improve children's ability to solve math problems and now helps learn new languages.

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Copyright article 2007 Barbara Pytel. All Rights Reserved.