Applications of Music in Teaching Foreign Languages:
Foundations and Practice
Kyle Kuzman
Advised by Professor Bettina Matthias, PhD
An Independent Scholar Senior Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics
Spring 2021
Middlebury College
Middlebury, Vermont
I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment
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Table of Contents
Abstract
2
Introduction and Rationale
2
Literature Review
Similarities Between Language and Music
Applications of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory
The Neuroscientific Case
Cognitive Processing Similarities between Music and Language
Cognitive Effects of Musical Training
Music’s Cognitive Priming Potential
Music’s Cognitive/Emotional Effects
Hemispheric Lateralization in Musical and Linguistic Production
Affective and Emotional Benefits
Self-Confidence
Motivation
Reduced Anxiety
Linguistic Benefits
Phonological/Pronunciation
Recall/Memory
Vocabulary Acquisition
Grammar Skills
Foreign Language Comprehension and Oral Language Skills
Conclusions
5
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7
8
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13
14
15
15
16
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19
21
23
24
26
Survey of Middlebury College Language Professors
Rationale and Methodology
Results
Teaching Experience, Self-Identified Musicality, and Teacher Training
Correlations Between Musicality, Teacher Training, and Music Use
Teaching Style and Approach
Music Use for Specific Levels and Purposes
Effects on Student Learning Attributed to Music
Professor Opinions and Suggestions on Music in Language Curricula
Professor Recommendations for Music Use in the Language Classroom
Synthesis and Connections with the Literature
27
27
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39
41
43
45
Conclusions, Limitations, and Suggestions for Further Research
47
Acknowledgements
50
Works Cited
52
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Applications of Music in Teaching Foreign Languages: Foundations and Practice
Abstract
Many teachers believe that music is a very helpful tool in teaching languages, and plenty
of people would agree. However, what research exists to support this notion? What do language
professors at Middlebury believe about this practice, and do they utilize music in their teaching?
In this project, I review literature from various academic disciplines such as neuroscience,
linguistics, and pedagogy. I then provide a synthesis of the potential value of music as a language
teaching resource. With this theoretical foundation, I analyze data from a survey of language
faculty members at Middlebury College and its summer language schools, comparing and
contrasting their perspectives with those found in the literature. Finally, drawing upon these
varied sources, I aim to propose a strong conceptual foundation supporting the use of music in
teaching foreign languages.
Introduction and Rationale
As an avid language learner and amateur musician myself, I have long found the use of
music in learning a language to be one of the most motivating and effective methods to increase
proficiency in a foreign language. However, I had never seriously and rigorously interrogated
this belief and the potential evidentiary foundations which support it until now. My own prior
knowledge came only from personal experience employing this technique in my own life, as well
as anecdotal evidence from others who also find music extremely useful in their own language
learning and teaching practices. For these reasons, I would here like to examine exactly which
concrete, well-researched evidence exists to support the claim that music is indeed a highly
effective pedagogical tool to both motivate and also significantly improve the linguistic
capabilities of language students.
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Drawing upon my own personal experience, I consider music to be the most enjoyable
way to come into contact with the sounds of a new and foreign language, especially when we
cannot yet understand very much of the spoken language. Musically sung and performed
language is a wonderful way to engage us not only intellectually, but also emotionally in our
language learning journeys, as so many of us can strongly identify with, become excited about,
and engage with music which we like and enjoy listening to. I would argue that indeed, music is
truly one of the only enjoyable and interesting ways for us to come into contact with a foreign
language at beginning levels, when we do not yet have enough experience to understand very
much content, but rather need to focus on developing our Sprachgefühl, or “language feeling”,
before we may expect to have meaningful interactions.
It requires an inordinate amount of time for us to attune our ears, brains, and speech
organs to the sounds of a new language before we are able to well replicate these novel sounds.
An extremely efficient, effective, and enjoyable strategy to do so is by exposing ourselves to a
wide variety of music in a given language. This, of course, cannot be done exclusively within the
constraints of students’ school and homework time, but teachers can and should actively foster
and encourage their students to explore the musics of their target language’s cultures, in the
hopes of sparking joy and excitement in their students’ hearts which carry over into their lives
outside of the classroom. Of course, when assigning certain songs as class- or homework, we can
never be exactly sure who will appreciate a certain artist or song. However we should make the
effort to consistently incorporate a wide range of musical styles, genres, and origins. This
provides the best possible chance for most students to find music which they enjoy listening to
and learning, and ideally, to be inspired to search for further such music in their own lives.
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Music is extremely effective tool to assist us in remembering specific sounds, words, and
phrases. How many of us still remember songs that we heard and sang as very young children,
many years and even decades later? When linguistic information is accompanied by a rhythm
and a melody, it is much more likely to remain in our long term memory. Countless times, I have
only successfully remembered a certain word or expression in a given language thanks to a
particular line in a song which I know. Furthermore, I have also encountered the following
highly motivating and satisfying benefit of listening to foreign language songs towards the
beginning of our language learning journeys. While at first, we will not (and indeed, should not
attempt to) understand every word, we can and should still listen to songs that we enjoy, attuning
our ears to the unique flow of our target language’s prosody. Later on in our learning
progression, after spending more time interacting with this language, we will be delighted to
realize that we can now understand various aspects of a given song which eluded us before. This
experience is very personally rewarding and reinforcing, serving as a strong example of the
motivational benefits of this learning strategy.
I propose music as an extremely valuable pedagogical and linguistic educational tool for
a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: a strong body of neuroscientific research which
shows how various structural similarities of music and language are processed in the same areas
of the brain; multiple studies which display various benefits of music being integrated into
language teaching, leading to significant increases in concrete, fundamental linguistic skills; and
finally, the demonstrated increases in important psychological aspects of learning processes,
leading to more positive learning experiences in the classroom. I believe that these benefits to
language students strongly support my hypothesis that music is a highly effective pedagogical
resource that can and should be effectively and widely employed in teaching foreign languages.
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Thus, I intend to offer a well-rounded overview of the applications of music in language
teaching, supported by a robust literature review of various academic and scientific disciplines.
In the second major section of this thesis, I discuss data collected from a survey of the
language faculty at Middlebury College and its Summer Language Schools, in which I asked a
series of questions regarding professors’ personal use (or lack) of music in their own language
teaching practices. My rationale for this survey was to collect, compare, and contrast the
information gathered in my literature review with experienced language professors’ beliefs and
practices about the use of music in language teaching. I was also interested in understanding if
professors would like to have more opportunities to employ music in their teaching, and whether
they would use music more often if they could, in order to ascertain the current possibilities for
educators to use such strategies. The results of this survey demonstrate strong support for
incorporating music in language teaching from the great majority of professors who responded.
Nearly all participants shared that they do indeed employ music in their language classrooms, at
most or even all learning levels, and for a wide range of pedagogical purposes. Importantly, all
but one respondent reported noticing positive effects on their students’ learning which they
directly attribute to music. These survey results thus further strengthen my initial hypotheses that
music-supported language teaching has concrete positive impacts on language learning outcomes
and student motivation.
Literature Review
Similarities Between Language and Music
Let us first discuss the striking similarities between the unique human forms of
expression which are language and music. Patel (2003) credits Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983)
with offering evidence that “[l]ike language, music is a human universal in which perceptually
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discrete elements are organized into hierarchically structured sequences according to syntactic
principles” (674, italics mine). Thus, we may appreciate the importance that both of these
systems of expression and communication may be found in every known human culture.
Furthermore, they both share fundamentally similar structural and syntactic elements, in addition
to relying on the same medium of audible transmission. Reflecting on the more affective aspects
of these two kinds of human expression, Jett (1968) writes of the analogy that can be made
between learning a language and learning music: “[like language, m]usic…also seems to mean
much more than just the sum of its symbols…[and has] a feeling or emotional dimension far
greater than the sum of [its] bare structures” (437). Thus, we can consider music and language to
be similar and related forms of human expression, both of which which rely on sonic
communication between human beings and contain far more emotional meaning and syntactic
complexity than the simple sum of their parts.
In a detailed comparison between the theories of time-span reduction (a method of
analyzing musical structure using tree-like diagrams) and prosodic structure (prosody: the
melodic flow of spoken language), Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983) found a very “significant
parallelism between music and language”, perhaps more so than had ever been noticed before
(329). Indeed, they proposed that there exists a notable overlap between these areas, as “both
[musical and linguistic] capacities make use of the same organizing principles [‘temporal
patterning’] to impose structure on their respective inputs” (330). Here we see a concrete
example of a structural similarity – time-span reduction and prosodic structure – between
language and music, which does not attempt to apply specific linguistic methodology to musical
analysis, as had oft been the case in the past (5). Instead, these authors emphasize that temporal
patterning (330) is an example of significant overlap between the fundamental structures of
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human music and language. This valuable contribution to the research shows that both language
and music rely on extremely similar mechanisms to create order and structure within their sonic
forms of communication.
One further comparison we may make between music and language is in their syntax
(Swain 20), the patterns and rules governing the arrangement of a [linguistic] system’s discrete
components. Swain (1997) notes that “[b]oth language and music appear to create structures in a
real-time stream of sound” (ibid.), musical structures being composed of sequenced
arrangements of individual notes, and linguistic structure comprising the functional order of
phonemes and words. Further on, Swain observes that both music and language constrain their
“admissible sounds” and rhythms to a much smaller quantity than we have the capacity to
understand, thereby facilitating our ability to discriminate between these sounds (25). In other
words, though we technically are capable of understanding a wider range of sounds than our
languages or musics contain, these systems limit their number of allowable sounds, thereby
making it easier for us to distinguish between them. Swain here proposes a sound argument for
the parallels between musical and linguistic syntax, which lends support to the theory that these
two areas are indeed similar in multiple ways, and thus could potentially be brought together in
the classroom to the benefit of language students.
Applications of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory
Through a pedagogical lens, many researchers have spoken to the educational benefits of
pairing two different kinds of intelligences, the linguistic and the musical (DiEdwardo 2005;
Failoni 1993; Fonseca-Mora 2000). Drawing upon Gardner’s (1987) theory of multiple
intelligences, DiEdwardo (2005) suggests that pairing these two intelligences “advances student
potential” (128) and “extends to motivational issues [and] comprehension goals” (130). Failoni
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(1993) proposes that we “could use students’ musical intelligence (and interest!) to achieve
mastery of certain other skills” (97), drawing upon this specific intelligence to foster students’
learning in other areas. Furthermore, Fonseca-Mora (2000) argues that “the teacher should offer
a varied gamut of activities to reach the different types of learners” (146), and also that musical
intelligence “is highly relevant for language teaching” (ibid.). Here, a variety of authors speak to
the belief that many benefits come from combining these two kinds of intelligences in the
language classroom. However, what scientific research exists to substantiate these claims, and
how might one concretely investigate such a hypothesis?
The Neuroscientific Case
Cognitive Processing Similarities between Music and Language
In recent years, there has been much fascinating research from the field of neuroscience
regarding the ways in which both linguistic and musical structures are processed in the brain. To
wit, Patel et al. (1998) conducted a relevant event-related potential study (ERPs: “very small
voltages generated in brain structures in response to specific events or stimuli” [Blackwood and
Muir 96]). In this experiment, the researchers set out to “test the language-specificity of a known
neural correlate of syntactic processing [the P600]” (717). To do so, they played participants
“[m]usical sequences with out-of-key target chords” (724) as well as spoken sentences
containing “syntactically incongruous words” (726), with the finding that these two stimuli
elicited “statistically indistinguishable” P600 effects in the brain (ibid.). In other words, our
brains react in an identical way when we hear words that do not fit properly within a certain
sentence’s syntax, or musical notes which clash within their musical context. Patel et al. thus
conclude that “the P600 does not reflect the activity of a speci cally linguistic (or musical)
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processing mechanism” (727), providing evidence that musical and linguistic cognitive processes
coincide in the brain in important ways.
Arguing against the notion that music and language have distinct, separate processing
centers, Patel later proposed a “shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis”, or SSIRH
(678). This hypothesis suggests that even though syntactic musical and linguistic representations
may in fact be stored in separate, long-term posterior areas of the brain, the actual live processing
of such syntactic information occurs in overlapping, frontal brain areas (674). Patel thus
predicted that, if indeed this hypothesis is correct and there is significant overlap between the
processing areas of syntactic information for both language and music, “tasks which combine
linguistic and musical syntactic integration will show interference between the two” (679). This
may raise the question of whether or not this combined processing could in fact have a
potentially negative effect if we attempt to process too much linguistic and musical information
at the same time. However, research on this particular question appears extremely minimal or
even nonexistent currently, and so more research would have to be done in order to investigate
this further. For the time being, as we shall see below, Patel’s SSIRH hypothesis has indeed
proven to be highly viable according to multiple further studies.
Brown et al. (2006) state that “phonological generativity is seen as the major point of
cognitive parallelism between” music and language (2801) based on their PET (positron
emission tomography) study on melody and sentence generation. Phonological generativity
posits that “music and language are generative systems, relying on combinatorial operations to
generate novel, complex and meaningful sound structures” (2798). In other words, both music
and language are systems which combine basic building blocks of musical or phonemic
information to generate larger strings of sound which convey more complex information. In this
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study, Brown et al. concur with Patel (2003) that a shared resource hypothesis indeed may be a
plausible explanation for “common activations in the primary auditory cortex and subcortical
auditory system for…music and language tasks” (2799), lending further support to this
hypothesis. Their results were so noteworthy that they mentioned “a dramatic overlap in the
areas of deactivation – principally in parieto-occipital areas – across all brain slices for both
tasks” (2795, italics mine). “Deactivation” here refers to brain areas in which brain scans show
less activity, which may suggest greater focus on a task at hand (Parsons et al. 211), as brain
energy is concentrated in other areas. This finding strongly suggests that the cognitive processes
involved in the generation of both linguistic sentences and musical melodies share a large
amount of resources in the brain, which could substantiate the benefits of combining language
education with musical elements.
Later on, Fedorenko et al. (2009) provided further evidence for the SSIRH in their firstof-its-kind study of complex, grammatical sentences and simultaneous musical stimulation (5-6).
They found that when musical integrations were more difficult (e.g. hearing out-of-key notes), so
too was the processing of more complex grammatical sentences, which they interpreted as
“additional evidence against the claim that linguistic processing relies on an independent
working memory system” (6). Levitin and Menon (2003) also found evidence that supports the
SSIRH in their study of non-musicians (2147), and similarly concluded that the “Brodmann Area
47 of the left inferior frontal cortex” is not in fact as language-centric as had been presumed
before (2142). Furthermore, Maess et al. (2001) published a study indicating that musical syntax
is processed in Broca’s area in the brain, “suggesting that these brain areas process considerably
less domain-specific syntactic information than previously believed” (543). These various
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findings lend even further credence to the considerable overlap between language and music
processing in the brain.
Maess et al. also found that similar cognitive “effects were elicited in ‘non-musicians’…
supporting the hypothesis of an (implicit) musical ability of the human brain” (544). This could
provide evidence that certain cognitive musical processing abilities are indeed present in human
beings regardless of their musical training or lack thereof. Similarly, Schön et al. (2008) found
that “both musicians and non-musicians showed larger positivities to strong incongruities than to
congruous endings in both music and language” (346-47). This means that when a grammatically
highly unexpected or musically dissonant element was played for their test subjects, these
subjects’ brains displayed similar strong, positive reactions, with “positive” in this case
signifying “substantially activated”. Therefore, integrating music into language lessons could be
extremely cognitively productive for all students, whether they identify as musical or not, as
these brain activations have been shown to occur in students of all kinds.
To summarize, this considerable body of evidence suggests that substantially overlapping
brain areas are involved in the processing of both linguistic and musical information. However, it
must be recognized that the majority of these studies were based on the brain’s reactions to
unexpected stimuli, and it remains to be seen if the same results would hold true in terms of
expected stimuli as well. Nevertheless, as we now know that our brains react similarly strongly
to dissonance and incongruities in music and language, I propose that combining musically
pleasing and grammatically correct language elements can lead to a positive and productive
learning experience for all those involved. The wide range and great quantity of neuroscientific
research discussed above leads me to propose that there may be a considerable cognitive
connection between our linguistic and musical processing abilities. Therefore, we might then
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productively integrate this knowledge in practical ways: actively stimulating these brain areas in
multiple ways by introducing language in musical form to our classrooms.
Cognitive Effects of Musical Training
As we have discussed above, musical training may not be inherently necessary to elicit
reactions in the brain to dissonant musical elements. However, musical experience and expertise
can indeed have a very strong correlation with enhanced linguistic processing abilities. We can
see this in the work of Moreno (2009), who states that “music training influences behaviour,
brain and, more specifically, auditory cortex and sound processing” (334). Moreno later
elaborates on this point, noting that “musical expertise, by increasing discrimination of
pitch…does facilitate the processing of pitch variations not only in music, but also in a foreign
language” (338). Similarly, Schön et al. (2008) note that “musical training, by refining the
frequency-processing network, facilitates the detection of pitch changes not only in music, but in
language as well” (347). These findings may be put to practical use in the language classroom by
incorporating music as an effective cognitive tool to train our ability to distinguish between
sounds in a foreign language. The skill of pitch discrimination is an essential ability we must
develop in our language students, potentially through musical repetition in order to provide
initial and continued aural exposure to their target language’s sounds. This may be considered a
highly beneficial and far more pleasant way of “drilling” L2 phonology, thus improving both
listening comprehension and foreign language production skills.
Music’s Cognitive Priming Potential
One further cognitive connection between language and music was found by Koelsch et
al. in an interesting study on semantic processing (2004). Employing both musical and linguistic
priming techniques (priming: pre-disposing the brain to think of a certain concept), they
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discovered that music can “prime representations of meaningful concepts, be they abstract or
concrete, independent of the emotional content of these concepts” (306), just as language can.
This study consisted of playing participants multiple musical excerpts which were associated
with specific words (302). One third of these determinations depended on composers’ own
descriptions of their music, while the rest were related to musical characteristics, such as the
words narrowness and wideness being paired with closed and open musical intervals,
respectively (303). Importantly, all subjects were not musically trained (305) and were
unfamiliar with the music they heard, and thus could not have any previous associations with
these excerpts (303). The authors specify that they are not attempting to propose that both music
and language share the same semantics; rather, they believe their results suggest that “music
transfers considerably more semantic information than previously believed” (306). This study
displays that music may play an important cognitive role in semantic terms: music is able to
prime our minds to recall a certain word, just as an excerpt of language can do.
Music’s Cognitive/Emotional Effects
Finally, music has been shown to have significant effects on our brain activity and our
emotions. Brown et al. (2004) created a study in which they played unfamiliar instrumental
music to 10 participants while performing PET scans of their brains (2033-34). The researchers
found that this exposure to novel music spontaneously activated both limbic and paralimbic brain
regions (2035), which these authors surmise to be “involved in emotional processing” (2036).
These activations were seen primarily in the left brain hemisphere, which is thought to support
positive emotions, “perhaps reflecting subjects’ positive aesthetic responses” (2035). Brown et
al. thus concluded that new and unfamiliar songs can elicit strong positive emotions through
neurological reactions, just as our familiar favorite songs can do (2036). It is important to note
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that the songs in this study did not contain words, however we may infer that pleasant lyrical
songs may also have the same effect on students. Thus, when we introduce music which students
find pleasant, we may in fact be activating specific positive emotion processing centers in their
brains, which can only lead to a more productive learning experience for all those involved.
Hemispheric Lateralization in Musical and Linguistic Production
While the previous study showed significant activation in left hemisphere regions related
to positive emotion during music listening, Jeffries et al. (2003) studied the differences between
brain activations when we speak song lyrics versus singing them (749). These researchers also
utilized PET scans in order to study 20 subjects while they both spoke and then sang the words to
a familiar song (750). Results displayed a significant difference between these two activities, in
that generally, left hemisphere regions were more active for speaking, while right hemisphere
regions showed more activity when subjects were singing (ibid.). The authors thus suggest that
there is significant hemispheric lateralization in terms of spoken versus sung language, and that
these two activities rely on differentiated systems in the brain (752). These findings may at first
appear to contradict the previous conclusions that language and music are processed in the same
brain areas; however, we are here discussing the active production of musically sung language,
and not the receptive processing of musical input in the brain. Jeffries et al. conclude their study
by proposing that the “[a]ctivation of these regions may also support the fluency-inducing effects
of words produced in melody” (754), suggesting that musically sung language contributes to
higher fluency in a given language. Further research is needed in order to continue studying the
ways in which this lateralization contributes to interactions between linguistic and musical
production, and the potential applications to language pedagogy.
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Affective and Emotional Benefits
Self-Confidence
The aforementioned neurological processing parallels between music and language may
point to the potential cognitive benefits of pairing these two domains in the classroom.
However, how might we see the evidence of these benefits in the practical terms of
psychological affective and emotional benefits? Multiple studies point to positive effects which
language students experience thanks to this particular pedagogical approach. Let us here consider
the potential for positively influencing Krashen’s (1982) affective filters, those factors such as
self-confidence, motivation, and anxiety whose respective levels may either foster or hinder our
ability to successfully acquire knowledge in a foreign language (31). Krashen states that
“[p]erformers with self-confidence and a good self-image tend to do better in second language
acquisition” (ibid.). In terms of a potential relationship between music-integrated teaching and
self-confidence, Israel (2013) found that many English learners in a secondary school language
classroom in South Africa increased their level of “confidence in using their limited knowledge
of English visibly” thanks to the incorporation of music (1360-61). This study further found
indications that “music enhances…self esteem…and general self confidence (ibid.), effectively
influencing this particular aspect of these students’ affective filters. In a personal account of his
own language learning strategy employing Hip Hop, Kao (2014) found that “[s]trategically
learning language with music can build up confidence and motivation” (Kao and Oxford 114).
Thus, we can acknowledge the integral importance of self-confidence in learning to speak a new
language, and the effective role that music may play in helping to foster such confidence in
language learners. We may also consider that these findings may be strongly linked to Brown et
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al.’s (2004) research on music’s impact on positive emotion processing centers in the brain, as
discussed in detail above.
Motivation
Secondly, let us discuss the increase in student motivation which music in the classroom
may bring about. DiEdwardo cites music as beneficial in improving student motivation in the
classroom, particularly noticing “positive transformational changes in classroom patterns” (128).
In a study which tested the effects of an experimental curriculum including “word games, songs,
and stories” (38), Ajibade and Ndububa found a statistically significant difference between their
control and experimental groups, suggesting that these alternative activities effectively increased
students’ motivation levels (37-39). The progression of art affecting motivation is succinctly
summarized by Lems (2018), who draws upon Posner et al. (2008): “the process begins with
curiosity, which is piqued by experiencing an art form; this curiosity creates motivation and
interest and leads to heightened attention…[and] in that alert state of heightened attention, new
learning occurs” (15, italics mine). Thus, we see a wide range of studies which display the
positive, quantitative as well as qualitative effects which music has on students’ motivation when
it is effectively integrated into their learning.
Reduced Anxiety
Finally, let us consider the benefits of reduced anxiety which may be brought about by
incorporating music into the language classroom. To quote Lems (2018), “student choice—and
the fact that the general topic is music—reduces anxiety” (19), referring to the practice of
allowing students to actively engage in music selection. Employing Horwitz, Horwitz and
Cope’s (1986) foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS), Dolean and Dolean (2014)
performed an experiment with 60 Romanian 7th graders learning English (513). About one
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quarter of these students made up their experimental group, while the remaining three quarters
constituted three control groups (514). After a four-week long program wherein the experimental
group was taught English through songs (ibid.), only this group displayed a significant reduction
in anxiety (-24%) as measured on the FLCAS versus an average of only -3% for the control
groups (516-17). This provides strong support that even after only one month of musicallyintegrated language learning, foreign language anxiety may be precipitously reduced. Later,
Dolean (2016) conducted a further study involving two experimental groups of 8th graders, one
displaying high levels of anxiety and the other low levels, as well as two control groups with
statistically similar initial FLACS results (643). After a ten-week period in which the
experimental group learned one novel French song per week (644), the highest significant
decrease in anxiety was found for the initially high-anxiety experimental group, with no
significant decrease found for the initially low-anxiety group (646). These results suggest that
music may be a highly effective tool to lower high levels of foreign language anxiety in the
classroom, while not having much of such an effect on those students with initially lower levels
of anxiety.
Linguistic Benefits
Phonological/Pronunciation
Finally, we turn to the concrete linguistic benefits of learning languages with music
incorporated into the curriculum. Perhaps the most apparent of these benefits is that of
pronunciation in the target language, of increased phonological awareness and ability for the
students engaged in this musical learning process. Lems (2018) succinctly summarizes a process
by which this improvement occurs, stating that both musicians and language learners “make
ever-closer approximations of the target sounds until they reach a level of ease and enjoyment, or
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‘fluency’” (15). This necessary progression of approximations may well be rendered much more
effective, enjoyable, and encouraging by encountering sounds within songs. In evidentiary terms,
Farmand and Pourgharib (2013) conducted a study of 30 intermediate 15-17 year-old English
language learners, dividing these students randomly into two groups and assigning each the same
English song lyrics and vocabulary drawn from them (842). However, the experimental group
received eight interactive, musical sessions of fifteen minutes each over the course of one month,
learning to sing along to songs in English (ibid.). After this experiment, post-test results showed
a significant improvement in pronunciation for the experimental group, compared to no
improvement for the control group (843). This was measured both by recordings of the students’
pronunciation, as well as a ten-item pronunciation test (ibid.). Thus, we see a concrete example
of improvement in pronunciation thanks to music, even in such a short amount of time as one
month and only two combined hours of musical instruction time.
In a more technical study, Moradi and Shahrokhi (2014) investigated the potential effects
which listening to music could have on students’ articulation of vowels, intonation, and stress
patterns (129). In their study of 30 female English learners in elementary school, the authors
divided this group evenly into an experimental and a control group, each of which had 25
sessions in which 20 minutes each were allotted to the experiment (131). Students in the
experimental group learned to sing along with an English language song by first receiving its
lyrics, then hearing the song multiple times and attempting to memorize it (132). The control
group read the written lyrics of the same song, and instead of hearing the song itself, the lyrics
were read aloud multiple times by the researchers before they attempted to sing along (ibid.).
Students’ pronunciation was recorded in both a pre- and post-test (131), after which the
researchers scored them on various categories such as “intonation, stress recognition and
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pronunciation” (133). They found that music indeed has a significant effect on the children’s
pronunciation (134), an even more significant effect on their intonation (135), and a similarly
highly significant effect on their stress patterns (136). This study provides strong evidence that
multiple important pronunciation patterns may be effectively enhanced by learning to sing songs
in a foreign language, an effect which was not seen from learning to read these songs’ lyrics
aloud.
Recall/Memory
One other important linguistic and cognitive skill which has shown positive correlations
with the use of music in language teaching is that of recall. According to Mobbs and Cuyul
(2018), “[w]ithin the context of L2 learning, music stimulates thinking and helps improve skills
such as verbal…and auditory memory” (22). This could in part be due to the neuroscientific
findings above which determined music’s power to prime certain linguistic concepts in our
minds (Koelsch et al. 2004) Furthermore, Staum (1985) observed that “automaticity of speech is
enhanced primarily by inflectional and rhythmic fluency. This enhancement may be benefited by
tonal and rhythmic pairing” (40). In other words, in order to increase the verbal fluency of our
students, we may pair music and rhythm with linguistic instruction, enhancing their learning of
important linguistic skills. In this same study, Staum relates an experiment wherein 169
undergraduate and graduate students with limited to no experience with Russian were assigned to
three groups, all of whom were taught ten Russian words and phrases each (32). The first group
heard words paired with melodies, the second heard words with rhythmical patterns that mirrored
the natural stress of the words, and the third heard simply spoken words (ibid.). Staum found that
after their exposure to these unfamiliar Russian words and phrases, “the melody group achieved
an average of 34% accuracy on the ten questions, the rhythm group achieved 27%, and the
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control group achieved 23% accuracy” (37). This provides us with convincing evidence that
melodic music is the most effective way to increase vocabulary retention in a foreign language,
followed by rhythmic accompaniment, with plainly spoken words being the least effective.
In a study of 94 college students enrolled in beginning Spanish classes, Salcedo (2010)
designated two comparison groups and one control group in an experiment on text recall when
music is incorporated into the classroom (23-24). The experiment consisted of six sessions in
which one comparison group listened to a song in Spanish, while the other group heard the same
song’s lyrics as a spoken recording by a native Spanish speaker with similar demographic
characteristics as the song’s artist (24). After completing these six sessions, students were given
a cloze (“fill-in-the-blanks”) test on the lyrics they had learned soon thereafter, which was then
followed up with a longer-term recall test two weeks after the end of the experiment (ibid.). In
Salcedo’s results analysis, the researcher found that there was indeed a statistically significant
difference for two of the three songs which had been learned, and that the musical comparison
group outperformed the text group on every test which they took (24-25). No significant
difference was found between groups on the delayed text recall test (25), which this author
believes may be attributed to not enough time passing between the end of the experiment and the
follow-up test, perhaps indicating that the material was not allowed to enter into long-term
memory (26). However, the fact that the musical group performed better on every test and that
these differences were statistically significant for two out of three songs further supports music’s
effectiveness in increasing recall of textual items in a foreign language. Still, more research is
needed on the potential effects on recall of longer language chunks than singular words, as well
as questions of linguistic generativity.
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Vocabulary Acquisition
Similarly, music has also been shown to have concrete positive effects on vocabulary
acquisition. Li and Brand (2009) conducted a study of 105 ESL graduate students who had an
average of an upper intermediate English level and attended a university in China (77). These
students were divided into three equal groups, one of which received exclusively musical English
training, the second of which had musical training half of the time, and the third of which acted
as the control group (ibid.). Each group was taught by the same instructor and received six 90minute treatments over the course of the experiment after being pre-tested (ibid.). All groups had
approximately the same level of English before the experiment began (79), however post-test
results showed that the all-music group scored significantly higher than both other groups on
measures of “vocabulary, language usage, and meanings” (79-80). These results offer evidence
that music may provide significant benefits even to more advanced foreign language learners in
terms of vocabulary acquisition.
In a well-constructed study involving 26 native French speakers with a mean age of 23,
Schön et al. (2008) ran a series of three experiments which employed “six three-syllable
nonsense words (hereafter words)” which are plausible within French phonological constraints,
played in a pseudo-random order (977). In their first experiment, participants heard these words
repeated continuously in a spoken stream of syllables for seven minutes, and were instructed to
listen carefully but not try to analyze them (978). They were then requested to determine whether
one previously-heard “word” or one “part-word” composed of the same syllable set “was most
likely to be a word from the language” (ibid.). Part-words combined a syllable pair and a syllable
from the beginning and end of “words” that had been played in sequence in the experiment, thus
testing word boundary discrimination abilities. Results showed that participants did not
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successfully identify words significantly more often than chance would dictate after seven
minutes of auditory exposure (ibid.). That is to say, listening to these words being spoken
continuously for seven minutes did not cause any significant effect on the participants’ ability to
discriminate between their boundaries.
In the second experiment, these same syllables were sung instead of spoken to
participants (978), each word following the same melodic contour of either three rising or falling
notes (979). This meant that in 12 out of 30 transitions between words, the pitch contour was
continuous – in other words, it either continued rising or falling, thus rendering word boundary
discrimination more difficult. However, results proved that participants in fact successfully
learned and identified the words 64% of the time when they were set to musical notes, a
statistically significant increase over the first experiment. Thus, the researchers concluded that
“the simple addition of musical information allowed participants to discriminate words from
part-words” (ibid.), strongly supporting the potential power of music to aid in linguistic
discrimination. In order to parse out why exactly this was the case, the researchers conducted one
final study in which the same words were played, this time however with musical phrase
boundaries not directly mapped onto the words as in the previous experiment (980). Results
showed that participants performed significantly better than by chance, answering correctly 56%
of the time and thus placing the third experiment’s results exactly in between those of the
previous two (981). We can thus conclude from this study that music is indeed highly effective at
facilitating our acquisition and discrimation abilities for novel words, even when linguistic and
musical boundaries do not line up.
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Grammar Skills
One further linguistic area in which music may significantly aid educators in their
teaching is that of grammar. Indeed, “[m]usic is a great natural introduction to new grammar
forms, in many ways resembling our effortless first-language acquisition” (Lems 18), a quite
astute observation. In a study of 38 university students, Kara and Aksel (2013) performed a tenday experiment over eight lessons on the effects of musical grammar instruction on half of these
students, while the other half served as the control group (2741-42). A limited number of specific
English language grammar points were selected for both groups to learn concurrently, and
instructors employed the same teaching methods with each group, differing only in the use of
English language songs in the experimental group (2742). Students in the musical group heard
English songs twice per lesson for ten minutes, and in the last lesson had the chance to sing
along with songs played on guitar by a music teacher (ibid.). After the conclusion of the
experiment, post-test results showed a statistically significant difference between the increases in
both groups’ grammatical recall abilities, with the experimental group gaining seven points
versus a gain of only four points for the control group (2743). So we observe here an important
gain in grammatical ability when a group of students is given the chance to learn certain
grammar points through songs rather than traditional methods, even in a very short experiment
such as this one.
In a study of 72 ESL students in an elementary school, Fagerland (2006) tested the effect
of lyrical musical instruction on the learning of four grammar structures determined to be
difficult for these grade levels. The music used in this study was designed by the researcher
personally, who considers pre-recorded or traditional music not to be ideal pedagogical tools for
this purpose (50-51). This study was conducted over the course of five weeks, with one half-hour
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class each day. After the first week was dedicated to a pre-test, one each of the four chosen
grammar points was taught each week thereafter (51). Both experimental and control groups
received the same instruction materials and activities, with the pedagogical songs being the only
difference between them (52). Post-test results showed that for three of the four tested grammar
points, the experimental group indeed outgained the control group, with the control group only
performing better in terms of the plural “s” construction (53). The other grammar points in
question were: singular and plural reflexive pronouns; “there is” vs. “there are”; and naming
“another and I” (48). Fagerland thus hypothesized that the plural “s” was not easy for students to
identify within the complex flow of musical input; in this context, word boundaries merge
together and this morpheme may have seemed attached to beginnings rather than ends of words
(56). Overall however, all three of the other and arguably more difficult grammar points showed
consistently more improvement for the group which received musical instruction, further
supporting the hypothesis that music may effectively aid in learning grammatical concepts.
Foreign Language Comprehension and Oral Language Skills
One further linguistic capability with which music may have a positive correlation is that
of foreign language comprehension. Swaminathan and Gopinath (2013) investigated this
relationship in a study of 76 schoolchildren, of whom roughly half had significant musical
training of at least three months and spoke a language other than English at home (165). The
researchers tested their subjects on both the “Malin’s Intelligence Scale for Indian Children
verbal subscales (MISIC 1969)” as well as an adapted version of the Schonell Reading Test’s
word list (Schonell and Schonell 1950) in order to compare these children’s English language
abilities (166). Both groups were demographically extremely similar, however the musicallytrained group displayed significantly better verbal, comprehension, and vocabulary skills in
Kuzman 25
English (167). In order to remove the possibility of interference from Western and other kinds of
musical training with potential connections to English, only the scores of children trained in
classical Indian music were considered in the second part of these authors’ analysis (ibid.). Their
findings were similar to the initial results, in that the classically-trained children displayed higher
competence in both comprehension and vocabulary subtests (ibid.). These results may indicate
that musical training is beneficial to students’ linguistic abilities in any foreign languages,
regardless of musical experience in the target language, or lack thereof.
In a long-term study of eighty elementary school students, all of whom spoke Spanish at
home and were enrolled in a bilingual school program, Fisher (2001) randomly assigned all of
these students to four different classroom teachers for a period of two years (41). Two of these
four teachers consistently employed music in their classrooms while the other two did not,
however all teachers planned their curriculum together, and so they all taught the same content at
the same time (ibid.). The teachers who used music led activities such as singing songs together
with students at the beginning of each class (44), integrating word scramble games based on song
titles (45), and introducing books with accompanying musical CDs as opposed to just traditional
audiobooks (46). Students were assessed on their oral language skills and reading achievement at
the beginning of this experiment and then again towards its end, some 19 months later (41-42).
When tested after two school years of participation in this experiment, students who
attended the musically-integrated classrooms displayed significantly higher scores on the Student
Oral Language Observation Matrix (developed by the California Department of Education,
1981), with an average score of 13.2 compared to only 8.2 for students in non-musical
classrooms (43). This suggests that having music integrated into their language classrooms
considerably helped students to improve their oral language abilities. Similarly, on the Yopp-
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Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation [proper discrimination of individual phonemes] (Yopp,
1995), the average score for the music-integrated classes was 19.5 compared to 17.1 for nonmusic-integrated students (44). Finally and perhaps most notably, in terms of the Developmental
Reading Assessment (Beaver, 1997), fully “ten students in the music rich classroom read at
grade level in English and Spanish whereas only one student in the non-music classroom read at
grade level in English and Spanish” (43), a tenfold difference between these two experimental
groups. It is important to note that when pre-tested before beginning this experiment, no
significant differences were found in the results for any of the three above-named tests (ibid.).
And within the span of a mere two school years, the number of students reading at grade-level in
the music-integrated group grew by a full order of magnitude more than those who did not learn
English with music.
Conclusions
As we have seen in the above literature review, a wide range of research exists
concerning the connections and concrete benefits of the integration of music in the language
learning process. These findings span the gamut of musical and linguistic theory, neuroscience,
practical pedagogy, and applied linguistics. We have discussed the striking structural similarities
between language and music in their organization of sound elements. We have reviewed how
both music and language are processed in very similar or identical areas in the brain, and that this
may be a boon to the combination of language and music in educational settings. We have
considered the multiple psychological benefits of integrating music, namely increased selfconfidence and motivation and reduced anxiety among students. And finally, we have
determined that music may provide myriad concrete linguistic benefits in terms of phonology
and pronunciation, memory and vocabulary recall, grammar skills, and foreign language
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comprehension. These varied sources of research provide a strong base of support for the
hypothesis that music effectively increases student motivation and leads to improved language
learning outcomes. Now, how might we further investigate the real-world practical applications
of these findings and their use by experienced professionals?
Survey of Middlebury College Language Professors
Rationale and Methodology
In order to gather real-world data from practicing and experienced language professors, I
drew inspiration from the above literature review to design a survey on beliefs and practices
regarding music in their language teaching. My primary goal with this survey was to gather the
opinions and advice of experienced professors in order to better inform our understanding of the
practical applications of music in language education. Additionally, I then compared and
contrasted these professors’ responses with the information collected in my literature review, in
order to propose a synthesis based on these two different types of data. The end goal was to
propose a synthesis of the findings common between the literature review and novel survey, and
provide encouragement to language teachers who may be hesitant or feel that they lack the
experience or expertise to use music in their classrooms.
My survey, entitled “Music in Language Teaching”, contained 14 questions with a mix of
multiple-choice, open-ended text-entry, and Likert scale answer options. I attempted to strike a
sound balance between question formats, and frame my questions simply and clearly to make the
survey straightforward and facilitate completion. I emailed the finalized survey to each of the 9
language department chairs (representing 10 languages) at Middlebury College (VT) and the
directors of Middlebury’s summer language schools (12 languages), requesting that they please
forward my message and survey on to their respective language professors. Twenty-two
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complete and two incomplete responses were received; the latter were discarded as to maintain
integrity for data analysis. Qualtrics was used as the survey instrument, and no identifying
information was requested from participants in order to maintain full anonymity and allow for
the most honest and candid responses from all parties.
It must be taken into consideration that this survey was self-selecting, and so does not
contain an entirely representative sample of all language professors at Middlebury College.
Additionally, we must recognize that this college represents only a very small subset of all
language educators, as it is an elite, private, US institution and thus does not nearly encompass
the entirety of perspectives the world over. Nevertheless, we may still gain valuable insight into
language education practices from this data, as respondents possess considerable practical
teaching experience, which they generously contributed to this research. After the survey closed,
data was exported and cross-tabulated for analysis. Coding was based on the following research
questions: How, when, and why do professors use music in language teaching? What effects
have they seen on their students? Based on these findings, how might language teachers be
successful in using music in their classrooms?
Results
Teaching Experience, Self-Identified Musicality, and Teacher Training
Respondents displayed a wide range of professional language teaching experience, at
least 3 years and at most 40 years, with an average and median length of 21 years of teaching
experience. Participants were then asked whether they self-identify as a musical person, to which
2 selected “not at all”, 6 “a little”, 10 “somewhat”, and 4 “very”. Thus, we see that the majority
of respondents consider themselves to be at least “somewhat” musical, with this response and
“very” encompassing 64% of responses. It is also noteworthy that the vast majority (over 90%)
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describe themselves as at least “a little” musical, which we must keep in consideration as we
discuss the remaining results of this survey. One further question asked whether participants had
received any recommendations to use music during their educational training, to which 12
responded “yes”, 7 “no”, and 3 “I can’t remember”. So the majority (63%) of those who could
recall had indeed encountered music as a suggested pedagogical tool during their teacher
education. However, of these professors, how many actively incorporate music into their
language classes, and what are their reasons for doing so?
Correlations Between Musicality, Teacher Training, and Music Use
Next, a correlational analysis was conducted of answers to the previously-discussed
questions “To what extent do you consider yourself a ‘musical person’?”, “Did you encounter
any recommendations to use music during your educational training?”, and “How often do you
use music in your language courses?” No causal relationship was thought to be possible between
self-identified musicality and teacher training recommendations, and so these two variables were
not analyzed comparatively. However, both other possibilities were indeed analyzed and
displayed the following results: firstly, there appears to be no positive correlation between
educational recommendations and frequency of music use among professors. The data showed
that among the seven respondents who remembered not encountering recommendations to use
music in language teaching, the majority (57%) use music either “often” or “very often” in their
language classes. The remaining 43% use music “sometimes”, while no respondents reported
“never” using music at all to teach languages. Of the ten respondents who did in fact remember
hearing music recommended as a teaching tool in their education, half shared that they use music
“often” and half “sometimes”, with no responses of “never” or “very often”. These data
demonstrate that those language professors at Middlebury College who responded to this survey
Kuzman 30
have majoritarily decided to use music in their language classrooms, independently of whether
they were recommended to do so in their education.
In terms of the second pair of variables, that of self-identified musicality and frequency
of music use, we can recognize a more positive correlation between the two. The most common
pair of responses to these two questions was “somewhat” [musicality] and “sometimes” [music
use], represented by six participants (27%). These two responses were equivalent in this survey,
and thus may suggest a correlation between respondents’ self-reported musicality and their use
of music to teach languages. The second-clearest example of this pattern is found in the response
pair “very” [musicality] and “often” [music use], which was the case for three respondents
(14%). These two responses are not exactly equivalent, as “very” musical was the most
affirmative possible response to its question, while “very often” was a further possibility for
music use, respectively. However, we can consider these two responses functionally similar, as
their commonly-understood definitions are extremely proximal. Similarly, we have the example
of the response pair “a little” [musicality] and “sometimes” [music use], equivalent responses
which were also represented by three respondents (14%). This displays the result that a majority
(54%) of respondents’ self-reported musicality directly or functionally corresponds with their
respective use of music in language instruction. This may suggest that a language professor’s
personal opinion of their own musicality either influences and/or is correlated with the frequency
of their use of music in language teaching.
Teaching Style and Approach
In order to better understand the underlying pedagogical practices of those professors
who responded to this survey, participants were asked to briefly “describe [their] teaching style
or approach”. In a word frequency analysis of these responses, by far the most common was
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“communicative”, with fully one half (11 out of 22) of respondents mentioning this teaching
approach in their answers. Syarief (2016) defines communicative language teaching (CLT) as an
approach which “views language as a socially-embedded phenomenon” (12), as well as centering
“interaction and meaning-makings” (ibid.). This author also notes CLT’s focus on the
importance of developing communicative and functional competencies in a foreign language
(ibid.), all values which strongly support the integration of music as a pedagogical tool. (For
further discussion of the communicative approach to language teaching, see also: Littlewood
1981; Savignon 1987). The second most common response mentioned by participants was
“student-centered” or “learner-centered”, which combined were reported in 8 out of 22 answers,
or by 36% of respondents. The next most common response, “interactive”, was half as common
as the former, with four professors (18%) describing their teaching style thusly. And finally, two
participants (9%) each mentioned “group work” or “group activities”, or “in context” teaching,
respectively. Importantly, all of these above approaches can be considered to align well with the
pedagogical approach of employing music in language teaching, and none appear to be mutually
exclusive or stand in opposition to this recommendation.
After a review of all responses to this question, no other significant patterns were found
across multiple respondents, displaying that there is a wide variety of individual teaching styles
among these particular language professors. It is striking that fully half of all respondents
described their teaching style (at least in part) as communicative, indicating that this specific
pedagogical methodology is by far the most common among this sample, as no other comparable
or competing method was mentioned more than once. This is most likely in large part due to the
era in which most of these professors earned their degrees, as the communicative approach first
gained popularity in the 1980s before entering somewhat of a decline in more recent years.
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For a visual representation of the above-mentioned results, please see the word cloud
below (Fig. 1.1). Extraneous words and phrases which do not directly describe a teaching style
were sorted through and removed, and small typos and omissions of punctuation were edited to
improve readability and categorization. Importantly, the responses “student-centered” and
“learner-centered” were considered practically identical, and thus were grouped together under
the former, more common term. It is important to note that a great number of the further
approaches mentioned are also aligned with the practice of musically-integrated language
teaching, including but not limited to: “authentic materials”, “experiential”, and “multi-medial”.
Fig. 1.1: Word Cloud of Teaching Style and Approach Responses (created with worditout.com)
Kuzman 33
Music Use for Specific Levels and Purposes
Next, respondents were asked to select whether they introduce music at beginning and/or
intermediate and advanced levels of language courses. Results were striking, in that fully 21 out
of 22 responding professors answered that they use music in both beginning and intermediate
level language classes, representing more than 95% of our sample size. At advanced levels,
fewer respondents still rely on music in their language classes, however a very significant
number still do so: 18 out of 22, or 82%. When we cross-reference all three possible answers, we
see that fully 17 out of 22 professors surveyed (77%) use music at beginning, intermediate, and
advanced language levels. These results suggest that of the 22 Middlebury College language
professors who responded to this survey, the vast majority employ music as a practical
pedagogical tool, regardless of language level. This displays high regard for music in language
teaching for learners of all ability levels, expanding upon our previous suggestion to use music at
beginning levels in order to introduce and habituate students to their target language’s sounds.
We now turn to the question, “For which specific purposes do you employ music in the
classroom?”, to which five multiple choice options were provided, with a sixth option for
respondents to enter their own responses. These options were: 1) “To improve phonological
skills/pronunciation”; 2) “To increase vocabulary acquisition/retention”; 3) “To practice specific
grammar points”; 4) “To motivate my students”; 5) “As a cultural learning experience”; and 6)
“Other - Please elaborate”. These proposed responses were inspired by patterns found in the
above literature review, as well as personal experience and conversations with practicing
professionals in the field of language pedagogy. The most common response was that
respondents use music as a cultural learning experience, with 19 out of 22 professors (86%)
selecting this option. However, nearly the same number (18 out of 22, or 82%) indicated that
Kuzman 34
they use music to motivate their students or to practice certain grammar points. The next most
common response, selected by 14 out of 22 respondents (64%), was employing music to increase
vocabulary learning. The least common provided response was using music to improve
phonological and pronunciation skills of students; however, this option was still selected by a
majority of respondents (13/22, or 59%). Notably, every one of the 22 professors surveyed use
music for at least one of the provided pedagogical reasons, indicating a broad base of rationales
which support this practice.
Finally, 8 out of 22 participants (36%) chose to enter their own responses which did not
correspond to any of the provided options. These included: music as a mnemonic device to help
remember patterns in the language; to have fun with students and give them a break and change
of pace; analysis of music and video performances; preparation for karaoke social activities;
illustration of themes and musical references encountered in class; and listening comprehension
practice. Interestingly enough, one respondent said that they use music “to introduce traditional
culture”, but did not select the cultural learning experience response. This may indicate that they
consider “traditional culture” and “cultural learning” to be different, however if we consider
them to be functionally similar, this would then increase the number of option 5 responses to 20
out of 22, or 91%. Importantly, it was found that an overwhelming majority of respondents (19
out of 22, or 86%) use music for at least three distinctly different reasons, while fully half cited
five or six reasons for doing so.
Judging by these responses, we may conclude that the great majority of these professors
utilize music in their language classrooms for a large variety of different purposes, most of which
align with the five responses provided in the survey. Between the eight responses entered by
participants of their own accord, no clear pattern can be established, which may indicate that
Kuzman 35
music is a highly flexible and versatile pedagogical tool which different professors employ in
multiple, unique ways. It is telling that almost all of these respondents reported using music for
three or more of the suggested reasons, and half of them for five or even six reasons. Also
important to note is that with such a small sample size, it is difficult to encounter consistent and
statistically significant patterns which may be generalized. And we may also pose the question of
whether these professors generally utilize music simply in order to teach linguistic aspects or
rather as cultural content in its own right, which was not investigated in this survey. However,
these responses do indeed suggest that among language faculty at Middlebury College, music is
an extremely widely-used and multi-faceted tool in language classrooms for a wide range of
reasons. This therefore supports the argument that music is recognized as a valid and valuable
pedagogical tool in the foreign language classroom.
Evolution of Music Use in the Foreign Language Classroom and Pedagogical
Underpinnings
In the following section of the survey, participants were first asked, “How has your use of
music evolved over the course of your teaching career?” This question sought to understand
individual professors’ personal and pedagogical evolution over time in regards to their use of
music, and to identify any common patterns that may exist among them. One respondent did not
provide an answer to this specific question, which may have been intentional but could also have
been an oversight. And one professor mentioned being newer to teaching and so not having “had
much time to evolve”. Of the remaining 20 participants who responded, 5 of them (25%)
reported that their use of music really has not changed much “except for incorporating newer
materials” or noting that “only the technology has [changed]”, as well as mentioning that “it is
maybe more a [teaching] unit now”. However, the remaining 15 professors did indeed recognize
Kuzman 36
and report changes in their use of music over time; their answers were thus coded and
categorized for comparitive analysis.
The most common response to this question was simply that participants use music in
their teaching more often now than in the past, with 4 out of 20 (20%) directly mentioning this
specific change. Equally as common in these responses were references to cultural learning, with
multiple direct mentions of the use of music to teach cultural aspects in language classes.
However, of these responses, only two concretely stated that they now use music more to teach
cultural aspects; one has done so from the beginning on, while the other simply believes that
music aids in understanding “cultural aspects at many levels”. The next most common theme
was professors having expanded their musical repertoires over time, with 3 out of 20 (15%) of
respondents giving a response along these lines. Two of these answers mentioned expanding
beyond solely contemporary music into other genres, while the third spoke of using a “mix and
match” approach to find songs that are most appropriate for a variety of students. This has
reportedly “helped to increase their in-class engagement and [this professor’s] appreciation of
their language-specific needs”, a strong endorsement of appropriate and appreciated music as a
way to actively involve and engage students more thoroughly.
Three participants (15%) spoke of the practicality of using music with students at varying
levels of ability: one mentioned that their music’s “level of lyrical complexity increased” as they
began to teach higher levels of ability. In a similar vein, another has “become more likely to use
music with older and more advanced students”, and not just beginners and younger learners. A
further participant believes that “music helps understand language learning…at many levels”,
providing support for their above-mentioned colleagues’ use of music at higher levels. Similarly,
one of their fellow respondents mentioned that they now employ music for linguistic teaching
Kuzman 37
ends, rather than purely cultural ones. Two participants (10%) mentioned that earlier, they would
have students try to understand song lyrics, e.g. by reading them and filling in blanks, but have
now ceased to perform this activity, either because this was “not contextualized enough” or “they
can do this on their own”. Instead, one now shared that they tend to rather “focus more on the
ideas or themes present in the lyrics”. This example demonstrates that perhaps typical musical
language learning exercises such as the cloze/fill-in-the-blanks activities cited above are not the
most effective in practice in the classroom, and that language teachers could focus more on
broader applications such as the linguistic content which music can bring to their students
instead. It is advisable to further investigate the exact kinds of activities for which language
educators use music in their classrooms, however this was outside the scope of the present
survey.
No clear patterns can be found between the remaining responses, which nevertheless also
contain valuable insight into the teaching practices of those language professors who responded
to this survey. One participant shared that their use of music has evolved “organically - based on
theme or popular[ity]” over time, thus adapting their music choices to best match their teaching
material and current trends. Another respondent has quickly realized the “importance of
addressing the…political/social/historical background” of songs, in addition to using them as a
tool to capture student interest and teach some grammar and pronunciation. Furthermore,
recently this same individual has found that music affords them ways to address “issues of
gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, and more”, an extensive range of important and
pressing themes in the present-day classroom and world at large. One respondent remarked that
they found it more difficult to incorporate music during the pandemic over Zoom, perhaps
because of reduced audio quality and latency, suggesting that this format may function best as an
Kuzman 38
in-person activity. However, there is not enough data in the present survey to draw any such
concrete conclusions. Finally, a certain professor noted that although they are not a very musical
person, they have discovered that “this is no impediment to enjoying music with [their] students
and sharing [their] passions!” This displays a strong support for music as a tool for any and all
language educators to use, not just those who consider themselves to be very musical individuals.
As responses to the question “What are some pedagogical underpinnings of your use of
music?”, three predetermined and one text-entry options were provided: 1) “Affective - It may
improve students' motivation, engagement and comfort, reduce anxiety, etc.”; 2) “Linguistic - It
may enhance students' language skills such as pronunciation, vocabulary, etc.”; 3) “Cultural - It
may increase students' cross-cultural awareness and knowledge”; and 4) “Other - Please
elaborate”. Of these options, the highest number of respondents (21 of 22, or 95%) selected
cultural reasons for their underlying pedagogy in using music, followed closely by affective and
linguistic reasons, each of which received 19 responses (86% of respondents). These results are
quite significant, in that the vast majority of these professors’ musical language teaching
pedagogies are supported by all three of these rationales. This indicates very strong experiential
evidence for the use of music in language teaching among the professors surveyed.
Only three participants selected Option 4, indicating that the vast majority found the three
provided options adequate to describe their pedagogical reasons for using music. However, one
of these additional responses made reference to cultural knowledge “from different eras and in
different countries”, apparently further specifying Option 3 (which this respondent also selected).
Another emphasized their creative use of “mostly non-didacticized” music, which they select
from their own repertoire and not from textbooks, in addition to selecting all three of the given
options. And the third and final respondent was the only one not to select Option 3, offering the
Kuzman 39
viewpoint that it is difficult for them to choose songs which they “can accurately claim represent
the culture”. This professor believes that “too often songs are used to display ‘culture’, when
they are really displaying just one artist's intentions with that one work”. Furthermore, they
stated that they do not have the time or the training to survey the vast amount of music necessary
to make a valid claim about culture. This is an important caveat to note: we must be prudent
when making claims about the cultural content of our chosen songs, and be careful not to
overgeneralize their cultural representations. However, we can and should still consider songs to
be important cultural artifacts which allow learners to come into contact with the cultures of their
target languages, and not shy away from using music as a cultural learning experience.
Effects on Student Learning Attributed to Music
The vast majority of professors surveyed (21 of 22, or 95%) shared that they have noticed
positive effects on their students’ learning which they attribute to music, while only one (5%)
saw “no noticeable difference”, and none noticed any negative effects. However, of the 21 who
chose the “positive effects” option, two did not elaborate on this choice, leaving us with 19
responses to this option which may be analyzed. The most common theme found among
responses to this question was that of musical interest being sparked among students and
continuing even outside of class time, with 9 of the 19 respondents who provided an answer
(47%) mentioning this. Importantly, multiple participants stressed the importance of students’
listening to music regularly and on their own in order to create these positive effects, suggesting
that if music is limited only to classroom contact, it does not have the same volume of positive
effects. On a similar note, two respondents emphasized the importance of creating playlists in
our target languages, which students can then take with them and listen to on their own time,
fostering connections with the language outside of class.
Kuzman 40
The next most common theme encountered is that music has effectively increased student
motivation, which was mentioned by six professors (32%) in their responses. This aligns with the
findings in the above literature review, which determined that music is indeed a highly effective
motivator in language learning settings, in addition to supporting our initial hypothesis. Another
commonality between responses is that of the cultural impact of music in language education.
Four respondents (21%) brought up the cultural aspects of musical language learning, stating that
their students “enjoy the cultural encounter”, “feel” culture in addition to just hearing it, and
become “more emotionally connected to the language and culture”. These are important and
impactful points which emphasize the cultural significance that music can have in the language
classroom, helping to connect students with cultures other than their own.
Some further positive effects of incorporating music noticed by individual professors
may be categorized along two lines. First were positive emotional effects, which included:
improved student engagement; a “great atmosphere”; emotional responses to music; student
relaxation; and increased curiosity. These effects support the similar benefits discussed in the
literature review above under the category “Affective and Emotional Benefits”, providing reallife data from current practicing professors who have seen such positive impacts on their own
students. Secondly, respondents recounted multiple more tangible linguistic benefits, such as:
higher retention [of information]; easier memorization and recall of language “chunks”; and
students’ observing the real-life practicality of linguistic forms. These findings correspond very
closely to the results discussed above in the section “Linguistic Benefits”, adding further
credence to the aforementioned research by bringing in the perspectives of active language
professors. However, an important question that remains is how exactly these professors
determined such results, whether by their own anecdotal experience and/or concrete and testable
Kuzman 41
results which they methodically observe in their classrooms. This should be further investigated
in future research in order to provide more concrete, quantitative research regarding these results.
Professor Opinions and Suggestions on Music in Language Curricula
In this section of the survey, the intention was to gather information on respondents’
opinions of current language curricula and whether or not they feel that they have enough
possibilities to incorporate music within them. To this end, participants were asked: “Do you
wish that curricula afforded you more opportunities to teach languages through music?”, to
which no one responded “Not at all”, one person (5%) each selected “Not really” or
“Absolutely”, and 10 respondents (45%) each chose either “I’m neutral” or “I’d like that”. These
responses demonstrate that the professors surveyed tend not to have highly polarized opinions on
this subject, skewing more towards the neutral middle in their responses. If we group together
neutral and negative answers, we then see that the number of participants who did not actively
express a desire for more chances to incorporate music in language curricula is exactly equal to
those who would in fact appreciate such opportunities. However, when we do not consider
neutral responses, as they represent the midpoint of possible answers, it becomes clear that there
are many more affirmative responses to this question than negatory (11 as opposed to 1). These
results display that of the professors surveyed, only one would actively not like curricula to
afford more chances to teach through music, and those who are neutral on the issue are slightly
fewer than those who would indeed appreciate this opportunity.
Thereafter, respondents were asked the open-ended question, “If you had the option of
including more music in curricula, how would you employ music?” Five participants did not
elect to answer this question, and so only 17 responses were recorded, of which 11 shared their
ideas for how they would utilize music more in their language teaching. However, six stated that
Kuzman 42
they would not, either because they already have enough liberty to do so (four responses, or
24%), because they are “not a musicologist”, or because they see that music only “engages like
1/3 of the learners, but not all of them…[and] is just one tool in a toolkit”. These are important
caveats to note, as multiple professors at this university level reported having the autonomy to
use music to the level they desire, which we can presume is closely linked to the neutral
responses in the question above. However, importantly the great majority still reported diverse
ways in which they would use music if their language curricula afforded them more such
opportunities, displaying that not all professors at this level feel the freedom to do so already.
Three respondents (18%) mentioned a desire to incorporate more rap or popular music
into their classes. Rap was cited because “it reflects and expresses the cultural and social
complexity of certain issues better than other materials can” and includes storytelling elements
which can “replace written texts” in a more interactive way. One participant proposed popular
music because of positive personal experience, expressing a strong desire to work with music not
necessarily relevant to the current topics in class, for which there is not much time now. Two
respondents (12%) said that they would use music more often and earlier on as a tool to improve
pronunciation at beginning levels, mirroring previously discussed findings that music is highly
effective in teaching pronunciation. At higher levels, participants would teach cultural issues and
content through song, further strengthening the cultural argument for musical language education
discussed above in multiple sections.
Finally, five professors shared opinions that were not easily categorized, but merit
mention nonetheless. One has considered teaching a J-Term class based around folk music,
which would (presumably) be a fully music-centered language class that would be worthy of
further investigation. This begs the question of whether such a course would primarily be a
Kuzman 43
language-centered class or more strongly focused on the folk culture in this language. Another
would use music “as an object to foster conversation and start a task”, incorporating music in
order to begin dialogue in a foreign language and get students talking. Someone else would
prefer to assign music tasks as homework for students to do in their free time, as they “can take
longer than other exercises” in the classroom. And two professors suggested various interactive,
music-based activities for classrooms, for example: listening sessions and discussions about
music where guests could perform and share their favorite music; or reenacting and interpreting
songs in their own words, writing about their meaning, and eventually choosing their own songs
and presenting their findings to the class. These are all insightful and important ideas and
suggestions which we would do well to keep in mind when discussing foreign language curricula
and class design.
Professor Recommendations for Music Use in the Language Classroom
To conclude the survey, professors were asked, “What advice would you give to an
aspiring language teacher on how best to use music in the classroom?”, which yielded a wide
variety of valuable advice for those of us looking to become better language educators through
the use of music. One person did not enter a response, leaving us with a sample size of 21 for
this question. The most common theme that came up (from six participants, or 29%) was the
importance of not foisting our own musical tastes upon learners, but rather allowing them to
contribute their own input to musical selection and making sure to select songs that are relevant
and interesting to them. However, on the other hand, one professor did stress the importance of
choosing music that “‘speaks’ to you most loudly”, reminding us of the importance of selecting
music which we also connect with, and another similarly said to “pick what you like”. Two
respondents (10%) mentioned using music to teach phonetics and pronunciation, further
Kuzman 44
strengthening previous arguments to this effect. The same number of participants (2 of 21)
recommended that we not “overdo it”, and that “a little goes a long way”, warning us against the
danger of too much music use. However, both of these professors also did support using music in
language classrooms, with one saying that we should “definitely use songs to improve mood”,
alluding more to affective benefits. Along similar lines, another respondent mentioned that music
“creates [a] fun…[and] very focused atmosphere”, mentioning the positive changes in mood
which music can bring about, as discussed above.
Among these responses, two professors (10%) suggested playing music at the beginning
of class, setting the tone for the lesson to come and in order to “ritualize the use of music”, as
one other put it. Similarly, another suggested that we “get them used to singing from the very
first language class in 101”, and someone else recommended that we “go for it and sing loudly
even if you're bad at it so students know that it's OK :)” These responses all espouse a culture of
musical learning and sharing from our very first contact with a language class, normalizing and
integrating music as a fundamental and essential part of our lessons. In terms of the pedagogical
practice of musical activities, two further participants spoke to the importance of “the structure
and emphasis of the activity” and “creating a pedagogical activity around it”. These professors
make the important point that activities involving music must be carefully and mindfully created,
warning us against simply playing a song for a class without any other context surrounding it.
Similarly, someone else discussed not using music “as a disconnected distraction”, instead
proposing that we “go deep” into our musical content. Thus, we encounter here various
recommendations for using music in language classrooms, with a focus on the importance of
consistent and contemplative pedagogical practices.
Kuzman 45
The remaining responses were more resistant to classification, however still contain
valuable suggestions. One professor recommended frequent consultation with teaching
colleagues, paying attention to professional organizations and attending conferences, and
keeping a list of songs and databases we have used in the past. Another suggested searching
lyrics databases in order to find “the linguistic structures and functions you are teaching that
day”, an insightful way to link class content directly to song lyrics. A different participant
proposed using a tool such as music videos, which “allows students to engage on multiple
levels”, offering multiple means of access to learners of different kinds and abilities. A further
respondent recommended repeatedly listening to the same audio, especially at beginning levels,
as they “have found that students absorb more through repetition”, an important insight into
students’ musical learning. This mirrors suggestions encountered in the above literature review
to incorporate repetition of music with beginners in order to increase sound discrimination
abilities. One participant noted that “you can add grammatical exercises, but for me it's never the
main point”, supporting the perspective that music is a way to teach much more than just
grammar. A different respondent mentioned the importance of choosing songs with “not too
many swear words”, though acknowledging that some are indeed acceptable as students do need
to learn them, an oft-forgotten or willfully ignored fact in traditional language classrooms.
However, the clearest and most direct recommendation was the most succinct and pointed of all:
“Do it!”
Synthesis and Connections with the Literature
In the above survey results and discussion, we have encountered a very wide range of
personal pedagogical practices and approaches, many of which directly support the initial
hypotheses of this thesis. To reiterate, these are: that music as a pedagogical tool effectively
Kuzman 46
increases student motivation, as well as positively impacts concrete linguistic learning outcomes.
Both of these have been supported by the previous literature review, and are now lent further
credence by the opinions of the language professors collected in this survey. Notably, multiple
respondents mentioned that they have indeed noticed increases in their students’ motivation and
engagement in class, in addition to other heightened affective benefits such as emotional
responses to music. This represents an important overlap between the literature and this survey in
terms of multiple affective aspects in the language classroom, which may be successfully
improved through the use of music.
Furthermore, positive linguistic benefits have also been observed by these professors,
including but not limited to: improved retention, memorization abilities, and recall, all three of
which were indeed found in the former literature review as well. One final noteworthy finding
which was not proposed in the initial hypotheses is the potential for music to significantly
improve students’ foreign language pronunciation, especially at beginning levels. Both authors
reviewed in the literature and survey participants cite the efficacy of repeated musical exposure
to positively impact pronunciation, especially at beginning levels. These responses mirror and
solidly support similar findings in the literature review which show that music is efficacious at
positively impacting student performance in class. Thus, we can conclude that all of the
particular points above are underpinned by both academic research as well as practicing
language professionals’ personal experience with their language students.
One further pattern which appears significant is the recommendation of multiple survey
respondents that we need not be musical professionals or consider ourselves highly musical
people in order to successfully employ music with our students. Multiple professors who were
surveyed referenced this suggestion, with one encouraging us to sing in class (even if badly) in
Kuzman 47
order to convey to students the acceptability of doing so. This sentiment was echoed by another
participant, who was happy to have discovered that their self-described non-musicality was not
an impediment to having a positive experience using music with their students. Thus, we can see
that employing music in the classroom can truly be a positive experience for teachers of all
described musicality levels, and that they need not be professionals or have considerable musical
experience to do so. This, I believe, is the most important and impactful recommendation to
emerge from this survey: all language educators can, and should, successfully incorporate music
into their classrooms in order to enjoy the multiple benefits of doing so.
Conclusions, Limitations, and Suggestions for Further Research
The goal of this thesis has been to successfully synthesize and bring together a variety of
valuable sources from a wide range of disciplines, providing concrete research examples as well
as personal and practical recommendations from experienced language professionals. We have
taken a journey through the fields of pedagogy, neuroscience, and musical and linguistic theory,
which on the whole decidedly point to the practicality and effectiveness of combining music and
language education. The experiences and encouragement from the professors surveyed further
strengthen the conviction that this is indeed both a highly effective as well as enjoyable manner
of teaching and learning languages. We can confidently say that both initial hypotheses have
been soundly supported by solid and varied evidence, and that in fact we have discovered
considerably further benefits which may come from this approach as well. In other words, music
is indeed a highly effective pedagogical tool when applied to language education, increasing
student motivation and positively affecting students’ emotional state. Neurologically, music and
language are processed in the same brain areas, and so we may consider that combining these
two domains serves to support the cognitive processing of both. Additionally, music is
Kuzman 48
considerably efficacious in concretely improving a large variety of foundational linguistic skills,
which are essential in learning to speak and understand a foreign language well.
However, it must be acknowledged that this study has some important limitations as well.
The survey sample size was notably small, and thus its results cannot be overgeneralized or
considered overly significant. Furthermore, it must be recognized that these professors teach at a
small, elite liberal arts college in the USA, and thus do not constitute a representative sample of
language educators around the world or even the country. It may also have been a vacuous
oversight not to directly ask respondents in which specific ways and with which activities they
employ music in their language teaching, which should be investigated in future research. This
would allow us to more concretely and productively compare the specific manners in which
professors utilize music in their language classrooms. A cursory overview of published research
on the topic reveals a great many such reports in which language educators describe in detail
their particular pedagogical practices regarding music-based activities; however, these rather
anecdotal accounts were outside the purview of the current research, and may best be
investigated in further studies. It would be a considerable and valuable task to perform a
comprehensive study of such resources and synthesize them in a productive manner which
affords language educators a varied “toolbox” of practical activities that they may utilize in their
teaching. Such a survey could then be compared to the scientific findings reviewed in the present
study in order to determine the most efficacious, as well as intuitive, resources for practicing
language educators to design and use.
In the future, more rigorous and detailed applied pedagogical studies should be conducted
which put these and further hypotheses to the test in longer-term experiments with language
classes. It is currently difficult to ascertain from existing studies the specifics of music use in
Kuzman 49
terms of content areas and activities, and so it would be beneficial to study such precise
questions more consistently in order to facilitate analysis and comparison. It would be advisable
to gather more detailed data on particular music use and pedagogical activities, which would be
invaluable information in order to measure certain methodologies’ effectiveness. Such rigorous
research could help us to better put into practice the theoretical knowledge which has been
gleaned from the current study, and to determine which particular strategies and advice seem to
be the most effective and enjoyable for students. Furthermore, it would be important to study
whether these findings apply to all languages equally, especially those which already are taught
primarily through audio-aural means, and those which do not have a large repertoire of recorded
musical materials readily available.
In conclusion, music indeed appears to be a highly effective and enjoyable tool with
which to teach language, with extensive practical applications beyond those proposed in our
initial hypotheses. We may say that many of the traditional woes associated with language
education could be remedied in large part by the addition of more, pedagogically sound music
practices. Without overly pontificating, this is a very personally important subject, and the goal
of this thesis is to communicate and support this passion in a very clear, concrete, and convincing
manner. This project has only served to further strengthen the conviction that musical language
education is an extremely valid and valuable pedagogical tool, which we would do well to
integrate into our teaching practices. Hopefully this work has exposed the reader to a wide range
of new insights which spark new personal and professional curiosity, as well as a desire to
implement this method with our students. In parting, let us reflect upon and appreciate the very
wide range of academic, scientific, pedagogical, and practical knowledge synthesized in the
current study. Together, this considerable collection of knowledge clearly displays that music
Kuzman 50
can, and indeed should, be used as a principally important instrument in the field of language
education.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my advisor and first
reader for this thesis, Professor Bettina Matthias. Professor Matthias was an extremely active,
engaged, and endlessly supportive advisor for this project, and has strongly supported me with
these hypotheses for many years. Her very broad knowledge and expertise of both foreign
languages as well as the use of the arts to teach them were very valuable throughout this whole
process. She was an especially responsive and dedicated advisor, contributing much of her own
time to assist with this thesis each and every week over the course of the semester and even
before. Vielen, vielen Dank Bettina, aus tiefstem Herzen, dank Dir ist diese Thesis überhaupt
möglich.
Professor Shawna Shapiro deserves special mention as my academic advisor, third thesis
reader, and most important supporting faculty member during the long and arduous process of
becoming an independent scholar in linguistics. Professor Shapiro has wholeheartedly supported
me in this independent path over the last few years, always providing personal and professional
support whenever needed. She was also instrumental in providing feedback on the survey
questions for this study, taking time during her sabbatical to offer valuable insight which
considerably improved the quality of the questions and data collected. Thank you so much
Shawna, I could never have completed this major without all of your help and encouragement.
Professor Florence Feiereisen merits my sincere gratitude for introducing me to the
academic study of linguistics, showing me that it can be so much more than just grammar
analysis and syntax trees. Her personal teaching pedagogy and methods remain an inspiration
Kuzman 51
and motivation for me to improve my own, as she always brings out only the best from her
students, making learning truly enjoyable. Professor Feiereisen also kindly and skillfully advised
the independent study which supported this thesis over the course of the previous semester, and
contributed valuable research material to this project. Danke Florence, dank Dir habe ich
schließlich Linguistik studiert.
Professor Per Urlaub must be gratefully acknowledged for graciously offering to be the
second thesis reader as well as advise the previous semester’s independent study. Professor
Urlaub contributed extremely helpful and detailed input concerning the procedures and structure
of this thesis, which I highly appreciate. His wide range of expertise in second language
acquisition is very gratefully accepted and valuable in this entire thesis process. Vielen Dank Per,
ich weiß es, Deine Hilfe zu schätzen.
I would also like to express my appreciation for the contributions of Ms. Diane DeBella
of the Middlebury College CTLR, whose expertise in all formatting and citing matters were
indispensable during this thesis project. When even my millennial googling skills were
ultimately unsuccessful in locating specific and necessary information, I turned to Ms. DeBella
multiple times, and she promptly and patiently proposed possible solutions to my problems.
Thank you very much for your skills, kindness, and patience with me during this work.
Finally, I would like to respectfully recognize the contributions of Mr. John Hoffman, Jr.
for his shrewd and insightful comments regarding language use in this thesis. Mr. Hoffman also
warrants particular gratitude as my most senior-ranking active acquaintance, having first had the
privilege of meeting pre-grade school. Thanks so much for your friendship and input John, this
thesis is indubitably a much more interesting read as a direct and indisputable result of your
astute observations.
Kuzman 52
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