Singing foreign phrases makes learning a second language
easier, study shows
By ABC Science Online's Claire Pain
Updated Thu 15 Aug 2013, 4:37pm AEST
Map: Scotland
Singing, rather than saying phrases in a new language has been proven to make it easier to remember
the new language according to a new study.
The study published in the Memory and Cognition journal found that adults learning phrases in
Hungarian were better able to match the words with their English counterparts when they learned the
phrase by singing it.
Lead author and linguist from the University of Edinburgh, Dr Karen M Ludke, became interested in
whether singing could help in learning a language when she was teaching English as a second language
in New York.
"I started using a lot of song and music in my lessons, so they could practise when I wasn't around," she
said.
"Then I started to doubt myself a little bit. I thought, 'Is this scientific?, Is this actually beneficial to use
song to teach?'"
Dr Ludke used Google Scholar to determine how much relevant research existed and found evidence
from teachers that it was a proven strategy in teaching second languages.
Singing phrases leads to better recall, Dr Ludke says
Dr Ludke identified a gap in the research about the effectiveness of teaching a second language using a
spoken presentation as opposed to singing and made this the focus of initially a Masters and then PhD
study.
She split 60 participants learning Hungarian aged between 18 and 29 into three groups.
One group heard spoken English phrases followed by a spoken Hungarian translation, another group
heard the Hungarian phrase being sung, and a third group heard the Hungarian phrases being said with
the same rhythm as the song, rather like a chant.
She said Hungarian was chosen as the test language because it was unfamiliar to most English speakers
and it was quite different from both the Germanic and Romance languages such as French and Italian.
The study results showed that people who had heard the Hungarian phrases being sung performed
significantly better than the other groups.
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In particular, when they heard the English phrases again they were better able to repeat the correct
Hungarian phrase and they were also more likely to be able to translate the Hungarian phrases back into
English.
Powerful mnemonic device
The Colorado State University's Professor Michael Thaut says the study shows the importance of
melody, in particular, in helping people to remember things.
However he adds that there is more to learning a second language than just being able to recall phrases
without necessarily understanding them.
"Learning a language involves many different processes such as vocabulary learning, sentence structure,
grammar and practising speaking," he said, and added that he thought singing might not necessarily
help with these.
"I think it is more of a memory study than actual cognitive learning."
Dr Thaut says he is not surprised that singing phrases led to better recall than hearing them spoken in a
rhythm because he says when a rhythm is clapped or a melody is played in a musical test, the melody
has more salient features.
"I think what they've demonstrated [confirms] the general idea that music is a very powerful mnemonic
device," he said.
Dr Ludke said more research needed to be conducted because there were indications there could be
more to learning a language than just improving memory.
"This study really just opens the door for future research because there are so many different questions
still to answer," she said.
Article: Singing foreign phrases makes learning a second language easier, study shows
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