Running head: MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
Research on Musical Aptitude and it’s Effects on Foreign Language
Pronunciation and Structure
Tyler D. Boorman
MUE 547
University of Oregon
1
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
2
Research on Musical Aptitude and it’s Effects on Foreign Language
Pronunciation and Structure
The correlations between music and language have been studied for a number of
years; however, much of the information available on the subject comes out of the last
decade. The subject at hand can be broken into many sub-categories. These include, but
are certainly not limited to, foreign language pronunciation, speech prosody, linguistic
structure, brain stem encoding, and tonal language relations. While the task of testing
these ideas empirically may seem difficult, several studies have reached conclusions
suggesting the role that musical studies may play in language comprehension. Some of
these come from Finland, such as Milovanov’s studies (2007 & 2010) on the correlations
between music and foreign language pronunciation skills in children (Milovanov, 2007)
and adults (Milovanov, 2010).
Milovanov’s results found that non-musicians had more difficulty in
pronouncing English than choir students and English philology students from the
same university. The latter groups had no significant differences in general musical
aptitude. The general findings of the study suggested that the greater the general
musical aptitude a participant proved in the musicality testing, the better his/her
results were in the English pronunciation test (Milovanov, 2010). The findings from
a similar test done just a few years prior with children came to similar conclusions,
stating that language related skills might inhabit the same area of the brain as perceptual
musical skills, at least involving discrimination of pitch, timbre, rhythm, and functions of
tonal memory (Milovanov, 2007).
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
3
Two years later a study hypothesized that musical training influences
linguistic abilities in eight-year-old children (Moreno, Marques, Santos, Santos,
Castro & Besson, 2009). The findings were very similar to that of Milovanov, stating
that musical training did improve reading skills and discrimination of small patch
variations in speech (Moreno, 2009).
Adults were tested in a similar study by Sadakata (2011), which
hypothesized that musicians may perceive acoustical features such as pitch and
timing in language. Results of the study suggested that musicians exhibit enhanced
early acoustical analysis of speech and may have an advantage in the perception of
acoustical features that are important in language and music, including pitch and
timing (Sadakata, 2011).
Extending the concepts addressed in the studies above, a study by Sleve and
Miyake (2006) measured second-language ability in four areas: receptive
phonology, productive phonology syntax, and lexical knowledge. These concepts
were then assessed in conjunction with musical aptitude. Results suggested musical
ability added to variance in receptive and productive phonology, but not in syntax or
lexical knowledge (Sleve, 2006).” The primary conclusions suggested that those who
are good at analyzing, discriminating and remember musical stimuli, can better
perceive and produce secondary-language sounds (Sleve, 2006).
The hypothesis that musical aptitude facilitates pronunciation of foreign
languages (Milovanov, 2009) gives way to many other correlations. One study takes
the next step seeking to find the connection between music and language. Ilie and
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
4
Thompson (2006) compared the affective consequences of manipulating intensity,
rate, and pitch height in music and speech.
Illie and Thompson’s results contribute to the idea that the areas of the brain
responsible for processing speech may also process music indifferently. Intensity,
pitch height, and rate seem to “provide listeners with perceptual information to
decode emotional meaning in either music or speech prosody (Illie & Thompson, p.
324).” The subjects of prosody and emotion in relation to music are further
explored in a study by Thompson, Shellenberg, and Husain (2004).
Results from Thompson’s study (2004) suggest that musical aptitude
encourages sensitivity to emotions conveyed by speech prosody. These findings
were bolstered by the results of a study by Lima and Castro (2011). Lima’s results
suggested that there is indeed a connection between language and music in regards
to processing in the brain. The ability to identify emotional speech prosody may be
enhanced by musical aptitude (Lima, 2011).
The suggestions of the results in the studies above all point to major
similarities between music and language. They deal with macro concepts of prosody
and emotion in speech. Interestingly, several other studies suggest that musicians
have stronger representations of segmenting linguistic structures as well (Francois,
2011).
A study by Francois (2011) tested whether artificial language learning
(segmentation) could benefit from ‘formal music training.’ Results suggested that
there is a positive correlation between musical practice and language segmentation.
Musicians may be better at segmenting both linguistic and musical structures
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
5
(Francois, 2011). Yet another study dealing with the larger structures of speech
suggested that there is most likely common processing of duration in speech and in
harmonic sounds (Kujala, 2012).” Results from another study suggest that
musician’s phonological memory and attention control also play a part in how they
perceive a language spoken in real time (larger structure) in comparison to nonmusicians (Isaacs, 2011).
Results of the studies mentioned so far attend to the external cues that
musical aptitude correlates with linguistic skills. Other studies, such as one
conducted by Musacchia, Sams, Skoe and Kraus (2007), look toward the physical,
internal structures responsible for any differences in abilities.
The purpose of Musacchia’s study (2007) was to test whether formal
studying of music promotes plasticity at sub-cortical levels. It was found that
“musician’s brainstem responses occurred before, and more strongly than, those of
non-musicians to both speech and music stimuli (Musacchia, p. 15894).” Results
suggested that musical training does indeed encourage plasticity. A related study
found that musicians have more ability to produce and perceive sound structures,
but not grammatical or semantic structures, of a second language (Wong, Skoe,
Russo, Dees & Kraus, 2007).
Finally, one study found behavioral evidence in children for a shared pitch
processing area of the brain for language and music perception (Magne, Schön &
Besson, 2006). A supporting study by Levitin (2003) suggests that musical structure
is processed in the same areas of the brain as speech. His study “found focal
activation in the pars orbitalis region of the left inferior frontal cortex, a region that
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
6
has been previously closely associated with the processing of linguistic structure in
spoken and signed language (Levitin, p. 2142).”
All of the studies mentioned provide great evidence for the positive
correlation between music and linguistic abilities. But are these correlations
reciprocal? Studies in this area seem less abundant and more research could be
conducted. Illie and Thompson’s study (2006) suggested that areas of the brain
responsible for processing speech may also process music indifferently. Yet the goal
of the study was not to find if speech affected musical abilities. One study, however,
addresses the issue of linguistic aptitude and its effect on music.
Bidelman, Gandour & Krishnan (2011) used tuned and out of tune chords to
compare brainstem responses of English musicians and non-musicians and native
speakers of Mandarin Chinese. The goal of the experiment was “to determine if
enhancements in sub-cortical processing translate to improvements in the
perceptual discrimination of musical pitch (Bidelman, p. 1).” Results suggested that
although brain stem encoding was enhanced in both the musicians and the native
Mandarin Chinese speakers, the perceptual benefits of musical pitch were not
shared. The amount of research on this subject appears to be light in comparison to
Musical aptitude and it’s effect on language. Perhaps future studies will bring to light
more information regarding language and its effects on musical ability.
It is clear from the current research on musical aptitude and linguistics that
much more research is to be conducted. The studies over the last decade, however,
suggest that those with high musical aptitude do find benefits tied to linguistics.
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
Foreign language pronunciation skills, understanding of speech prosody, and
language segmentation skills all seem to benefit from a history of musical study.
7
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
8
References
Bidelman, G. , Gandour, J. , & Krishnan, A. (2011). Musicians and tone-language
speakers share enhanced brainstem encoding but not perceptual benefits for
musical pitch. Brain & Cognition, 77(1), 1-10.
Francois, C., Schön, D. (2011). Musical Expertise Boosts Implicit Learning of Both
Musical and Linguistic Structures. Cerebral Cortex, 21, 2357—2365.
Ilie, G. , & Thompson, W. (2006). A comparison of acoustic cues in music and speech
for three dimensions of affect. Music Perception, 23(4), 319-329.
Isaacs, T., & Trofimovich, P. (2011). Phonological memory, attention control, and
musical ability: Effects of individual differences on rater judgments of second
language speech. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32(1), 113-140.
Levitin, D. , & Menon, V. (2003). Musical structure is processed in "language" areas
of the brain: A possible role for brodmann area 47 in temporal coherence.
Neuroimage, 20(4), 2142-2152.
Lima, C. , & Castro, S. (2011). Speaking to the trained ear: Musical expertise
enhances the recognition of emotions in speech prosody.
Emotion, 11(5),1021-1031.
Magne, C. , Schon, D. , & Besson, M. (2006). Musician children detect pitch violations
in both music and language better than non-musician children: Behavioral
and electrophysiological approaches. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(2),
199-211.
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
9
Marie, C., Kujala, T. & Besson, M. (2012). Musical and linguistic expertise influence
pre attentive and attentive processing of non-speech sounds. Cortex, 48, 447457.
Milovanov, R., Huotilainen, M., Välimäki, V., Esquef, P.A., Tervaniemi, M. (2008).
Musical aptitude and second language pronunciation skills in school-aged
children: Neural and behavioral evidence. Brain Research, 1194, 81-89.
Milovanov, R., Pietilä, P., Tervaniemi, M., & Esquef, P.A. (2010). Foreign language
pronunciation skills and musical aptitude: A study of Finnish adults with
higher education, Learning and Individual Differences. Learning and Individual
Differences, 20, 56-60.
Moreno, S., Marques, C., Santos, A., Santos, M., Castro, S.L., & Besson, M. (2009).
Musical training influences linguistic abilities in 8-year-old children: more
evidence for rain plasticity. Cerebral Cortex, 19,712-723.
Musacchia, G., Sams, M., Skoe, E. & Kraus, N. (2007). Musicians have enhanced
subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music.
Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America, 104, 40,15894-15898.
Sadakata, M., Sekiyama, K. (2011). Enhanced perception of various linguistic
features by musicians: A cross-linguistic study. Acta Psychologica, 138, 1-10.
Sleve, R. L., Miyake, A. (2006). Individual differences in second-language
proficiency: does musical ability matter? Psychological Science, 17, 675-681.
Thompson, W. , Schellenberg, E. , & Husain, G. (2004). Decoding speech prosody: Do
music lessons help?. Emotion, 4(1), 46-64.
MUSICAL APTITUDE AND LANGUAGE
Wong, P. , Skoe, E. , Russo, N. , Dees, T. , & Kraus, N. (2007). Musical experience
shapes human brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch patterns. Nature
Neuroscience, 10(4), 420-422.
10