THE POWER OF MUSIC: HOW MUSIC HELPS LEARNERS IMPROVE LANGUAGE SKILLS

Naianne Lisboa

    

     

 This probably happen to you: song gets stuck in your mind and you cannot get rid of it. That is because music surrounds us throughout our lives, who does not have a favorite song? So, if music is so present in our lives, why not use it in education? Teachers and learners have realized instinctively the benefits of using music as strategy to learn a foreign language. Indeed studies prove the power of the music and the positives reactions it induces in the brain and its effects when associated to language learning. Don. G. Campbell (1992) states that the music can connect the two brain hemispheres, that is making the brain more productive. Therefore, it is possible to say music has a great power of stimulating students to learn a new language.

     Music can make students enthusiastic and motivated because, it is usually part of the students’ daily life. The students can sing to learn new vocabulary and pronunciation, making the learning more fun. Because students generally have a strong knowledge basis in music exploring students’ interests, capabilities, and confidence this area can help  increase knowledge in others areas. Furthermore, it is important that learners have interest in what they are doing. Because when learners like the activities, they are more productive and they achieve more learning results.

    Teachers use music in language classrooms because they perceive the learning advantages when music is incorporated into language learning. Music can be used in class in different ways. For instance, Professor Sandra Adkins uses choral in her practices as an optional activity, but all the students participate. She states that the students take her ideas of using music for learning and build upon them, creating their own ways to bringing music in their learning. Students approve of this method because they are learning something and consequently stimulating their motivation. But this kind of activity needs to have a purpose. The song selected needs to have connection with the lives of the students and a relation with things taught previously.

   

 When I started to study English, I had no idea how to study a foreign language autonomously. I went to class and read the textbook, but the results were not good. Later, I began to search about ways to improve my English skills and I started to practice. For example, I started looking for the lyrics of the songs on the Internet to understand the new vocabulary, after familiarizing        myself, I would sing, reading the lyrics, until I had them memorized. Using these strategies, I improved my listening, reading, and speaking skills, and I have acquired new vocabulary.

Music is exciting and, motivating and promotes positive reactions in our brain. Music had and has a great influence on my English learning process. Furthermore, studies prove music has a powerful influence in language learning, a phenomenon that I experienced in my own learning process can be work in whatever language learning process. It is important to say learning process do not need to be boring, it can be fun and enthusiastic. Let’s try connecting learning with things we love.