Language...and music too!
"Research shows <a brain function> correlation between music and language mechanisms"
Ardene Shafer - MENC
Isn’t it funny how you can immediately forget someone's name, yet remember all the lyrics to songs you haven’t heard in years? There’s a link between language and music that makes lyrics easier to remember. For thousands of years, before there was written language, oral traditions were set to song, so that vital information could be remembered and passed down through the generations. Talk about a time-proven technique!
It started as just a tool...
When we first began using music to teach language, we knew right away we were on to something. Our initial motivation was simply to make the children want to hear and repeat the vocabulary as much as possible, while making the classes more fun and engaging. And boy does it work! Parents say the children sing the songs constantly, and request that the CD be played whenever possible - in the car and at home.
The synergy between Language and Music
What we later learned, however, is that music offers its own benefits - similar and complimentary to the benefits of learning a 2nd language. Like language, there is documented research that shows that early exposure to music can lead to increased brain density and an increased skill in math and logic. However, the music seems to stimulate a different yet complimentary portion of the brain. We feel that both are important to a child's development, and it is serendipitous that our method incorporates music as a means of teaching language.
Why we put the music in Music Lingua
- Kids love to sing along with the songs, so they get much more practice speaking and hearing the language.
- The CDs are fun, so the children tend to listen to them at home, in the car, etc. This repetition reinforces the language learning between classes.
- Even infants enjoy listening to the music, and through it become exposed to the sounds of language in the critical early years.
- The music and activities in the class are of tremendous benefit to the child in their own right, even without the language.
- The combination of singing, drama, games and art make the classes dynamic and fun, and hold the child's interest.
- Words and phrases, even foreign ones, are much easier to remember when put to music.
- Music and language are complimentary, and both are crucial for a child's development. By combining the two, the child enjoys a benefit far greater than just the sum of the parts.
