language is music to the ears

Are you a better language learner if you are good at music?

A musician speaks:

It strikes me that there are three areas in which being a musician might be beneficial to language learning, and the language learning process:

• Ear training
• Knowing how to practise
• Performance

In this article, I'm going to explore these three areas, based on my experience.

3 Hidden Links Between Music And Language Learning – StoryLearning

Here's the basic science:

Scientifically, the two parts of the brain that regard language and music learning are different and do not have a great connection. There are, however, a few skills that are complementary for both – speaking a foreign language and playing the right tones.

...

Although the two centres in our brains are not connected closely, there is no denying that being able to recognize music and sing it gives us a better arsenal for learning other languages

https://www.1stopasia.com/blog/does-an-ear-for-music-help-for-language-learning/

With a bit more science: 

When children start studying music before the age of seven, they develop bigger vocabularies, a better sense of grammar and a higher verbal IQ. These advantages benefit both the development of their mother tongue and the learning of foreign languages. During these crucial years, the brain is at its sensitive development phase, with 95% of the brain's growth occurring now. Music training started during this period also boosts the brain's ability to process subtle differences between sounds and assist in the pronunciation of languages – and this gift lasts for life, as it has been found that adults who had musical training in childhood still retain this ability to learn foreign languages quicker and more efficiently than adults who did not have early childhood music training.

Are musicians better language learners? | Education | The Guardian

Here's some evolutionary science:

Did the evolutionary process towards musical abilities begin in the primeval oceans? And have Human footsteps stimulated the evolution of musical abilities, which in turn...

... bipedal walking stimulated the evolution of music, which in turn may have been critical for language evolution...

Music to my ears: how language evolved | Science Features | Naked Scientists

This is from a psychologist:

This is not to say that music is not useful in learning a language. The most widely accessible tool – songs – help L2 learners acquire new patterns of stress and rhythm, strengthen pronunciation skills and make an emotional connection to the language of choice. Many learners owe their success to listening or even singing along with popular songs. This strategy can be used by everyone – including those with a deaf ear for music.

Do Musicians Make Better Language Learners? | Psychology Today United Kingdom

And from a linguist:

Given what is known about brain plasticity and changes in synaptic and neural pathways as a response to practising something throughout a person’s lifetime, it’s not surprising that the greater use of language will show up in musical ability and vice versa.

Explainer: how are learning languages and music linked?

Finally, Gill Ragsdale writes in the E L Gazette:

You don’t have to be musical to find melody in spoken words
...
Whether or not they have musical ability, students who rate a new language as sounding melodic are better able to speak it, according to a study by researchers in Austria, Latvia and Germany.

... 

This is good news for both students and teachers, as there are several ways to boost the apparent tunefulness of language. Some of these tactics may mimic the first language of them all: motherese, the way that parents all over the world speak to their infants – slowly, with more ‘sing song’ intonation, variations in pitch and a lot of repetition.

Language can be music to the ears | E L Gazette

ELG2111 Nov Issue 478

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