Morales 1

Austin Morales
Mr. Merritt
Introduction to College Writing
November 1, 2015
The Key to the Learning of Languages
Many people seek to learn foreign languages for the sake of culture, connecting with
family, business requirements and numerous other reasons. Whatever the cause, there is always
struggle associated with learning a different language. I began to search for things that could
accelerate or alleviate this process and settled on my utmost passion: music. This begs the
question, does music have an effect on the acquisition of foreign languages? I have made the tie
between language and music because both are very important to me and my future. Ever since I
was in preschool, too young for me to remember myself, I was connected to music. I sang in
musical plays, at talent shows and in the elementary school choir. Come fifth grade, I started
piano lessons and it was then that I became a musician for life. Many people say that music is a
language in and of itself. I like this saying because it portrays musicians as being multilingual.
Furthermore, my father came from the Philippines when he was 10 years old, and his native
tongue was Tagalog. I have always wanted to learn this language to speak with him and my
grandparents, however, I was never given the chance. Instead, I aspired to learning Spanish in
school. I amassed a total of 6 years of Spanish education under my belt; three years in middle
school and three years in high school. It came almost naturally to me, and I always believed that
it was my connection to music that propelled my learning.

Morales 2
After rhetorically analyzing the article Music, the Food of Neuroscience? by author and
neuroscientist Robert Zatorre, published in online magazine Nature, for a previous assignment, I
have found that music can affect areas and functions of the brain, such as anatomy, speech,
development and emotion. The most important takeaways from this article that relate to the topic
are speech and development. In the same way that speech can be considered as thought translated
into verbal communication, music can be seen as creativity or written down notes performed
through an instrument. How well somebody speaks a language can be measured in the quality of
their speech, much like the proficiency of the musician performing a piece. It was found
previously that the areas of the brain associated with speech were predominantly on the left
hemisphere, while the areas that showed functions in music were predominantly in the right
hemisphere, however, many of the regions overlap between the two. Ultimately, this shows
evidence that music and speech have a connection, but it is not strong enough inside the brain to
have an effect on one another. As for the development section of the article, it was found that
learning music at a young age had a direct correlation to, for example, areas of the motor
cortex corresponding specifically to the fingers of the left hand which show an enhanced
electrical response among violin players. (Zatorre 3). It is already known that the brain is
sensitive during development, and one of the things it is sensitive to is music. Drawing
conclusions from this statement means that there is a possibility that music can affect the brain in
ways outside of just motor complexes such as the affinity for learning languages due to its
responsiveness to music. After compiling this previous knowledge on my topic, I found that it
was entirely possible for music to have an effect on the ability to learn languages, but the only
thing I needed was evidence as confirmation, which led me during my research process.

Morales 3
I started by entering phrases in the form of questions related to music and language
acquisition in the google search-bar. Some of the searches I made include Does playing music
help learn a language, or Are musicians better at learning languages. I was using the sites that
came up to form a more refined search, as the results were not satisfactory towards the research
question. One such example shows how brains see music as language, which was already
established previously due to the rhetorical analysis of Music, the Food of Neuroscience. I was
coming across a lot of websites that contained evidence that listening to music had a positive
effect on language learning. After thinking it through, the research question I had formulated did
not specifically say Can being a musician help language learning, it only raises the question if
music can. Music can refer to either listening, creating or performing. With that in mind, I laid
out a plan to find one source for each action.
The first one I chose to research was listening, because there was already many results. I
refined the search to Does listening to music help learn a language with a secondary search
the effect of listening to music on the learning of languages. With both searches, the first result
(most relevant with google search) was the same. This article was particularly attractive due to
its state as a list. The title is The Power of Music: 5 Reasons Why Music Helps with Language
Learning posted by author Mireille Fiset, published by blogging site Livemocha. The five
reasons are: music stimulates memory, singing and learning lyrics increases vocabulary, singing
a song improves pronunciation, listening to music will improve your comprehension of the
language, and finally, music is fun. Each has its own description of why it helps language
learning. All of the points that it brings are true and can be proven by simple experimentation.
For example, reason number three, singing a song improves pronunciation, can be proven by
having one person learn a phrase just through speech alone and by having another learn the same

Morales 4
phrase but with music and rhythm added to the phrase. By the simple reasoning of the article and
the lack of references, it can be inferred that listening to music has an obvious effect on the
learning of languages. While reading the first point, music stimulates memory, the author made
an interesting connection between the alphabet song during infant years with education. Reading
further, she states that You can listen to songs written in the language you are learning, but you
can also make up your own! Pick your favorite melody and sing the days of the week to it, for
example, or anything you have to memorize in a foreign language! Youll see an improvement
quickly (Fiset). This was the claim I needed to move on to the second part of the research
process. According to Fiset, the creation of music can be used to accelerate the learning of a
foreign language. To me, this meant that there was bound to be proven evidence of this
somewhere, and so I searched for it using a more intimate engine, the Wayne State University
Library search.
Using the quicksearch bar on the Wayne State University Library website, I searched the
question Can making music help learn languages. I was met with many results, seldom of
which were suitable for my research question. There was one, however, that was titled Does
Music Instruction Help Children Learn to Read?: Evidence of a Meta-Analysis. Keeping in
mind that music instruction was more along the lines of learning to create music than the actual
creation of music, and the study only reflecting on reading proficiency, I decided to proceed
anyway. I was taken to the abstract page of the article, which was published in Sage Journals.
After reading I decided that it would not be helpful, however, scrolling down I saw different
articles that cited this one as a reference. One was titled Effects of Phonological and Musical
Training on the Reading Readiness of Native- and Foreign-Spanish Speaking Children. It had
the keywords foreign language, language acquisition, music instruction, phonological awareness,

Morales 5
reading readiness and young children. These were definitely the subjects I was looking for, even
if it didnt mean the creation of music, I had still arrived at a research paper which provided
evidence that music helped young children be more prepared for a foreign language naming test.
The important parts are highlighted in the abstract. The two groups that were tested were
preschoolers with either a native language in Spanish or in Tamazight (a dialect spoken in
Morocco). The purpose was to find whether or not musical training helped childrens
phonological awareness and naming speed in Spanish. It was found that the phonological
training that included music activities was particularly effective for the development of
phonological awareness of ending sounds and naming speed (Herrera et al. 1). It was also
proven that each group had this effect regardless of native language. Interpreting this last
statement brings the conclusion that music instruction can help people learn a different language
just as well as it can help other people learn their own language. Not only does listening to music
have a positive effect on language learning, but music instruction does as well. After researching
both topics, I was still left with the question, are musicians naturally better at learning foreign
languages? I reverted back to using the google search engine to help obtain the answer faster.
I searched the exact question shown above and was met with many results that correlated
to the other researching I was conducting, like how listening to music was good for learning
languages. It was only the first and most relevant result that reflected my search near perfectly.
The title of this article was Are Musicians Better Language Learners? written by Liisa
Henriksson-Macaulay published on a news website The Guardian. Right away, the front article
stated that Children who learn music from a young age find it easier to learn languages even in
adulthood, research has found (Henriksson-Macaulay). The article is basically a huge promotion
of music onto young children for the reason that it makes them better academically and it shows

Morales 6
that they are naturally better at learning multiple foreign languages than non-musicians.
Henriksson-Macaulay provides an interesting connection between Finnish people and their
affinity to learn on average 3 to 5 languages. She states that it might stem from Finlands custom
of teaching toddlers and babies core music through games and songs. The author also says that
the brain is sensitive at this time, where 95% of brain growth is during these years. Reading this
confirmed the conclusions I had drawn before I had started the research process, with prior
knowledge on music and development. All of intellectual, linguistic, emotional capacity, IQ,
grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, colloquialisms, syntax, semantics, mathematics, literacy
and science are all increased as a product of just one hour a week of musical learning as a
toddler, according to Henriksson-Macaulay. The main point in this article that is helpful towards
the research question is that music training started during infancy/toddler years boosts the
brains ability to process subtle differences between sounds and assist in the pronunciation of
languages and this gift lasts for life (Henriksson-Macaulay). This means that even if the child
grows to be an adult, it will have a natural proficiency at learning foreign languages because of
its music training.
Initially, I began research with the thought that each source would contain a reason for
how listening to, creating, and performing music would affect the learning of languages
respectively. At first, the first section went by smoothly, receiving the answers I had expected. I
even found some evidence for the next point, creation of music. I decided that a google search
wouldnt be able to help me as much as a direct library archive search. I used Wayne State
University Library quicksearch to help me find a source for this point. I didnt find the answer
immediately, but I ended up at a research paper which tested almost exactly what my research
question asked. I figured it didnt go as planned, but still worked out. Subconsciously I was

Morales 7
searching for a reason why or if musicians were naturally proficient at learning foreign languages
and it was at this point in the process that I realized this. I decided to make this the subject of my
next source. The next article I viewed gave me an overwhelming amount of significance for my
research question, however, there was one thing I took away from this source that sated my
curiosities. With all these discoveries, I had completed the research process. It did not go as I had
initially planned but I found it somewhat easy to brainstorm ideas for one source after the next
due to the nature of the project.
The strategies Ive used in this essay, such as refining searches and how to navigate
through available resources, will most definitely be put to use (perhaps on a smaller scale) in
future papers. In fact, I could expand on one such research topic which relates: What is the
statistical likelihood that a musician will enter medical school than a non-musician? I have
learned a great deal about a very interesting topic; one that I am passionate about. After finishing
this project, it is my claim that the effect that music has on developing minds as a whole, not just
language learning, is nothing but beneficial. Not only has it given me insight on how to raise my
future children, it has been revealed to me that I was once a child who learned music at a very
early age. It could well be that the entire reason I am typing an essay at a prestigious university
as a college freshman is because I had received those lessons. After all, I cant look and see my
life without hearing the sound of music.

Morales 8
Works Cited
Zatorre, Robert. Music, the food of Neuroscience?. Nature. Nature, 16 March 2005. Web.
2 November 2015.
Fiset, Mireille. The Power Of Music: 5 Reasons Why Music Helps with Language Learning.
Livemocha. Livemocha, 3 September 2013. Web. 2 November 2015.
Herrera, Lucia. Lorenzo, Oswaldo. Defior, Sylvia. Fernandez-Smith, Gerard.
Costa-Giomi, Eugenia. Effects of Phonological and Musical Training on the Reading
Readiness of Native- and Foreign-Spanish-Speaking Children. Sage Journals. Sage
Publishing, 16 July 2010. Web. 2 November 2015.
Henriksson-Macaulay, Liisa. Are Musicians Better Language Learners?. theguardian.
The Guardian, 27 February 2014. Web. 2 November 2015.