6 Ways Music Can Help You Learn A Foreign Language

Music is food for the soul. All it takes is the right song to uplift your spirits on a bad day. You just can't help grooving to your favorite tunes, can you? But music is more than just entertainment at a party.

Imagine immersing yourself in the rhythm and melody of a song while simultaneously absorbing vocabulary, grammar, and cultural nuances. From catchy pop songs to soulful ballads and traditional folk tunes, music offers a delightful and effective pathway to mastering something as challenging (yet immensely rewarding!) as a foreign language.

Additionally, the language learning landscape is constantly evolving. While traditional classroom settings remain valuable, many schools are embracing innovative methods to keep their courses engaging and effective.

So how does listening to music help you learn a language? Let’s explore the harmonious world where language learning and music intersect, revealing how melodies and lyrics can transform your linguistic journey.

1. Memorization Tool 🧠

A catchy tune is all you need to leave a song ingrained in your head for days at an end. I’m pretty sure you'd be able to sing One Love by Blue effortlessly right now. This song came out in 2002. Yes, it's been more than 20 years! And it's unknowingly been a part of your memory for all these years; which is proof that music is a great tool for memorization.

According to scientists, singing words and phrases in a foreign language makes them easier to remember. In this way, music can be a great tool for learning and remembering new words and internalizing tedious rules of grammar without the boring process of rote learning from textbooks.

How Language Schools Can Leverage Music:

• Integrate music into vocabulary lessons. Play songs that highlight specific vocabulary themes and encourage students to sing along or identify keywords within the lyrics.
• Create fun listening activities based on songs. Have students complete worksheets where they fill in the blanks with missing words from the song, or rewrite the lyrics in their native language to test comprehension.

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2. Enhancing Vocabulary 🔤

Learning how to improve vocabulary and speak like a native is a very important part of learning a language, and conversational language isn't something a textbook can teach you. Listening to songs in your target language can be one of the best vocabulary activities since music acquaints us with colloquial words, phrases, and idioms used by native speakers in everyday life.

How Language Schools Can Leverage Music:

• Create playlists categorized by vocabulary themes. Organize playlists by topic to help students focus on specific vocabulary areas. Classcard, a user-friendly platform designed specifically for language schools, allows you to upload audio files and share them directly with your students.
• Host online listening quizzes based on popular music. Play short snippets of songs and have students answer questions about the lyrics to test their comprehension. Classcard's built-in assessment tools let you create quizzes effortlessly.

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3. Refining Pronunciation 🗣️

The next step to speaking like a native is sounding like a native. While singing, we tend to reproduce sounds and tones, which makes it easier for us to assimilate the respective accents and improve our pronunciation of foreign languages.

Take, for example, the hit song Hips Don't Lie by pop queen Shakira. While it may sometimes be tough for English speakers to remember that the ‘ll’ is pronounced as ‘y’ in Spanish, pronouncing the lyrics ‘¿Cómo se llama?’ (pronounced ‘Como se yama’) correctly, comes naturally.

How Language Schools Can Leverage Music:

• Incorporate song analysis into pronunciation lessons. Play songs and have students focus on and repeat the pronunciation of specific sounds or sound combinations.
• Use karaoke-style activities to encourage pronunciation practice. (A karaoke evening could be a super fun idea to make your students fall in love with your classes and the language!)

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4. Connecting Different Cultures 🌎

A country’s art can tell us a lot about its culture. Music, with its deep connections with the social, historical, and emotional aspects of society, serves as a powerful medium for understanding and experiencing the intrinsic aspects of cultures around the world and learning more about its people and their way of life.

Through melodies, rhythms, and lyrics, music encapsulates the emotions, stories, and traditions of a community, offering insights into their daily lives and collective experiences. Traditional instruments and musical styles highlight regional uniqueness and historical influences, while contemporary music can reveal current societal issues and global interactions. By listening to and studying a culture's music, one can gain a deeper appreciation and awareness of its unique identity and the factors that shape it. After all, learning a language is more than just speaking or understanding it; it's about deeply connecting to a civilization different from ours.

How Language Schools Can Leverage Music:

• Organize themed classes around music genres specific to the target language. Explore the history and cultural significance of different musical styles.
• Facilitate online discussions about music and culture. Encourage students to share their favorite songs in the target language and discuss the cultural meanings behind the lyrics. Watching the music videos for the songs can also highlight cultural nuances about the place and people.
• Invite guest speakers who are musicians or music critics from the target culture. Host online discussions or workshops to give students a deeper understanding of the cultural context behind the music.

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5. Portable 📱

Let’s admit it, we’re almost constantly chained to our phones, or some sort of screen, big or small. So why not make the most of it?

Music allows you to carry your foreign language learning everywhere with you. Listening to music in the shower, on the drive to work, or while preparing a favorite meal, subconsciously implants the nuances of the language in our brains and makes the language-learning process easier and more natural. You may forget your textbooks, but never your phone!

How Language Schools Can Leverage Music:

• Encourage students to create their own playlists in the target language (and even share them with their peers). This personalized approach allows students to focus on music they enjoy and find motivating.
• Recommend music streaming services or online radio stations in the target language.

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6. Fun! 🥳

Perhaps the toughest part about learning a new language is finding the motivation to push through the difficult stretches. I wouldn’t blame you if you have reconsidered your decision to learn a foreign language more than once; I mean, there are verb conjugations, rules of pronunciation, hundreds of grammatical concepts and so much more.

However, finding music that you enjoy will motivate you to listen and learn every day and make the process of learning lively and entertaining, and something you look forward to.

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I personally listen to a lot of Spanish music to help me practice the language, and not only is this exercise immensely beneficial from an educational perspective, but it's also given me some really good music to add to my party playlist!

So the next time you hit YouTube or Spotify, don't forget to look up some popular and peppy songs in the language you're learning, and of course, sing your heart out!

If you’re a language school dedicated to the growth of your students, Classcard is the perfect fit for you! With easy-to-use and practical features that allow you to schedule classes, track attendance and payments, facilitate communication with staff and students and much more, Classcard is the best way to effortlessly manage your language academy.

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