Overture
“When words leave off, music begins” (Heinrich Heine Quotes, 2015).
There are many reasons to use music in adult language learning. Music gets the whole brain involved in learning. Music is motivating, energizing, memorable, and cross-cultural. Music reduces anxiety, increases attention, and connects learning to students’ lives outside school. Music improves many aspects of language learning, such as vocabulary acquisition and pronunciation. Music appeals to students with different learning styles, and can help many marginalized students, such as those on the autism spectrum, feel heard. Music is effective in teaching those with reading and speech disorders. (Anderson & Fuller, 2010; Bannan, 2008; Bista, n.d.; Butzlaff, 2000; Carlson, et al, 2004; Crane, 2006; Cuevas, 2012; Ebong & Sabbadini, 2006; Flohr, 2006; Graham, 1996; Kang & Williamson, 2014; Lems, 2001; Lems, 2005; Li & Brand, 2009; Miyake, 2004; Moreno, 2009; Murphey, 1992; Ohlhaver, 1998; Overy, 2003; Pogaceanu, 2013; Speh & Ahramjian, 2009; Terrell, 2012; Ulate, 2007; Woody, 2004).
In short, music has the power to move pencils and tongues, bodies and spirits.
But it’s not enough when teaching adults English as a second language (ESL) to use music in lessons. To be most effective, music activities must also be “mickey-moused” to language and language goals.
As Mickey Mouse tiptoes across the floor in the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” sequence in the movie “Fantasia,” the musical rhythm matches that of his steps (Walt Disney Productions & Taylor, 1940). As he rushes up and down staircases, the melody rises up and down along with him. The timbre of background instruments mimics sounds Mickey’s voice might make. As Mickey’s emotions change from self-satisfied to fearful, the music's emotional quality changes from exuberant to foreboding.
The video below contains the full 9-minute "Sorcerer's Apprentice" episode out of the original 1940 version of "Fantasia" (Youtube, 2011).
There are many reasons to use music in adult language learning. Music gets the whole brain involved in learning. Music is motivating, energizing, memorable, and cross-cultural. Music reduces anxiety, increases attention, and connects learning to students’ lives outside school. Music improves many aspects of language learning, such as vocabulary acquisition and pronunciation. Music appeals to students with different learning styles, and can help many marginalized students, such as those on the autism spectrum, feel heard. Music is effective in teaching those with reading and speech disorders. (Anderson & Fuller, 2010; Bannan, 2008; Bista, n.d.; Butzlaff, 2000; Carlson, et al, 2004; Crane, 2006; Cuevas, 2012; Ebong & Sabbadini, 2006; Flohr, 2006; Graham, 1996; Kang & Williamson, 2014; Lems, 2001; Lems, 2005; Li & Brand, 2009; Miyake, 2004; Moreno, 2009; Murphey, 1992; Ohlhaver, 1998; Overy, 2003; Pogaceanu, 2013; Speh & Ahramjian, 2009; Terrell, 2012; Ulate, 2007; Woody, 2004).
In short, music has the power to move pencils and tongues, bodies and spirits.
But it’s not enough when teaching adults English as a second language (ESL) to use music in lessons. To be most effective, music activities must also be “mickey-moused” to language and language goals.
As Mickey Mouse tiptoes across the floor in the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” sequence in the movie “Fantasia,” the musical rhythm matches that of his steps (Walt Disney Productions & Taylor, 1940). As he rushes up and down staircases, the melody rises up and down along with him. The timbre of background instruments mimics sounds Mickey’s voice might make. As Mickey’s emotions change from self-satisfied to fearful, the music's emotional quality changes from exuberant to foreboding.
The video below contains the full 9-minute "Sorcerer's Apprentice" episode out of the original 1940 version of "Fantasia" (Youtube, 2011).
The practice of reinforcing the the action on the screen with the meaning and sounds of music, once common in many animated films, is technically called "synchronized underscoring." More colloquially, it is called “mickey-mousing.” (Goldmark, 2005). Except for the connotations of shoddy workmanship, mickey-mousing captures this ESL music project in a nutshell.
On this website I explore some ways music can be better tailored - mickey-moused - to language. Not only does this not imply shoddy workmanship, it’s a step in the opposite direction: toward more thoughtfully crafted lessons. My thesis is that we can tailor music to language by exploiting their similarities. This is an exact parallel of what Disney did in so many of its movies.
Though they may not realize it, language teachers already use synchronized underscoring; they mickey-mouse sounds to content. Speaking more loudly to emphasize a sentence, or raising the pitch of the voice to stress an especially important word - that's mickey-mousing. Speaking more slowly, so as to synchronize speech tempo with the slower mental processing of students who are encountering new information in a second language - that's mickey mousing. It's mickey-mousing to say a printed word out loud, so students experience the vocabulary in multiple sensory modalities. Furthermore, any expressive reading qualifies as mickey-mousing.
In the broader sense of integrating multiple sensory modalities, mickey-mousing is involved in a lot of what goes under the name of "scaffolding," or supported learning (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2008). This includes pairing new vocabulary words with pictures or manipulable objects; acting out the meaning of the preposition "in" by putting a pen "in" a pocket; and showing video newscasts to students in order to exemplify the idea of an interview.
But so far as I can tell, the synchronized underscoring of music to language in the classroom has not been explored systematically. And that's a shame, because music and language are parallel universes.
Both music and language exist in every human culture (Bannan, 2008; Patel, 2008; Pogaceanu, 2013). Both hold the power to communicate rich, nuanced meaning. Studying the similarities between the two forms of expression feels to me like Mickey's apprenticeship in sorcery; exotic potions and formulas lead to shadow realities. There are similarities in the sounds (pitch, rhythm and timbre); similarities in their functions, meanings and effects; similarities in structure; and areas of overlapping processing in our brains (Bannan, 2008; Bigand, et al 2001; Coutinho & Dibben, 2013; Juslin & Laukka, 2003; Margulis, 2013; Moreno, 2009; Murphey, 1992; Patel, 2008; Poulin Charronat et al 2005; Terrell, 2012; Tillman, et al, 2007).
Music is so intimately related to language in our brains that music education can improve language learning. While just passively listening to music does not create permanent changes in brain structure, active musical training can improve performance in auditory discrimination, recognition of emotion in language intonation, reading, vocabulary recall, attention, brain plasticity and intelligence (Bialystok & DePape, 2009; Butzlaff, 2000; Dege, Kubicek & Schwarzer, 2011; Kang & Williamson, 2014; Marques, et al 2007; Moreno, 2009; Patel, 2008; Terrell, 2012).
Both music and music education can benefit a wide range of content areas aside from English (Flohr, 2006; Pearman & Friedman, 2009). But music’s real magical powers allow it to join together as neatly as white and black keys on a piano with language.
Enter an English as a second language (ESL) classroom where the students are adults, however, and the chances are you will encounter a very different soundscape than that in Fantasia (Lems, 2005). You will likely hear pencils scratching on worksheets, teachers lecturing, and students reciting monotonous drills.
A mickey-mousing approach to music-assisted language learning can help remedy that.
There are many reasons music is largely absent from adult ESL curricula. One is the common view that adults are too mature for classroom music activities. No doubt many adult ESL instructors cringe when thinking how their students would be offended if asked to clap, sing and dance “like children.” And it’s true that teachers need to respect adults' maturity and experience.
Most research on the effectiveness of music in teaching language has been conducted with children (Li & Brand, 2009; Ohlhaver, 1998). But in spite of the growing evidence, many in adult education don't realize music will help adults learn language effectively and efficiently too. In fact, even children's songs, which may seem inappropriate for adults, help students of all ages to learn languages (Wesson, cited in Terrell, 2012).
Music is already a part of most adults’ lives outside school. In one study, researchers paged people at irregular intervals to find out how music fit into their lives. The subjects indicated they had been listening to music when the pager went off 44% of the time (Woody, 2004). Usually, the music supplemented some other activity. Though Hargreaves (Cited in Patel, 2008) calls children more “open eared” than adults, as a whole older adults’ self-evaluated pleasure from a variety of musical styles is greater than at all other ages except the young primary school and college ages (LeBlanc, et al 1988; Leblanc, et al, 1996).
Many believe some of us “just aren’t music people” (Bannan, 2008). In this view, music activities might alienate musically inept students. The “just not music people” argument, however, is a cultural construct; it is not universal (ibid; Patel, 2008). As children, many Americans were shamed into thinking we were musically disabled. Everyone is musical in their own way (Hargreaves, cited in Terrell, 2012).
It may be true that musical ability differs among people more than language ability does. But only about 4% of the general population suffer from true amusia, or “tone deafness.” And even in these 4%, tone deafness is not all-or-nothing (Patel, 2008). In fact, even many totally deaf people enjoy music - in particular the rhythm and the sound vibrations.
The immigrants in ESL classrooms often hail from societies where singing along to music is more common than in the U.S. (Lems, 2005). In my own experience as an ESL teacher, adult students have invariably responded with enthusiasm to music-assisted language activities.
As Ebong and Sabbadini (2006) point out, one key to student acceptance is choosing the right songs. I add that an intentional step can be taken to better fit music-assisted learning to an adult ESL context by matching the music’s objective characteristics to the specific language and language learning goals of the class.
This is crucial because adults, more than children, need to see the relevance of schoolwork to their goals and to their lives outside the classroom (Finn, 2011). Adults more than children are mature, with matured and often fossilized identities (MacKeracher, 2004). Adults in U.S. literacy programs already face great obstacles to learning, which have resulted in low retention and completion rates. Many of these obstacles arise from a mismatch between curricula and student goals and needs (Zacharakis et al, 2011).
So music must be joined to language by design. And more: music should not just accompany, but also amplify target English language patterns.
Music activities can interact with classroom language goals in one of four ways, depending on the respective functions, meanings, objective characteristics, and cognitive/emotional processing of both the music and the language (see figure 1).
- The music and the language can have little or nothing to do with each other, at least on the surface, so they diverge. For example, a jazz instrumental may have no connection to a class on U.S. citizenship.
- If the brain is trying to process language and music in the same neural circuit at the same time, or if attention is split, the music and language conflict (Kang & Williamson, 2014; Patel, 2008). So if students are taking a test while listening to music with vocals, the words of the song may interfere with comprehension of the test questions (Boyle & Coltheart, 1996; Kang & Williamson, 2014). In this case, both music and language suffer.
- The music can parallel the target language or learning goal, so that the music complements the language. For example, soft background music which cues nostalgia can be played while students write personal narratives about their childhoods. In this case, music and language mutually enrich each other.
- The music can be identical with the language or language goal. This happens, for example, when studying song lyrics as a text in their own right. Identity involves a music-language whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
The two scenarios most useful in the classroom, music running parallel to language goals and music being identical with language, exist on a continuum, depending on how closely the music matches the language.
Crawford & Krashen (2007) point out that languages are acquired, not learned. Students assimilate English not primarily by learning facts about English, but rather by being exposed to and assimilating “comprehensible input;” that is, they must hear authentic examples of English they can figure out, which they can then emulate in meaningful, communicative contexts (Okello, Jaquays & Tomas, 2013; Speh and Ahramjian, 2009; Ulate, 2007).
But students don’t always notice important language features on their own (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010; Folse, 2009; Lightbown & Spada, 2006). So comprehensible input is not always sufficient - at least for adults. At the least, teachers may need to exaggerate and/or point out language features, so students notice them. This also helps students gain conscious control over their learning.
Music which has been carefully chosen to parallel language enhances, and in some cases exaggerates, intonation, rhythm, timbre, emotion, rhetorical force, grammar, and semantic content. This makes language patterns more noticeable and memorable to students. Music which has been carefully selected can also enhance learning goals apart from target language, like attitudes of the class.
Those are the reasons I set out to examine the hows and whys of selectively enhancing target language and learning goals with music in an adult ESL setting.
In my research, I have encountered a lot of ideas for using music in the classroom, and a lot of reasons that it's a good idea to do so. But I have encountered much less in the way of systematic criteria for selecting music, and music activities, which suit particular language learning goals.
An exception was Kramer (2001). Kramer began with a crucial quote from Stephen Krashen: " ... we acquire a new rule by understanding messages that contain this new rule." Kramer then articulated what I consider to be the most important principle of ESL music selection: "The text should stress a particular grammatical point or theme." This website can be thought of as an elaboration of this principle.
One other systematic approach I found was Lems (1996) "Incomplete taxonomy of ways to use music in the ESL classroom (classified by featured component...)." Lems classified the uses of music as: listening comprehension; reading comprehension; pronunciation/speaking practice; writing practice; culture-based activities; grammar; uses of instrumental music; and music as a content area. Murphey's (1992) approach was analogous.
That approach to classification, however, is based primarily on what students do with the music and language, not on objective characteristics of the music and language involved. While I have relied heavily on Lems' taxonomy and Murphey's brilliant digest of music activities, my own approach divides the subject up quite differently.
The project is organized into five chapters. The first three are subsumed under the umbrella of “Sounds:”
- Sounds The acoustic parallels between Western music and the English language, and their implications for ESL.
- Pitch Intonation in language and melody in Western music, and the implications for musically enhancing pronunciation and vocabulary learning.
- Timbre The sounds of musical instruments in relation to vowel and consonant sounds; and timbre's connections to vocabulary learning, phonological awareness, and classroom management.
- Rhythm The stressing and destressing of syllables and notes in language and music, and their implications for musically underscoring the study of vocabulary, language sounds, and language rules.
- Emotions The responses music and vocal expression can elicit, and their connections to language learning.
- Lyrics Harmonizing meanings between music and vocabulary, grammar, and culture, so as to better target specific language-learning goals; getting the most out of mickey-mousing.
Each chapter contains sample activities and music and video excerpts to illustrate the concepts. I recommend reading the chapters in the order I present them here, because I develop some of the material sequentially. Unless the reader is familiar with both music and ESL terminology, s/he may encounter unfamiliar concepts in later chapters that were explained in earlier chapters. As the "Sounds" button below illustrates, when the reader reaches the end of each chapter, s/he will encounter a button that links to the next chapter.
This website only plays a few random notes from what promises to be a rich symphony. I nonetheless hope that both teachers and researchers can benefit from my efforts.