Do you Speak Music ?

Lifelong  Learning  Programme  COMENIUS

In – service  Training  Course ,  

 Do you speak music ?
European music portfolio
A creative way into languages

Schiers  Switzerland

July  2013

Basic  Ideas
Language  is  music               

         From a very early age children make sounds, murmur, sing, move around and dance in a very natural way. They communicate in their “music language” which can be regarded as pre-verbal communication. As they get older, they develop their mother tongue using these pre-verbal musical elements. Brain research has confirmed a profound relationship between music and language learning. Also, research indicates that children are pre-disposed to learning foreign languages. Listening, perceiving, imitating and creating are basic skills in both language and music. 

 Aims  of  the  project

       The goal of the Comenius  Multilateral Project “European Music Portfolio: A Creative Way into Languages” is to integrate musical activities in primary foreign language education. This learning approach can reduce language barriers, and help social integration. It can also nurture self-confidence and self-expression and improve intercultural understanding.

Really? Can I use music for language teaching?

         The neurological links between language and music are vast but the basic thing to remember is that music activates more parts of the brain than language does, on both the right and left sides of the brain. So if you remember something to a tune, you are more likely to recall the information than if you just read it or heard it spoken.

         Have you ever heard a song on the radio that you haven’t heard in a decade and you surprise yourself by singing all the lyrics?

         Music and catchy jingles can stick in our minds for years while names of people, places,  verb conjugation charts and memorized data disappear

 My excuse for using music….

         Claudia Cornett (2011) writes: "Classroom teachers do not need to sing well, play an instrument, or read music to start music integration. What is needed is commitment to the philosophy of arts integration and a willingness to learn. Put music into perspective. It is a way of knowing - an intelligence every person possesses. Students will not mind if the teacher does not have a fine singing voice if genuine enthusiasm is expressed. Making the effort to sing with students builds relationship and community - staples for discipline. Since classroom teachers are not perceived as specialists, students accept amateur efforts as natural and normal... With experience and commitment to music integration, all teachers can learn to sing without embarrassment, without being limited by the Western notion that only the talented should sing out.Remember Thoreau's point that the forest would be a very quiet place if only the talented birds sang." 

A Few course activities and moments with lovely people