Yes, music can improve school performance in language and literacy as it helps in developing auditory skills, enhancing memory, and promoting concentration. Additionally, music can stimulate creativity and emotional expression, both of which are beneficial for language and literacy development.
And now in more detail
Music has long been recognized for its potential to improve school performance in language and literacy. Numerous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of music on various cognitive abilities and skills. By engaging with music, students can experience a range of benefits that directly contribute to their language and literacy development.
Firstly, music helps in developing auditory skills, which are crucial for language acquisition. When students listen to music, they actively engage their auditory processing abilities, which includes discriminating and interpreting different sounds and patterns. This skill is transferrable to language, as it involves the same cognitive processes required for phonological awareness – the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds in language, such as rhyming and syllable segmentation. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association affirms this, stating that “music and language share a number of processing skills, including auditory discrimination and pattern recognition.”
Enhancing memory is another significant benefit of music in relation to language and literacy. Learning and performing music require students to remember melodies, lyrics, and rhythm, which can boost their memory capacities. This improvement in memory can aid in language learning, as students can better internalize vocabulary, grammar rules, and storytelling elements. A study by Kraus and Chandrasekaran (2010) found that musical training positively impacts verbal memory and can help in language-based learning processes.
Furthermore, music promotes concentration and focus, both of which are essential for academic success in language and literacy. When students engage with music, they learn to concentrate on multiple components simultaneously, such as melodies, rhythms, and lyrics. This ability to attend to and process different elements of music can translate to improved concentration in other academic tasks, including reading, writing, and language comprehension. A quote from Friedrich Nietzsche emphasizes this connection: “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Displaying the importance of music in enhancing focus and concentration.
Additionally, music stimulates creativity and emotional expression, which are beneficial for language and literacy development. Through musical activities, students have opportunities to engage with their imagination, think critically, and express themselves emotionally. These experiences can have a positive impact on their writing skills and storytelling abilities. As Thomas Armstrong, an educator and author, states, “Music education can help spark a child’s imagination or ignite a lifetime of passion. When you provide a child with new worlds to explore and challenges to tackle, the possibilities are endless.”
Table:
Benefits of Music in Language and Literacy Development
- Development of auditory skills
- Enhancement of memory
- Promotion of concentration and focus
- Stimulation of creativity and emotional expression
In conclusion, music indeed has the potential to improve school performance in language and literacy. By developing auditory skills, enhancing memory, promoting concentration, and stimulating creativity, music provides a valuable tool for students in their language and literacy development. As Victor Hugo once said, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” Through music, students can unlock their potential and excel in language and literacy skills.
Watch related video
In this TEDxSydney talk, Richard Gill emphasizes the importance of music education for children, starting from a young age. He believes that all children should have access to properly taught music and emphasizes the power of imitation as a way of teaching. Gill highlights the importance of listening, focus, and creativity in music education, encouraging children to experience improvisation and make their own music. He also discusses the abstract nature of music and its ability to evoke different responses in individuals. Gill shares examples of how music education enhances cognitive development and opens up children’s minds in unique ways. He argues that teaching music is valuable not only for its neurological benefits but also because it is intrinsically good and empowering for children.
Some further responses to your query
Language and music share the elements of pitch, timing, and timbre. As children become more familiar with these elements through musical instruction, their language-processing skills also improve—enabling them to distinguish nuances in speech more easily, according to Venesile.
Having regular music lessons improves the brain’s ability to read and respond to sounds, the study suggests Learning to sing or play a musical instrument can help disadvantaged children improve their reading skills, US research suggests.
A growing body of research suggests that music education enhances literacy skills that facilitate all other learning.
"Children who received music lessons showed improved language-based reasoning and the ability to plan, organize and complete tasks, as well as improved academic achievement," says Dr Jaschke.
Children exposed to a multi-year programme of music tuition involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers, according to a study published in the journal Psychology of Music.
Music and language have a deep and profound relationship. The link between musical instruction and better language development in young children has long been established. Musical training stimulates and trains the same part of the brain that deals with understanding language.
Music can enhance the biological building blocks for language. Music both prepares children for learning to read, and supports them as they continue their reading journey. Unfortunately, it’s disadvantaged students who are least likely to have music learning in their schools. Yet research shows they could benefit the most from music learning.
A 2014 study published in The Journal of Neuroscience found that children who took music lessons for two years didn’t just become better at playing an instrument—they became better at processing language.
Children’s engagement in music practice is associated with enhancements in literacy-related language skills, as demonstrated by multiple reports of correlation across these two domains. Training studies have tested whether engaging in music training directly transfers benefit to children’s literacy skill development.
Music experience during early childhood can promote language and literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness, vocabulary, and turntaking and self‐regulation skills useful for communication more broadly.
The study, performed in Beijing, suggests that musical training is at least as beneficial in improving language skills, and possibly more beneficial, than offering children extra reading lessons.
Also, individuals are curious
Through phonological awareness, children learn to associate sounds with symbols, and create links to word recognition and decoding skills necessary for reading.