by Núria Medina Casanovas (nuria.medina@uvic.cat)

Interdisciplinary strategies have certainly gained popularity among educators during the last decade. Research studies seem to point out
that children grasp reality in a global way, and interdisciplinary teaching techniques may be a good tool to help students see connections between concepts and specific competencies of each subject area. The Curriculum Document of Catalonia establishes that “further than acquiring one subject in depth, the teacher should promote the student to develop
the capacity to connect the knowledge of one subject to other disciplines.” (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2009:151). The document goes on encouraging teachers to find connections between the different areas and sequence them in a coherent way.

Neuroscience research in recent years suggests profound relationships between music and language (Patel, 2008). Children acquire music and language by getting immersed in the sound environment we live (Bruner, 1985; Hallam, 2010). Music and language learning are likely to be developmentally related (Levitin, 2006) since the connections between these two fields are created during the prenatal period.

The power of song

Musical activities tend to be pleasant for children and are said to be a source of motivation, particularly with teenagers because of their rhythm and movement. Music can really involve all the children, even those students who don’t like singing can join up by miming or dancing. It is a group activity which has been proved to have a positive impact on children socialization, their emotional development, their creativity and imagination, among other areas. Focusing on cognition and language learning, some studies suggest that singing helps L1 learning. Songs support not only phonetic and language awareness, but also literacy learning.

Obviously, language and music come together in the song, so using songs is a powerful tool to learn a foreign language for several reasons:

  • Some researchers state that singing makes people feel more confident in the language they sing. If students are more relaxed, they lower they affective filter (Krashen, 1982), they pay more attention, and so they are more receptive to learning.
  • On the other hand, some studies claim that, even though the right hemisphere of our brain is more active, due to the fact that emotions are processed there, songs stimulate both hemispheres (Silva, 2006). Using songs like Nursery Rhymes in the English class may transport our pupils to memories where their dads and especially mums sung when they were
  • Furthermore, several authors have emphasized the relationship between music and memorization. Songs are a great help in memorizing the language (Toscano, 2010)
  • Other authors explain that singing accompanied with actions and images like the ones we have in stories, increases vocabulary acquisition (Medina, 2002)
  • There is also some evidence that when people listen to songs in a foreign language this helps improving their oral skill and improves pronunciatio
  • Pupils increase their fluency with the use of songs, which help them identify the rhyme and rhythm of the language (Fomina, 2000)
  • Another advantage of using songs in the foreign language class is the fact that it also helps improving writing skills while inventing new lyrics for well-known songs
  • Last but not least, singing Pupils are eager to sing in a foreign language, even though they don’t understand all the song words (Toscano, 2010). In this sense. Rap music works with rhythm and rhyme, both useful for foreign language learning.

Combining the disciplines of Music and English as a foreign language in Primary school through tasks of writing Rap music and lyrics for children aged 11, can boost motivation, and helps expressing our emotions. Rap music style motivates pupils to learn a language in order to communicate emotions.

For more information and registration please go to http://www.uvic.cat/formacio-continua/ca/cursos/i-trobada-pedagogica-sobre-lensenyament-de-langles-infantil-i-primaria-working-emotions or contact with us formacio.cife@uvic.cat.

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