Pronunciation proficiency and musical aptitude in Spanish as a foreign language: results of an experimental research project

Lieve Vangehuchten; Veronique Verhoeven; Peter Thys

doi:10.4995/rlyla.2015.3372

Authors

Lieve Vangehuchten University of Antwerp
Veronique Verhoeven University of Antwerp
Peter Thys University of Antwerp

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4995/rlyla.2015.3372

Keywords:

Pronunciation and prosody proficiency in a second/foreign language, musical aptitude, Spanish as a second/foreign language research, experimental research, Spanish as a second/foreign language teaching

Abstract

This paper examines the correlation between musical aptitude and pronunciation proficiency in an experiment with 29 university students of Spanish as a foreign language. The 29 participants took a test in Spanish pronunciation and prosody as well as in musicality. The pronunciation and prosody test consisted of two parts. The first part was a receptive phonemic discrimination test and the second part was a productive test in which they had to repeat words and sentences chosen for their prosodic characteristics. The musical aptitude test also consisted of a receptive part on musicality in general, as well as a productive part, which included the reproduction of tones, tone intervals, rhythms and the singing of a melody. The statistical analysis with Pearson’s correlation-coefficients revealed a positive correlation (although not for all aspects) between the musical and foreign language pronunciation proficiency aptitudes. The results are commented on in the discussion. Relevant teaching implications are included in the conclusion.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Bidelman, G.M., Hutka S., & Moreno, S. (2013). "Tone language speakers and musicians share enhanced perceptual and cognitive abilities for musical pitch: evidence for bidirectionality between the domains of language and music". PLOS. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060676

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. & Goodwin, J. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: a reference for teachers of English to speakers of the other languages. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Chobert, J., Clément, F., Velay, J.L. & Besson, M. (2012). "Twelve months of active musical training in 8- to 10-yearold children enhances the preattentive processing of syllabic duration and voice onset time", Cerebral Cortex, 24/4, 956-967. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs377

Cooper, A. & Wang, Y. (2012). "The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 131/6, 4756. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4714355

Forgeard, M., Schlaug, G., Norton, A., Rosam, C., Iyengar, U. & Winner, E. (2008). "The relation between music and phonological processing in normal-reading children and children with dyslexia". Music perception, 25/4, 383-390. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2008.25.4.383

François, C., Chobert, J., Besson, M. & Schön, D. (2013). "Music training for the development of speech segmentation", Cerebral Cortex, 23/9, 2038-2043. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhs180

Gilleece, L. F. (2006). An empirical investigation of the association between musical aptitude and foreign language aptitude. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Dublin.

Halwani G. F., Loui P., Rüber T., Schlaug G. (2011). "Effects of practice and experience on the arcuate fasciculus: comparing singers, instrumentalists, and non-musicians". Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 156. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00156

Hazan, V. & Kim, H.Y. (2010). "Can we predict who will benefit from computer-based phonetic training?" Proceedings of L2WS (Interspeech 2010 Satellite Workshop), Tokyo, Japan.

Hualde, J.I. (2005). The sounds of Spanish. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Jenkins, J. (2004). "Research in teaching pronunciation and intonation". Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 109-125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0267190504000054

Kleber B., Veit R., Birbaumer N., Gruzelier J., Lotze M. (2010). "The brain of opera singers: experience-dependent changes in functional activation". Cerebral Cortex, 20/5, 1144–1152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhp177

Kraus, N. & Chandrasekaran, B. (2010). "Music training for the development of auditory skills". Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 599-605. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrn2882

Lear, E. (2013). "Using technology to improve pronunciation". New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics, 19/1, 49-63.

Lee, C. & Hung, T. (2008). "Identification of Mandarin tones by English-speaking musicians and nonmusicians". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 124/5, 3235-3248. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.2990713

Levitin, D.J. & Tirovolas, A.K. (2009). "Current advances in the cognitive neuroscience of music". The year in cognitive neuroscience, 1156, 211-231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04417.x

Levis, J. (2005). "Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching". TESOL Quarterly, 39/3, 369-377. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3588485

Levy, M. (2009). "Technologies in use for second language learning". The Modern Language Journal, 93/S1, 769-782. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00972.x

Lord, G. (2005). "(How) can we teach foreign language pronunciation? On the effects of a Spanish phonetics course". Hispania, 88/3, 557-567. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20063159

Macpherson, I.R. (1975). Spanish phonology: descriptive and historical. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Magne, C., Schön, D. & Besson, M. (2006). "Musician children detect pitch violations in both music and language better than nonmusician children: behavioral and electrophysiological approaches". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18/2, 199-211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2006.18.2.199

Marie, C., Delogu, F., Lampis, G., Belardinelli, M.O. & Besson, M. (2011). "Influence of musical expertise on segmental and tonal processing in Mandarin Chinese". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23/10, 2701–2715. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2010.21585

Marques, C., Moreno, S., Castro, S.L. & Besson, M. (2007). "Musicians detect pitch violation in a foreign language better than nonmusicians: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence". Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19/9, 1453-1463. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2007.19.9.1453

Milovanov, R. (2009). Musical aptitude and foreign language learning skills: neural and behavioural evidence about their connections. In J. Louhivuori, T. Eerola, S. Saarikallio, T. Himberg & P.-S. Eerola (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th Triennial Conference of European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM 2009), pp. 338-342. Jyväskylä: Finland.

Milovanov, R., Huotilainen, M., Välimäki, V., Esquef, P.A.A. & Tervaniemi, M. (2008). "Musical aptitude and second language pronunciation skills in school-aged children: neural and behavioural evidence". Brain Research, 1194, 81-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2007.11.042

Milovanov, R., Pietilä, P., Tervaniemi, M. & Esquef, P.A.A. (2010). "Foreign language pronunciation skills and musical aptitude: a study of Finnish adults with higher education". Learning and Individual Differences, 20/1, 56-60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2009.11.003

Milovanov, R. & Tervaniemi, M. (2011). "The interplay between musical and linguistic aptitudes: a review". Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 321. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00321

Moreno, S., Marques, C., Santos, A., Castro, S.L. & Besson, M. (2009). "Musical training influences linguistic abilities in 8-year-old children: more evidence for brain plasticity". Cerebral Cortex, 19/3, 712-723. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhn120

Munro, M.J. (2008). "Foreign accent and speech intelligibility". In J.G. Hansen Edwards & M.L. Zampini (Eds.), Phonology and second language acquisition, pp. 193-218. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sibil.36.10mun

Nardo D. & Reiterer, S. (2009). "Musicality and phonetic language aptitude". In G. Dogil & S. Reiterers (Eds.). Language Talent and Brain Activity, pp. 213-256. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.

Olson, D.J. (2014). "Phonetics and technology in the classroom: a practical approach to using speech analysis software in second-language pronunciation instruction". Hispania, 97/1, 47-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hpn.2014.0030

Osburne, A.G. (2003). "Pronunciation strategies of advanced ESOL learners". International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 141/2, 131-143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/iral.2003.005

Peabody, M.A. (2011). Methods for pronunciation assessment in computer aided language learning. Unpublished Ph. D. Thesis. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Schouten, A. (2009). The Critical Period Hypothesis: support, challenge and reconceptualization. Working Papers in Tesol & Applied Linguistics, 9/1, 1-16.

Seashore, C.E. (1967). Psychology of music. New York, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.

Skoe, E. & Kraus, N. (2012). "A little goes a long way: how the adult brain is shaped by musical training in childhood". The journal of neuroscience, 32/34, 11507-11510. http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1949-12.2012

Spearman, C. (1927). The abilities of man: their nature and measurement. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Tanner, M.W. & Landon, M.M. (2009). "The effects of computer-assisted pronunciation readings on ESL learners‘ use of pausing, stress, intonation, and overall comprehensibility". Language Learning & Technology, 13, 51-65.

Trofimovich, P. & Gatbonton, E. (2006). "Repetition and focus on form in processing L2 Spanish words: implications for pronunciation instruction". The Modern Language Journal, 90/4, 519-535. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2006.00464.x

Vangehuchten, L., Verhoeven, V. & Thys, P. (2013). "Musicalidad lingüística: una investigación experimental acerca de la correlación entre la aptitud musical y la adquisición de la pronunciación en una lengua extranjera". In L.P. Cancelas y R. Ouviña, M.F. Jiménez Fernández, I. Romero Oliva, & S. Sánchez Rodríguez (Eds.), Aportaciones para una educación lingüística y literaria en el Siglo XXI, pp. 121-133. Granada, Spain:GEU Editorial.

Wong, P.C.M., Skoe, E., Russo, N.M., Dees, T. & Kraus, N. (2007). "Musical experience shapes human brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch patterns". Nature Neuroscience, 10, 420-422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn1872

Xiaoyu, H. (2009). "The relationship between Chinese EFL learners proficiency in suprasegmental features of pronunciation and their listening comprehension". CELEA Journal, 32, 31-39.