Singing and learning

Do you know that you can improve your pronuntiation and intonation by singing? Not just improve your skills by listening to music (and actually understand what you are hearing), as you learn the lyrics you slowly enhance your speaking skills. 

My experience: 15 years ago I was a part of my high school choir, I never thought that this activity would have such an impact in my future. We had a broad repertory filled with songs in spanish, english, german, italian, latin and hebrew (from what I can recall). My teachers were very strict with the pronuntiation of each word and that learning still stays in my head, it is like riding a bicicle!

So, I was thinking. Do you guys have any song(s) from your native language you would like to share? I would have to think one of mine (Spanish) I'm not a fan of latin music haha.

I think it's possible, but you have to be careful too. Spoken language rarely sounds the same as sung language. And it's downright dangerous in tonal languages, where tone are often changed or discarded in songs.

I think it’s different when you’re singing, pronunciation differs so it’s technically not same as when its spoken, but close.

In my opinion, yes it can help, because we can easily remember the words but we cannot understand it yet. Music is more on memorizing the lyrics. If the listener is interested about the meaning of the song, then it will be helpful. But, if he/she is not, then it is just a tool to entertain his/herself. 

Regarding about the pronunciation and grammar, some lyrics of the songs are grammatically incorrect and they do not pronounce all the words correctly. 

For example in grammar, the song "On Bended Knees" is not correct.

And for pronunciation, the song of Katy Perry "Unconditionally" is not the real pronunciation of the word. 

But if you really want to learn a certain language or whatever, you can use the rhythm of a song for you to easily remember the things you want to learn. Let's keep learning! :) 

GailAnn.Antonio wrote:

you can use the rhythm of a song for you to easily remember the things you want to learn.

That's a good point. Songs can really stick in your mind.

leosmith wrote:

I think it's possible, but you have to be careful too. Spoken language rarely sounds the same as sung language. And it's downright dangerous in tonal languages, where tone are often changed or discarded in songs.

 

Actually singers kind of lose their accents and they magically tend to sing with a neutral accent, this can be helpful for people that have issues trying to understand a language with different accents. While people sing syllables are stretched out changing the sound, making it easier to hear.

When I was learning English I used to hate the British accent, I loved how it sounded but couldn't understand it! I'll just leave this link of Adele in Carpool Karaoke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nck6BZga7TQ . I think it is a lot more easier to learn to hear and learn some pronunciation by listening to her songs than by hearing her talk, but maybe that is just me . 

I find it easy syncing with a language through songs. When the rhythm is good, I get anxious to know what the lyrics mean.

The words stick really fast and it has been always easy to recall the meaning when I come across such words again.

I like listening to foreign songs and try to figure out what they mean lol. 

I think songs are a good learning tool but if the songs are sung for language learning it is better as others have said pronunciation changes in popular music. I do an infantile class armed with my guitar and they are learning really well and able to re apply words and phrases from songs into other situations. 

They are good for learning chunks of vocab if your only dinky. 

Mel.Palogan wrote:

I like listening to foreign songs and try to figure out what they mean lol.

Just like i’ve seriously Been trying to sing despacito. Lol

I do despacito in my sets and Havana Spanish version , but I also do some of our English covers with a Spanish chorus in some translate really well and still rhyme etc

TemitopeAkinyede wrote:

Mel.Palogan wrote:

I like listening to foreign songs and try to figure out what they mean lol.

Just like i’ve seriously Been trying to sing despacito. Lol

Karaoke is good for this purpose. 

wow Mel! That sounds interesting!  

Hi Jade! That is really nice! :)