Rhythm and music to learn a foreign language

· Filed under Brain and language learning, How to learn a language, Memory and language learning, Music and language learning, Technology and language learning

Rhythm to learn a foreign language

First memory test

About fifteen years ago I had memory recall problems because of some small bleeding in my brain. I was test for memory recall using a ‘digit span’ test. This is a test in which someone would read a string of digits and I would have to repeat it back. They use numbers as people can not make associations with numbers in an easy way so it test real raw memory, rather than some memory association trick that can be used with words or letters of course The average recall is about seven digits. I got bellow average at that time as I had some memory problems, maybe five on average. .

Second memory test

But with the second test I had to recall a new set of digits in reverse. I recalled like thirteen or fourteen. Which is pretty amazing for short term memory recall, especially since at the time I was having memory problems. What did I do? Well when the tester read the next string of digits, which I had to recall in reverse, a much harder exercises than the first, I listened to the rhythm of the tester’s voice. Even this boring tester guy’s voice had some detectable rhythm, and I was able to pick it up and use it to help my recall.

Rhythm, music and language learning

The application for foreign language learning is obvious, use rhythm. Whether you find rhythm in someone’s voice or a song use rhythm to learn foreign words and sentences. Many people use music. They remember song lines. But it can not just be any song the rhythm must fit words for it to be effective.