Musicality

Foreign language

Popular music

Music education

Philosophy

Visual arts

Psychology

Active listening

Pedagogy

Pronunciation

Linguistics

Communication

Literacy

Reading (process)

Musical

Music history

The use of music in the foreign language classroom offers a vnique approach to enhance students' awareness of another culture, and also can aid in the practice of communication skills. Music provides an interesting mirror of the history, literature, and culture of a country, that can be seefl in song texts and in musical style. Musical styles and textual themes, along with pronunciation variations and dialects among countries speaking the same language, allow an opportunity for students to glimpse other societies representative of the target language. In addition, music texts offer a unique means of reinforcing speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills through specially designed activities. Suitable music choices range from classical art music to popular contemporary music of all styles, and include traditional folk and children's songs. Music may be a powerful motivator in the classroom due to American students' general interest in music. The use of music in the classroom is also justified by Gardner's educational theory of null intelligences, which implies that a person's intelligence in music can be utilized to achieve skills in non-musical areas such as foreign languages. (Author) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** MUSIC AS MEANS TO ENHANCE CULTURAL AWARENESS AND LITERACY IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM Judish Weaver Failoni Fontbonne College St. Louis, MO Abstract The use of music in the foreign language classroom offers a unique approach to enhance students' awareness of another culture, and also can aid in the practice of communication skills. Music provides an interesting mirror of the history, literature, and culture of a country, which can be seen in song texts, and in musical style. Musical styles and textual themes, along with pronunciation variations and dialects among countries speaking the same language, allow an opportunity for students to glimpse other societies representative of the target language. In addition, music texts offer a unique means of reinforcing speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills through specially designed activities. Suitable music choices range from classical art music to popular contemporary music of all styles, and include traditional folk and children's songs. Music may be a powerful motivator in the classroom due to American students' general interest in music. The use of music in the classroom is also justified by Gardner's educational theory of null intelligences, which implies that a person's intelligence and interest in music can be utilized to achieve skills in non-musical areas such as foreign languages.The use of music in the foreign language classroom offers a unique approach to enhance students' awareness of another culture, and also can aid in the practice of communication skills. Music provides an interesting mirror of the history, literature, and culture of a country, which can be seen in song texts, and in musical style. Musical styles and textual themes, along with pronunciation variations and dialects among countries speaking the same language, allow an opportunity for students to glimpse other societies representative of the target language. In addition, music texts offer a unique means of reinforcing speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills through specially designed activities. Suitable music choices range from classical art music to popular contemporary music of all styles, and include traditional folk and children's songs. Music may be a powerful motivator in the classroom due to American students' general interest in music. The use of music in the classroom is also justified by Gardner's educational theory of null intelligences, which implies that a person's intelligence and interest in music can be utilized to achieve skills in non-musical areas such as foreign languages. The use of music in the foreign language classroom offers a unique approach to the study of culture through texts and musical styles, and at the same time the music activities can reinforce the four communication skills within the target language. Since music does not exist in a vacuum, it provides an interesting mirror of the history, literature, and culture of a country. Music also represents a common interest uniting many American students, and it appears to be an important aspect of their life, evident by the pervasive proliferation in the United States of records, tapes, music videos, MTV, radio programs, concerts, and identification with recording stars. If this music interest could be harnessed, teachers would have a powerful motivator and could add another dimension to class activities. The use of music to enhance learning is justified by the educational theory of multiple null (Gardner 1985), which asserts that people possess varying degrees of musical, linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, and personal intelligences. The practical aspect of this theory for all teachers is the idea that any of the intelligences can be exploited as a means of transmission, even though the actual material to be mastered falls into only one of the domains. Gardner (1985: 278) states that all normal (non brain-damaged) people possess some musical intelligence. Therefore, even though foreign language teachers are not interested in developing musical intelligence, they could use students' musical intelligence (and interest!) to achieve mastery of certain other skills. Music can be integrated into classroom activities, without assuming that a teacher or student can compose or perform music. Thus, the function of music becomes that of a teaching tool, similar to audiovisual material or computer software. Foreign language teachers have always been innovative in methodology. The past twenty years have witnessed many new approaches, like total physical response (cf. Asher 1988), U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Oho* of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) terhis document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization BEST COPY9flUAILABLE originating it. O Minor changes have been made to irn yrove reproduction quality 2 Points ot view or opnions stet eclin ithsclocu ment do not mcossartly represent othnial OERI position or policy PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).

Music as Means To Enhance Cultural Awareness and Literacy in the Foreign Language Classroom.