Is musical expertise associated with self-reported foreign-language ability?

Abstract

Many claims have been made about links between musical expertise and language ability. Rhythm ability, in particular, has been shown to predict phonological, grammatical, and second-language (L2) abilities, whereas music training often predicts reading and speech-perception skills. Here, we asked whether musical expertise—musical ability and/or music training—relates to L2 (English) abilities of Portuguese native speakers. Participants (N = 154) rated their L2 ability on seven 7-point scales, one each for speaking, reading, writing, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, and accent. They also completed a test of general cognitive ability, an objective test of musical ability with melody and rhythm subtests, and a questionnaire that measured music training and other aspects of musical behaviors. L2 ability correlated positively with education and cognitive ability but not with music training. It also had no association with musical ability or with self-reports of musical behaviors. Moreover, Bayesian analyses provided evidence for the null hypotheses (i.e., no link between L2 and rhythm ability, no link between L2 and years of music lessons). In short, our findings—based on participants’ self-reports of L2 ability—raise doubts about proposed associations between musical and second-language abilities, which may be limited to specific populations or measures.

Is musical ability related to second-language acquisition? A meta-analysis.

“…This is sensible given relationships between musical ability/training and native-language speech processing (e.g., Gordon et al, 2015;Nayak et al, 2022;Neves et al, 2022). However, while many studies have investigated links between musical ability/training and second-language learning, the robustness and consistency of such a relationship has remained unclear (e.g., Mokari & Werner, 2018;Schellenberg et al, 2023). Here, we rely on meta-analytic methods to better understand if, and how strongly, musical ability is related to successful second-language learning.…”

“…Most commonly, studies have controlled for individual differences in prior language experience (e.g., exposure to the second language or starting second-language proficiency). Researchers have also controlled for individual differences in working and/or short-term memory (Bowles et al, 2016;Slevc & Miyake, 2006;Swaminathan & Schellenberg, 2017), intelligence (Badr, 1965, Swaminathan & Schellenberg, 2017Schellenberg et al, 2023), motivation (Badr, 1965), and experimental context (perception or production training; Li & DeKeyser, 2017). Table 3 lists each study, their second language and music measures, what they controlled for, and their corresponding partial effect sizes.…”

“…However, other evidence suggests that musical ability or training is unrelated to second-language learning (e.g., Boll-Avetisyan et al 2016;Ning et al, 2015). For example, some studies have found no clear link between musical ability and vowel learning (Mokari & Werner, 2018), phonemic discrimination (Milovanov et al, 2010), and self-rated second-language abilities (Schellenberg et al, 2023). Considering these varied results, the relationship between second-language abilities and musical experience/ability remains unclear.…”