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

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.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.

“When Music Speaks”: Auditory Cortex Morphology as a Neuroanatomical Marker of Language Aptitude and Musicality

“…A positive correlation between musicality and foreign language aptitude was found in numerous studies, particularly regarding second language pronunciation skills ( Schön et al, 2004 ; Besson et al, 2007 ; Dogil and Reiterer, 2009 ; Ludke, 2010 ; Fonseca-Mora et al, 2011 ; Christiner and Reiterer, 2013 ). Whereas Milovanov et al (2004 , 2008 , 2009 , 2010 ), Milovanov (2009) , Milovanov and Tervaniemi (2011) focused on the successful relationship between musicality and foreign language learning in Finnish native speakers, Vangehuchten et al (2015) found a significant relationship between English pronunciation skills and musical skills in Spanish native speakers. Dolman and Spring (2014) revealed that excellent skills in specific musical abilities of Japanese learners, such as the discrimination of pitch, loudness, and rhythm, correlate with better pronunciation in the second language (English).…”

Auditory Cortex Morphology Predicts Language Learning Potential in Children and Teenagers

“…This is supported by Vukovic and Lesaux (2013), who linked verbal ability to arithmetic skills indirectly through symbolic numbering, arguing that general verbal ability is significant for children’s understanding and reasoning with numbers. The intricate link between language and music (Patel, 2003, 2012; Jackendoff, 2009; Jäncke, 2012) has been discussed in numerous studies (e.g., Milovanov et al, 2008; Dogil and Reiterer, 2009; Milovanov et al, 2009; Milovanov and Tervaniemi, 2011; Chobert and Besson, 2013; Vangehuchten et al, 2015), relating musical ability to vocabulary learning (Milovanov et al, 2008, 2009; Milovanov, 2009), the processing of non-native speech sounds (Slevc and Miyake, 2006; Kempe et al, 2015) and speech rhythm perception (Magne et al, 2016).…”

Musical Aptitude and foreign language receptive pronunciation

“…The relationship between musical aptitude and language proficiency has become of interest in the last years (Milovanov, Huotilainen & Välimäki, Esquef, Tervaniemi, 2007;Milovanov, 2009;Milovanov, Pietilä, Andrade & Tervaniemi, 2010;Vangehuchten, Verhoeven & Thys, 2015;Chobert & Besson, 2013;Gómez-Domínguez, Fonseca-Mora, & Machancoses, 2018). These studies analyse the similarities between the development of musical ability and different linguistic competences including: phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, sight identification, orthographic awareness, cueing systems awareness and fluency (Hansen & Bernstorf, 2002, p. 20).…”

“…For pronunciation, as it will be explained, students who have a higher musical aptitude tend to be more capable of processing and producing foreign sounds. One of the objectives of many studies (Vangehuchten et al, 2015;Milovanov et al, 2010) is to specify which students are those who show this correlation. This paper focuses on receptive pronunciation, which can be defined as degree of proficiency when processing language sounds.…”

“…This paper focuses on receptive pronunciation, which can be defined as degree of proficiency when processing language sounds. More specifically, the field research has been designed to assess a particular aspect of receptive pronunciation, which is phonological awareness, or the faculty of detecting and manipulating specific phonetic units of language (Culp, 2017;Peynircioglu, Durgunoglu & Küsefoglu, 2002) Previous studies have shown a positive relationship between pronunciation and musical aptitude (Gupta, Grunberg & Rao, 2017;Milovanov et al, 2007;Milovanov et al, 2010;Vangehuchten et al, 2015). However, the profile of these studies does not concern the Spanish context, and tended to outperform non-musical instructed students in pronunciation tests.…”