Music: a gift for language learners

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A recent study at the University of Edinburgh’s Reid School of Music indicates that learners’ memory skills are greatly improved when memorising to music.
In this research, participants were asked to memorise phrases in Hungarian, and repeat them fifteen minutes later. Though each group studied in the same listen-and-repeat style, one group heard the phrases spoken, the second heard phrases set to a rhythm, and the third heard phrases in song. The singing group was able to recall far more Hungarian than the other two groups.

Moving to the rhythm 'can help language skills'

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Moving in time to a steady beat is closely linked to better language skills, a study suggests.

People who performed better on rhythmic tests also showed enhanced neural responses to speech sounds. The researchers suggest that practising music could improve other skills, particularly reading.

Music Ability Helps Reading

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Wall Street Journal, february 18, 2013

Playing a musical instrument from a young age appears to create new pathways in the brain that process written words and letters and may help children with reading disorders such as dyslexia, says a study in the journal Neuropsychologia. Musicians generally outperform nonmusicians on cognitive tests, but little is known about the effects of reading musical notes on the brain's circuitry as it relates to reading, researchers said.

Symphony participates in the III Forum of bilingual teaching celebrated in the University of Nebrija

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Last Thursday 27st June Symphony participated in the III Forum Nebrija in Bilingual Teaching celebrated in the Campus “Dehesa de la Villa”.  The meeting counted on the presence of Mª Carmen Fonseca Mora, Principal Researcher in the project “Music perception and reading skills in foreign language learning”, who delivered a plenary lecture about music and its influence in language learning called “Melodies in First and Second Language Acquisition”. 

Study Finds Link Between Music and Preschoolers Reading Readiness

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Universitu at Buffalo, January 23, 2013

New research from the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education shows a link between preschool music activities and the development of reading and writing skills in children.

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and published in the Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, the two-year study examined the impact of "musically trained" early childhood teachers on the music and emergent reading and writing achievements of preschool children.