No one should doubt the benefits of listening to songs when learning a foreign language. Many Spaniards learned to say “Wish you were here” thanks to Pink Floyd, long time before knowing its meaning. But now this idea is based on numerous investigations, such us the research recently done by the psycho-linguist Fernanda Ferreira (University of South Carolina), which says that singing in another language helps to learn it in an amusing and highly motivating way.
Nobody will deny that music is a universal element, there is no culture or region, even though they are small, that has a musical repertoire, therefore our life is filled with melodies and songs as of from childhood. Through the songs we learn our own mother tongue in a joyful and amusing way.
Songs are an excellent way to internalize the language we wish to learn or improve. The language learning has two processes: one intuitive and the other one conscious, and songs can help during both processes. On the other hand, exposing ourselves to songs make us learn more quickly than through the systematic study. Secondly the lyrics are a source of important linguistic information.
THE BENEFITS OF THE SONGS
- They offer a unique opportunity to work on the pronunciation and intonation, to look over the different accents of a language and to improve oral expression.
- They give us an excellent occasion to widen our vocabulary of another language. While relating the lexicon in a systematic way with a real life context, we obtain a greater facility to remember the new words and use them correctly after.
- It is also a unique opportunity to improve and automate grammar aspects of the foreign language, using the morpho-syntactical analysis of the lyrics, the colloquial uses and the review of other idiomatic registers.
- Music also tells us about the culture of the country which we are learning, seeing that through the lyrics we get familiarized with the socio-cultural context and learn more on the thoughts and feelings of its inhabitants. Songs as a manifestation of ideas, feelings, situations and experiences of a nation, is one of the best tools to learn a language and be able to understand more the culture of a certain nation.
- To listen to and sing songs is a simple routine, we can do it almost everywhere: in the shower, in the kitchen, during transport, etc. We will learn the language or improve our level almost without realizing and in a joyful way.
Thanks to the new technologies, nowadays we have use countless ways to practice languages using the songs. To watch a certain music video or get the lyrics of our favorite songs, has never been as easy as with website, such as YouTube or A-Z Lyrics, etc.
We show you some links so that from today you can start singing at the top of your voice:
- Best 100 Spanish Rock songs:
http://www.diariocritico.com/ocio/musica/mejores-canciones/mejores-canciones-espana/455695
- Best 60 songs of Spanish indi:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoAScZWmDfeWsWKzvN2PkUMWvt50zGqlO
- Best 100 Spanish Pop-Rock songs:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0922342/soundtrack
- Best 10 Spanish songs of Eurovision:
- Best 250 Spanish songs all-time
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/CelticTiger/las-250-mejores-canciones-espanolas-de-todos-los-tiempos/
- Best 100 Latin songs:
Las 100 mejores canciones latinas de la historia (Hot 100 latin songs)
