Feeling bored with your current study routine? I’ve definitely been there before!
It can be really easy to get caught up in following trends and judging yourself when you aren’t formally “studying” like you feel you should. If you’re reading this, chances are, you’re looking for strategies to make your study routine a little more fun!
One way you can do that is by incorporating more MUSIC into your language studies.
Now, the strategies listed below aren’t the only ways you can use music in your language studies. These are just some strategies that I’ve strategically used to make progress and make study sessions a bit more engaging.
Here are 4 Powerful Ways you can use music to learn languages:
- Shadowing and Singing
- Intensive Listening Practice
- Lyrics Study
- Handwriting + Translation
Shadowing and Singing Songs To Improve Your Pronunciation
Now you might look at this and be wondering one of two things:
- What in the world is shadowing?
- How can singing a song help you learn languages?
You might have heard the term shadowing when it comes to following a current employee to learn what a regular day looks like in their shoes. The person who is shadowing gets multiple opportunities to repeat what the current employee does until they feel comfortable enough completing tasks on their own.
In that same way, shadowing (as a language learner) means that you follow along with a “current” speaker of the language and repeat what the speaker does (or says, in this case) until you feel comfortable enough speaking on your own.
Whenever I sit down to shadow an audio, I often listen to the audio first without trying to speak at all. Then listen again, and try repeating the words as they’re said on the audio.
How does this work for music?
When you’re listening to music, you can shadow the lyrics to the song to practice pronouncing the words like the singers. This is especially important if you want to learn to speak your target language because it helps you get used to saying the words you’ll eventually use (and hear) in conversation.
And if you use this technique for a language that has sounds that are very different than your native one, you’ll need to practice using different muscles to say the sounds accurately (so you’re not misunderstood).
So, if you’re looking to improve your pronunciation, try shadowing (or singing) the songs out loud!
Intensive Listening Practice with Music to Improve your Listening
Whenever I suggest listening practice as a strategy, I always break it down into two different categories:
- Extensive Listening
- Intensive Listening
Extensive Listening is when you listen to tons of content with a focus on exposure. You’re not trying to understand every single word being used in the audio. Instead, you’re trying to get the “gist” of what’s being said. This is a great strategy to use when you want to immerse yourself in the language, and can often be a passive learning strategy.
But we’re not focused on that.
Instead, we want to think about Intensive Listening.
Intensive Listening means you’re focusing intensely on one specific audio, one at a time. You listen to it over and over again, and try to understand more of the words each time you listen.
And you don’t just stop there.
As you listen, you can also pull out vocabulary words or grammar structures you don’t know, and record them in a notebook or on flashcards. This way, you can review them later.
How does this work for music?
Easy.
Choose a song that you enjoy listening to. This can be a new song, an old favorite, or a song you chose specifically because you want to better understand what’s being said.
You’re priority should be on listening over and over again. Whenever you come across something you don’t understand, pause, look it up and define it. Then you can decide if you want to listen from the beginning or keep going ‘til the end.
Lyrics Study of your Favorite Music to Improve your Reading
If you’re looking to prioritize your reading skills, Lyrics Study is a great way to make reading fun!
Instead of listening to the song on repeat, you want to look up (and even better, print out) the lyrics to your chosen song.
Then, you can decide to do one of two things:
- Look up and define every single vocabulary word and grammar point you don’t understand.
- Loop up and define only the vocabulary and grammar points that show up repeatedly, or that heavily impact your ability to understand the lines.
When you follow the first method, defining every single unknown word and grammar point, you are focused on learning tons of new content that you didn’t know before.
Either of these strategies work well; you just have to get clear on exactly what it is you’re trying to achieve.
Want to learn tons of vocabulary or grammar that’s used in content you enjoy? Use the first method.
Want to practice understanding words and grammar in context? Try the second method instead.
Handwriting + Translating Music Improve Your Writing
I personally love writing things out by hand. Reading/Writing is one of my strongest learning styles, and it’s something about writing things out that helps me to remember things better.
When you choose to write the lyrics out by hand instead of printing them out, it helps you in a few different ways:
- It gets your hand used to writing out the words in your target language. This is especially helpful when your target language has a different writing system than your native one.
- It helps your mind get used to the way sentences (or phrases) work (in song format).
- It gives you time to sit with the individual words and grammar as you write it down. Writing down takes longer, but that means you spend more time thinking about and analyzing what you’re writing.
All of these things are super helpful, and this is just the first step!
Once you write it all down, it’s time to translate. Think of this stage as more than just the lyric study strategy above. You don’t just want to look up the words and grammar that you don’t know. You want to actually rewrite the lines in your native language.
And you get to decide how close to the original meaning you want to stick to. Do you want it to be a direct translation of the song? Or a translation focused on the “spirit” of the lyrics?
All up to you!
How Do You Use Music To Learn Languages?
In this post, I’ve shared 4 strategies you can use to learn languages using music, but there are so many other ways you can use music in your language studies! If you want more strategies like these, plus exclusive resources, tips, and stories on how I personally learn languages and improve my language skills, Join the Polyglot Insights Newsletter!