Study proves that singing helps you learn another language

A new study by the University of Edinburgh’s Reid School of Music shows that singing in a foreign language helps you remember phrases better than simply repeating them.

Three groups of 20 adults took part in a series of five tests. They were each taught some Hungarian phrases. In some tests they listened to the words being spoken and then recited them back. The others listened to the phrases being sung and then were asked to sing the phrases back. In four out of five tests, the singing groups performed best. Hungarian was used as it was unlikely that any of the test subjects had been exposed to  or learned the language extensively beforehand.

Research showed that people who sang a short phrase were twice as likely to recall the phrase later on, and most importantly, when recalling the words, they did not need to sing them in order to recall, proving that using music as a learning tool is effective.

The study was conducted by senior lecturer in Music Psychology, Katie Overy, and PhD candidate Karen M. Ludke. Ludke said:

This study provides the first experimental evidence that a listen-and-repeat singing method can support foreign language learning, and opens the door for future research in this area. One question is whether melody could provide an extra cue to jog people’s memory, helping them recall foreign words and phrases more easily.