Using music to teach children basic skills and foreign language

It’s amazing how much music means in our lives. This art, according to many prominent figures, contributes to the development of the spiritual world of man. Even in Ancient Greece, Pythagoras argued that our world was created with the help of music – cosmic harmony – and is controlled by it. Aristotle believed that music has a therapeutic effect on a person, relieving difficult emotional experiences through catharsis. In the 20th century, interest in the art of music and its influence on people increased throughout the world.

This theory has been studied by many famous philosophers, doctors, teachers and musicians. Their research has shown that music has a positive effect on the human body (improving respiratory function, brain function, etc.), and also helps to increase mental performance, the sensitivity of auditory and visual analyzers. In addition, the processes of perception, attention and memory are improved. Thanks to these published data, music began to be actively used as an auxiliary element in teaching basic skills to preschool children.

Using music to teach children writing, reading and mathematics

It has been established that music and speech, from the point of view of cognitive processes, are two systems that transmit information of different properties, but its processing follows a single mental scheme.

For example, a study of the relationship between the mental process and the perception of music showed that when performing any mathematical operations “in the mind” (subtraction, multiplication, etc.), the result is achieved by similar spatial operations as when differentiating duration and pitch. That is, the uniformity of musical theoretical and arithmetic processes serves as evidence that music lessons improve mathematical skills and vice versa.

A whole range of musical activities has been developed aimed at increasing mental activity:

• Musical background for memorizing information and for writing;
• Musical games for teaching language, writing and mathematics;
• Finger games-songs for developing motor skills and strengthening counting skills;
• Songs and chants for memorizing mathematical and spelling rules;
• Musical changes.

This complex can be considered at the stage of teaching children a foreign language.

Using music when teaching children foreign languages

It is not surprising that quite often kindergartens begin learning a foreign language. After all, in preschool children, visual-figurative thinking and increased emotional perception of reality predominate. Often, foreign language lessons take place in a playful way. An experienced teacher combines the learning process, musical background and gaming reality, which allows children to easily form phonemic skills and memorize new words. Experts advise using the following methods when learning foreign languages:

• Use easy and memorable poems, tongue twisters and songs. Preferably those where the vowel sound is constantly repeated, alternating with various consonants. Such texts are much easier to remember and repeat. For example, “Hickory, dickory, dock..”.
• When practicing pronunciation techniques, it is best to use chanting to rhythmic music. Many tongue twisters, such as “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear…” are included in textbooks and are widely used by teachers in different countries of the world.
• It is easier to remember the intonation structure of foreign sentences by listening and reproducing the intonations of songs and poems. For example, “Little Jack Horner” or “Simple Simon”.
• Using song material will help children expand their vocabulary. In addition, learning children’s songs is not only the beginning of learning aspects of a foreign language, but also forms oral speech and develops memory.
• Don’t forget about musical breaks of a minute so that children can calmly switch from one type of work to another. In addition, such breaks help children relax and release mental and physical stress.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Conclusions

In general, we can summarize that the use of music in general educational processes has a positive effect on the mental activity of the child. However, musicality in learning should not be considered a panacea. Only a combination of the teacher’s experience and his level of preparedness for implementing this process can help preschool children quickly learn new knowledge.