translated from Spanish: Listening to music in the language you want to learn has positive effects

World.- Researchers from the University of Huelva have verified the positive effects of the use of didactic activities guided by songs and video clips in the knowledge of another language.
A team from the Department of English Philology at the University of Huelva has shown that students in a second language improve their communication skills in that language using music-guided activities during their learning.
According to the results of the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the use of these tools also increases their interpersonal and collaborative competencies with other peers, as well as reinforcing tolerance and empathy towards others in situations where one person needs to express themselves.
In particular, experts have relied on mediated language learning experiences. It is a decalogue called MeLLE that collects the parameters that the mediator function must present in the classroom, that is, what factors are necessary for a student to take this role and facilitate communication between sender and receiver.
The objective, the authors say, is to evaluate indicators such as motivation on the part of the student, their involvement, tolerance and active listening, all related to the affective component while learning a language. “This reduces the feeling of stress, blockage, fears that arise when speaking in public in another language.”
To do this, they have focused on those actions where music is the central method of teaching this second language in order to verify whether they are suitable during the learning period and how it influences mediation. “The difference between a translator and a mediator is that the former must convey the literal message from the sender to the receiver, while the mediator facilitates it. It is not expected to be an exact translation,” explains Esther Cores-Bilbao, co-author of the study.
Thus, the researchers have confirmed that this new indicator has an essential function and evaluates student skills that go beyond the four basic language skills: linguistics, writing, reading compression and active listening, as reflected in the study. “These experiences involve a socio-emotional change in the students, focusing on others, their needs and interests, trying to help them understand texts, concepts or facilitate communication with their peers,” says the study’s author.
To do this, the team designed and implemented a questionnaire called Music-MeLLE in an adult student classroom and asked them to self-assess on various issues related to their mediation capacity and mood.
The role of the mediator
“A mediator is a much-needed helper for those who have difficulty understanding texts, concepts or communicating in a foreign language or culture. It is a bridge between the interlocutors and on this figure we wanted to focus our work, a skill that will be valued from now on while learning a language”, says Cores-Bilbao.
Cooperative tasks become central to learning other languages, according to the authors
This study focuses on the paradigm shift led by the Common European Framework for The Companion Volume of Languages (CEFR/CV), already implemented in the Official Language Schools, and the implications it will have for the teaching of foreign languages, as cooperative tasks become central to learning other languages.
According to the experts, the most obvious result was observed in the skills of textual mediation, that is, in the ability of the student to interpret with words what he sees in images. “It’s not about being translators of those who are not so loose with the language, but of facilitating their understanding and helping them to make themselves understood,” she explains.
To measure the results of this analysis, half a hundred adult students who enrolled in an intensive English course during the 2018-2019 academic year participated in a language school. Of different nationalities – Spanish, Latvian, Turkish, French, Mexican and Slovak – his level of competition in English varied between A2 and C1. In addition, its profile corresponded with multilingual people: 43.2% spoke two languages, 31.8% three and 25% more than three.
In this way, students had to select a modern music video and describe its audiovisual and textual elements, as well as discuss how they could use the typical characteristics of songs and video clips to transmit educational messages. At the same time, they were asked to post a blog post recommending topics that contain positive messages or that can help develop the language proficiency of foreign language students. “The purpose of these activities was to measure their degree of mediation and to check their ability to express oral expression,” Cores-Bilbao said.
Source: SINC

Original source in Spanish