The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities
Research has shown that melody not only plays a crucial role in music but also in language acquisition processes. Evidence has been provided that melody helps in retrieving, remembering, and memorizing new language material, while relatively little is known about whether individuals who perceive spe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-08-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/3/132 |
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| author | Markus Christiner Christine Gross Annemarie Seither-Preisler Peter Schneider |
| author_facet | Markus Christiner Christine Gross Annemarie Seither-Preisler Peter Schneider |
| author_sort | Markus Christiner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research has shown that melody not only plays a crucial role in music but also in language acquisition processes. Evidence has been provided that melody helps in retrieving, remembering, and memorizing new language material, while relatively little is known about whether individuals who perceive speech as more melodic than others also benefit in the acquisition of oral languages. In this investigation, we wanted to show which impact the subjective melodic perception of speech has on the pronunciation of unfamiliar foreign languages. We tested 86 participants for how melodic they perceived five unfamiliar languages, for their ability to repeat and pronounce the respective five languages, for their musical abilities, and for their short-term memory (STM). The results revealed that 59 percent of the variance in the language pronunciation tasks could be explained by five predictors: the number of foreign languages spoken, short-term memory capacity, tonal aptitude, melodic singing ability, and how melodic the languages appeared to the participants. Group comparisons showed that individuals who perceived languages as more melodic performed significantly better in all language tasks than those who did not. However, even though we expected musical measures to be related to the melodic perception of foreign languages, we could only detect some correlations to rhythmical and tonal musical aptitude. Overall, the findings of this investigation add a new dimension to language research, which shows that individuals who perceive natural languages to be more melodic than others also retrieve and pronounce utterances more accurately. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T07:30:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-45204e667e8c48d9825f75d22e16fe1c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T07:30:47Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-45204e667e8c48d9825f75d22e16fe1c2023-11-22T13:54:28ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2021-08-016313210.3390/languages6030132The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical AbilitiesMarkus Christiner0Christine Gross1Annemarie Seither-Preisler2Peter Schneider3Centre for Systematic Musicology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, AustriaLatvian Academy of Music, Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music, LV-1050 Riga, LatviaCentre for Systematic Musicology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, AustriaSection of Biomagnetism, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, GermanyResearch has shown that melody not only plays a crucial role in music but also in language acquisition processes. Evidence has been provided that melody helps in retrieving, remembering, and memorizing new language material, while relatively little is known about whether individuals who perceive speech as more melodic than others also benefit in the acquisition of oral languages. In this investigation, we wanted to show which impact the subjective melodic perception of speech has on the pronunciation of unfamiliar foreign languages. We tested 86 participants for how melodic they perceived five unfamiliar languages, for their ability to repeat and pronounce the respective five languages, for their musical abilities, and for their short-term memory (STM). The results revealed that 59 percent of the variance in the language pronunciation tasks could be explained by five predictors: the number of foreign languages spoken, short-term memory capacity, tonal aptitude, melodic singing ability, and how melodic the languages appeared to the participants. Group comparisons showed that individuals who perceived languages as more melodic performed significantly better in all language tasks than those who did not. However, even though we expected musical measures to be related to the melodic perception of foreign languages, we could only detect some correlations to rhythmical and tonal musical aptitude. Overall, the findings of this investigation add a new dimension to language research, which shows that individuals who perceive natural languages to be more melodic than others also retrieve and pronounce utterances more accurately.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/3/132melodic language perceptionmelodic perceptionmelodyphoneticmusical abilitiesmusic perception |
| spellingShingle | Markus Christiner Christine Gross Annemarie Seither-Preisler Peter Schneider The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities Languages melodic language perception melodic perception melody phonetic musical abilities music perception |
| title | The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities |
| title_full | The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities |
| title_fullStr | The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities |
| title_short | The Melody of Speech: What the Melodic Perception of Speech Reveals about Language Performance and Musical Abilities |
| title_sort | melody of speech what the melodic perception of speech reveals about language performance and musical abilities |
| topic | melodic language perception melodic perception melody phonetic musical abilities music perception |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/3/132 |
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