Musical Aptitude and Phonemic Processing of English as L2 by Arabic Speakers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33806/ijaes.v25i2.781Keywords:
Arabic, musical aptitude, perception, phonemic processing, second languageAbstract
It is suggested that there is a connection between musical aptitude and the ability to process phonemes in a second language (L2) through acoustic processing. Previous research indicates that musical ability might aid in the processing of L2 vowel sounds, while findings regarding musical ability and L2 consonant processing are inconsistent. While some argue that musical aptitude can facilitate the processing of consonant phonemes, others contend that there is no correlation between musical ability and consonant phonemic processing. To address this issue, the present study examined whether the musical aptitude of Arabic speakers is closely linked to their processing of L2 English consonant phonemes, focusing on two English consonant phonemes absent in Arabic. Results indicated a strong correlation between Arabic speakers’ musical aptitude and their accuracy in processing of English consonant phonemes. These findings suggest that individuals with better musical skills among Arabic speakers are more adept at perceiving English phonemes that do not exist in Arabic. These results have implications for the potential use of music as a pedagogical tool in L2 classrooms.
References
Alshalaan, Khawater. (2020). ‘A comparison between English and Arabic sound systems regarding places of articulation’. Open Access Library Journal, 7: 56-79. https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1105679
Al-Yasin, Noor and Jihad M. Hamdan. (2023). ‘The impact of music on verbal memory: Evidence from Jordanian university students.’ Psycholinguistics, 34(1): 28-49. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31470/2309-1797-2023-34-1-28-49
Barr, Dale J., Roger Levy, Christoph Scheepers and Harry J. Tily. (2013). ‘Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal’. Journal of Memory and Language, 68(3): 255-278.
Besson, Mireille, Daniele Schön, Sylvain Moreno, Andréia Santos and Cyrille Magne. (2007). ‘Influence of musical expertise and musical training on pitch processing in music and language’. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 25(3-4): 399–410.
Cason, Nia and Daniele Schön. (2012). ‘Rhythmic priming enhances the phonological processing of speech’. Neuropsychologia, 50(11): 2652–2658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.07.018
Delogu, Franco, Giulia Lampis and Marta O. Belardinelli. (2006). ‘Music-to-language transfer effect: may melodic ability improve learning of tonal languages by native nontonal speakers?’. Cognitive Processing, 7(3): 203-207. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-006-0146-7
Delogu, Franco, Giulia Lampis and Marta O. Belardinelli. (2010). ‘From melody to lexical tone: Musical ability enhances specific aspects of foreign language perception’. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 22(1): 46–61. https:// doi.org/10.1080/09541440802708136
Fadiga, Luciano, Laila Craighero and Alessandro D’Ausilio. (2009). ‘Broca's area in language, action, and music’. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1169: 448–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04582.x
Georgi, Markus, Bruno Gingras and Marcel Zentner. (2023). ‘The tapping-PROMS: A test for the assessment of sensorimotor rhythmic abilities’. Frontiers in Psychology, 131-15.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.862468
Gilbert, Annie, Maxim Cousineau-Perusse and Debra Titone. (2020.) ‘L2 exposure modulates the scope of planning during first and second language production’. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(5): 1093–1105.
Griffin, Zenzi. M. (2003). ‘A reversed word length effect in coordinating the preparation and articulation of words in speaking’. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 10(3): 603-609.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5533605/
Gordon, Edwin. (1967). ‘The musical aptitude profile’. Music Educators Journal, 53(6): 52–54.
Gottfried, Terry and Devon Riester. (2000). ‘Relation of pitch glide perception and mandarin tone identification’. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 108(5): 2604–2604. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4743698
Jikiel, Mateusz. (2021). ‘Musical hearing and musical experience in second language English vowel acquisition’. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 64(5). 1666-1682.
https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-19-00253
Hunsacker, Deven J. (2023). The effect of musical training on second language grammar acquisition. Unpublished MA Thesis, Brigham Young University, Utah, USA.
Karma, Kai. (1984). ‘Musical aptitude as the ability to structure acoustic material’. International Journal of Music Education, 3(1): 27–30.
https://doi.org/10.1177/025576148400300104
Koelsch, Stefan, Elisabeth Kasper, Daniela Sammler, Katrin Schulze, Thomas Gunter and Angela D. Friederici. (2004). ‘Music, language and meaning: Brain signatures of semantic processing’. Nature Neuroscience, 7(3): 302-7. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1197
Koelsch, Stefan, Thomas C. Gunter, Matthias Wittforth and Daniela Sammler. (2005). ‘Interaction between syntax processing in language and in music: An ERP Study’. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17(10): 1565–1577. https://doi.org/10.1162/089892905774597290
Law, Lily and Marcel Zentner. (2012). ‘Assessing musical abilities objectively: Construction and validation of the profile of music perception skills’. PLoS One, 7 (12): e52508.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052508
Lerdahl, Fred and Ray Jackendoff. (1983). A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Levitin, Daniel J. and Vinod Menon. (2023). ‘Musical structure is processed in “language” areas of the brain: A possible role for Brodmann Area 47 in temporal coherence’. NeuroImage, 20(4): 2142–2152.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.08.016
Ludke, Karen M., Fernanda Ferreira and Katie Overy. (2014). ‘Singing can facilitate foreign language learning’. Memory and Cognition, 42: 41-52.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-013-0342-5
Maess, Burkhard, Stefan Koelsch, Thomas C. Gunter and Angela D. Friederici. (2001). ‘Musical syntax is processed in Broca's area: an MEG study’. Nature Neuroscience, 4(5): 540-545.
Magne, Cyrille, Deanna Jordan and Reyna Gordon. (2016). ‘Speech rhythm sensitivity and musical aptitude: ERPs and individual differences’. Brain and Language, 153-154: 13-9. https://doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2016.01.001
Malzer, Daniel. (2018). ‘Making music and learning languages - musicality and grammar aptitude’. In Susan Reiterer (ed.), Exploring Language Aptitude: Views from Psychology, the Language Sciences, and Cognitive Neuroscience, 209–228. Berlin: Springer International Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91917-1_11
Marie, Céline, Franco Delogu, Giulia Lampis, Marta Olivetti Belardinelli and Mireille Besson. (2011). ‘Influence of musical expertise on segmental and tonal processing in Mandarin Chinese’. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(10): 2701–2715.
https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2010.21585
Marques, Carlos, Carlos Marques, Sylvain Moreno, São Luís Castro and Mireille Besson. (2007). ‘Musicians detect pitch violation in a foreign language better than nonmusicians: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence’. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(9): 1453–1463.
https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2007.19.9.1453
Meyer, Martin, Kai Alter, Angela D. Friederici, Gabriele Lohmann and DY von Cramon. (2002). ‘FMRI reveals brain regions mediating slow prosodic modulations in spoken sentences’. Human brain mapping, 17(2): 73–88.
https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.10042
Milovanov, Riia, Paivi Pietila, Mari Tervaniemi and Paulo A. Esquef. (2010). ‘Foreign language pronunciation skills and musical aptitude: A study of Fnnish adults with higher education’. Learning and Individual Differences, 20(1): 56–60.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1041608009000946
Murphy, Tim. (1992). Music and Songs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Neves, Leonor, Ana Isabel Correia, São Luís Castro, Daniel Martins and César F. Lima. (2022). ‘Does music training enhance auditory and linguistic processing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of behavioral and brain evidence’. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 140: 04777.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104777
Patel, Aniruddh D. (2003). ‘Rhythm in language and music: Parallels and differences’. In Giuliano Avanzini, Ciro Faienza, Diego Minciacchi, Louisa Lopez, and Maria Majno (eds.), The Neurosciences and Music, 140–143. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Patel, Aniruddh D. (2007). Music, Language, and the Brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195123753.001.0001
Patel, Aniruddh D., Isabelle Peretz, Mark Tramo and Raymonde Labreque. (1998). ‘Processing prosodic and musical patterns: A neuropsychological investigation’. Brain and Language, 61(1): 123-144.
Peretz, Isabelle, Dominique Vuvan, Marie-E´laine Lagrois and Jorge L. Armony. (2015). ‘Neural overlap in processing music and speech’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1664).
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0090
Picciotti, Pasqualina M., Francesco Bussu, Lea Calò, R. Gallus, Emanuele Scarano, Giovanni Di Cintio, F. Cassarà and Lucia D'Alatri. (2018). ‘Correlation between musical aptitude and learning foreign languages: An epidemiological study in secondary school Italian students.’ Acta Otorhinolaryngol Italica, 38(1): 51–55.
https://doi.org/10.14639/0392-100X-1103
Piri, Somaye. (2018.) ‘The role of music in second language learning’. Studies in Literature and Language, 17(1): 75-78.
http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/sll/article/view/10449/0
Rosová, Veronika. (2007). The use of music in teaching English. Unpublished MA Thesis, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
Sadakata, Makiko and Kaoru Sekiyama. (2011). ‘Enhanced perception of various linguistic features by musicians: A cross-linguistic study’. Acta Psychologica, 138(1): 1-10.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.03.007
Schön, Danielle, Cyrille Magne and Mireille Besson. (2004). ‘The music of speech: Music training facilitates pitch processing in both music and language’. Psychophysiology, 41(3): 341–349.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8986.00172.x
Slevc, Robert and Akira Miyake. (2006). Individual differences in second-language proficiency: Does musical ability matter? Psychological Science, 17 (8): 675–681.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40064434
Wong, Patrick, Erika Skoe, Nicole M. Russo, Tasha Dees and Nina Kraus. (2007). ‘Musical experience shapes human brainstem encoding of linguistic pitch patterns’. Nature Neuroscience, 10(4): 420–422.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1872
Zatorre, Robert J., Pascal Belin and Virginia B. Penhune. (2002). ‘Structure and function of auditory cortex: music and speech’. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6 (1): 37–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01816-7
Zentner, Marcel and Hannah Strauss. (2017). ‘Assessing musical ability quickly and objectively: development and validation of the short-proms and the mini-proms’. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1400(1): 33–45.
