Have you ever noticed how easy it is to remember a song? That’s because music uses rhythm, repetition, and fun sounds just like language! When you sing rhymes and listen to songs, you learn new words faster. Let’s explore how music helps you learn, remember, and feel calm too. To understand this better, we spoke …
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to remember a song? That’s because music uses rhythm, repetition, and fun sounds just like language! When you sing rhymes and listen to songs, you learn new words faster. Let’s explore how music helps you learn, remember, and feel calm too.
To understand this better, we spoke with an English professor at Goa University. Dr. Anjali Chaubey teaches linguistics (the study of language). Here are some really interesting thoughts on how music and language work together in children’s brains and why songs and rhymes can make learning new words much easier.
Q1. How do you think music and language are connected in the way children learn?
I think music is about rhythm and sound patterns put together, and language also operates along similar lines. When children, especially in their early years, are exposed to rhyming words, poetry, or limericks, they follow similar patterns of rhyme, rhythm, and sound. In that way, music and language are very similar in how they work and how children imbibe them. This is also how children pick up new words and new songs.
Q2. Have you ever noticed any change in children’s language skills when they are exposed to music?
I have not interacted with children closely in that way myself, but I have read that there are studies on the efficacy of exposure to music in early years. Children who are exposed to music, sound, and rhythm tend to have brain cells and neurons that are more conducive to acquiring language. Language structures and music structures are very similar in how they form patterns of sound and rhythm, and children exposed to music seem to be more receptive to learning languages.
Q3. How does music shape the learning environment for children who are picking up a new language?
I think music would have a positive impact on children who are exposed to it while they are picking up languages. The more exposure children have to multiple languages—and if we count music as something that runs centrally through language patterns. It would aid their ability to retain words and sounds better.
Q4. How do you think music helps children when it comes to memorisation?
Because of rhythmic sounds, repetitive words, and repetitive patterns, music and songs work in a way that makes learning easier. Songs often have rhyming words or similar-sounding words at the end of each sentence. If you look at poems or nursery rhymes for children, they are structured along similar lines—patterns, rhythm, and structure. There are recurring lines or refrains that come back again and again, which children remember very easily. This helps them memorise poems and songs because of these rhythmic patterns.
Q5. Is there anything else you would like to add about music and language?
Music and language are very curiously interrelated aspects of human experience. For example, in linguistics, we study how the seven notes of music are more or less akin to the fundamental vowel sounds in a language. We use a limited set of sounds to create endless songs, just as we use a limited set of sounds to create infinite words and sentences. Exposure to multiple kinds of languages and music definitely aids children’s fast-developing brains, as they are constantly absorbing and expanding through their environment.
Music also has a calming effect on children and adults alike. Certain songs, such as lullabies or grounding songs, help children calm down when they are overstimulated or having tantrums. Fundamentally, this shows that humans have a natural propensity for music, songs, and language. There is still so much to explore and study in this area before we fully understand how the human mind engages with both these domains.
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