21.2075, FYI: Setting Language Acquisition Research to Music

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LINGUIST List: Vol-21-2075. Mon May 03 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.2075, FYI: Setting Language Acquisition Research to Music

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1)
Date: 29-Apr-2010
From: John Stephenson < jsteph at human.mie-u.ac.jp >
Subject: Setting Language Acquisition Research to Music
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 03 May 2010 11:35:25
From: John Stephenson [jsteph at human.mie-u.ac.jp]
Subject: Setting Language Acquisition Research to Music

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While language learning may be of interest to the general public, 
acquisition research rarely makes forays into wider culture, partly due 
to the apparent difficulty of reconciling the needs of an audience 
seeking an entertaining and informative experience with the rigorous 
procedures of linguistic science. In the English city of Newcastle upon 
Tyne, however, groups including linguists, musicians and talented 
school children have set out to change public perceptions through 
setting language acquisition research to music.

Insights into first language acquisition lend themselves to musical 
performance, as far as Martha Young-Scholten (project management) 
and Andy Jackson (composer) are concerned. With the help of 
Newcastle schoolchildren and University of Newcastle linguistics 
students, music is used to illustrate various stages of coming to 
language, starting in the womb. In the first piece on the group's CD, 
'Swing Cycle,' Jackson brings forth phonological acquisition in musical 
form.

The early stages of 'Swing Cycle' present the emergence of 
phonological distinctions from background noise. First to reach the 
ears are the vowels, presented in various ways, even distorted, to put 
across the experience of initial linguistic processing. 'Birth' presents a 
"consonant explosion" starting, of course, with the plosives. [b], [d], [k] 
and so on are uttered, with the earliest-acquired sounds repeated. 
Clusters of consonants soon emerge, including those which will 
ultimately fall by the wayside, sequences such as [rm] not being part of 
English.

As the piece goes on, the listener is reminded less of the cacophony 
which must be the infant's initial experience of language, in favour of 
the appearance of syllables and word-like units. At this stage, 
messages themselves are indistinct, reflected in the incomprehensible 
lyrics. The listener hears such sequences as, "Ah, moo chitty ferry vine 
fact or thrive. Fizzy bee. Rice inn," with a glance at the accompanying 
CD guide revealing that this is a disguised form of the final song. For 
now, intonation and rhythm dominate, with finer details yet to come.

The listener is next treated to various stages that represent more 
complex language acquisition. Inappropriate stress and word boundary 
confusion are exemplified in various intriguing ways: lyrics such as, 
"Carmpad ling pool paw" and "Bam burble murple chop" mark some of 
the boundary changes (answers revealed in the final stage).

Young-Scholten et al. recognise, of course, that speech is merely the 
modality that children make use of if local conditions demand it. Others 
find themselves signing as well as or instead of speaking. The second 
piece, 'Out of the Mouths,' reminds the listener in its first section that 
the languages of the Deaf are also underlain by similar processes of 
language acquisition. In fact, most of the stages here apply equally to 
signers as speakers: cooing, babbling, touching, pointing and thinking 
are all represented. Only in the 'Singing' and 'Talking' stages does 
speech take centre stage.

Newcastle has brought language acquisition research into a new light 
with this activity, but music appreciation that is fun also has an 
educational role. Language students in Japan, for example, have 
experienced the music for themselves in order to learn about language 
acquisition and English, with the help of a former Newcastle student 
involved with the project. Kaori Ando's students at the Kanda Institute 
of Foreign Languages in Tokyo enjoyed the music and were able to 
find out new things about language acquisition, such as the gradual 
nature of L1 development, without the need to draw this understanding 
from dense text or somewhat drier material. The may have helped them 
to develop realistic goals and performance expectations.

The two pieces of music were performed at the Sage Gateshead, one 
of Tyneside's major music venues, in July 2008. MP3 files and lyrics 
are available for download at the Newcastle University website:

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/elll/news/item?young-ears-young-tongues-concert-at-the-sage-copy

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/elll/news/item?setting-language-research-to-music-the-swing-cycle

John Stephenson
Faculty of Humanities, Law and Economics	
Mie University			
Japan 



Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
                     Phonetics
                     Phonology
                     Psycholinguistics





 




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