Learning to speak by learning to sing
by Andrew Seguin
 As poetry teaches us, language can be music. But invoking language’s inherent musicality isn’t limited to the literature classroom, as any foreign language teacher at Chapin will tell you. Students in Class 5, who are just beginning their studies in Chinese, French and Spanish, have been learning to speak their chosen language by learning to sing in it.
“By singing songs, the girls have learned a lot of Chinese,” teacher Lin Wang said last week. “Each song we sing has a specific learning objective.” This was evident in a recent class: When Mr. Wang quizzed his students on the lyrics they had just sung, the girls could recite the Chinese names of colors and family members that they had learned.
Mr. Wang makes use of traditional Chinese songs that he learned as a child. The songs’ lyrics and melodies are simple, so that beginning language students have no trouble learning them and becoming confident with the pronunciation of the lyrics. The girls are also learning traditional Chinese drumming rhythms, and Mr. Wang often accompanies them on the erhu, a two-string bowed instrument similar to the violin, which dates back to ancient China.
Regardless of what method teachers use, it’s clear that music and singing offer a great introduction to a foreign language. All the Class 5 students performed recently at Lower School News, brandishing their voices as instruments. Teacher Remedios Lopez-Polo’s Spanish students sang Las Vocales and Cabeza Cintura, Léonie Seltzer’s French students melodically recited La Fourmi, a poem by the Surrealist poet Robert Desnos, and the Chinese students sang The Greeting Song and Looking for a Friend.
To get a sense of what the audience heard, click here to listen to The Greeting Song. Your computer must be able to play mp3s in order to hear it. To download an mp3 player, click here.
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