Nastava i Vaspitanje (Jan 2024)
Presence of music elements in teaching Spanish as a foreign language
Abstract
This article aims to analyze the presence of musical elements as well as the importance of the use of music in the process of learning a foreign language with a focus on the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language. Music and language have numerous common characteristics that are recognizable through rhythm, melody, intonation, dynamics and represent a form of continuous mutual communication. Music stimulates the activity of the right hemisphere of the brain, thus encouraging creativity and imagination as key motivators in the learning process. Our research deals with the analysis of the presence of elements related to music in the textbooks used in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad. A quantitative analysis of the corpus identified examples that represent musical content or refer to musical elements within the teaching. The aim of this research was to identify which musical content is present in the textbooks and at what level of learning Spanish as a foreign language (A1-B2) and which language competences and skills develop with the help of the identified content. The hypothesis of this research was that musical content would be more present at lower levels of learning when the student is expected to memorize new words and grammatical constructions. The corpus analysis showed that music in foreign language teaching provides lexical and cultural input. The results of this research confirm that musical content can be used for the purpose of practicing and improving both receptive and productive language skills, and for the purpose of developing and enriching students' lexical, grammatical and intercultural competence, especially at lower levels of learning. With music, we can improve our pronunciation, practice intonation, expand our vocabulary, learn grammatical structures and understand the culture of the other.
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