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Cognitive Individual Differences in Second Language Processing and Acquisition
Edited by Gisela Granena, Daniel O. Jackson and Yucel Yilmaz
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 3] 2016
► pp. 131–156

Music, song and speech

A closer look at the interfaces between musicality, singing and individual differences in phonetic language aptitude

| Unit for Language Learning and Teaching Research, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Austria | English Linguistics Department, Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, Austria
| Unit for Language Learning and Teaching Research, Department of Linguistics, University of Vienna, Austria | Centre for Teacher Education, University of Vienna, Austria

Recent evidence shows that musical aptitude positively influences language acquisition processes. The underlying mechanisms of why and how musical talent heightens one’s ability to detect, imitate and memorize foreign languages, however, have not yet been fully understood. We set out to test vocalists’ ability to imitate speech. Findings indicated that singing capacity is a good predictor for accent imitation and a better predictor of than instrument playing and musical expertise measured perceptually. As we wanted to uncover whether there is a difference between instrumentalists’ and vocalists’ accent imitation abilities, we recruited vocalists, instrumentalists and non-singers/non-musicians and compared their accent imitation skills directly. As expected, vocalists outperformed instrumentalists and non-musicians/non-singers significantly, while the perceptual musicality test showed no significant difference between vocalists and instrumentalists.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The link between music and language
    • 1.2Musicality: one term, many abilities?
    • 1.3Vocalists versus instrumentalists
    • 1.4Perceiving tonal and verbal material
    • 1.5Production of speech and singing
  • 2.Study I: The link between accent imitation and singing capacity
    • 2.1Material, methods and participants
    • 2.2Accent imitation testing
    • 2.3Singing testing
    • 2.4Musical talent testing and working memory
    • 2.5Questionnaires
    • 2.6Results
      • 2.6.1Correlations and descriptives
      • 2.6.2Multiple regressions
      • 2.6.3Multiple regression MLR1
      • 2.6.4Multiple regression MLR2
    • 2.7Discussion
    • 2.8Working memory, music and alterations of the brain
  • 3.Singing and speech production
    • 3.1Singing and the generation of speech
    • 3.2Vocalization and neuronal underpinnings
    • 3.3Voice quality and rhythm
    • 3.4L1 acquisition integrates song-like input
    • 3.5Limitations of the study
    • 3.6Conclusion
  • 4.Study II: Population differences in accent imitation abilities: vocalists versus instrumentalists
    • 4.1Materials and methods
    • 4.2Participants
    • 4.3Results
    • 4.4Discussion
    • 4.5Oromotor system
    • 4.6Conclusion and afterword
  • References
Published online: 23 December 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.3.07chr
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