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Article published In:
Pop culture in applied linguistics: International perspectives: Special issue of ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 173:2 (2022)
Edited by Valentin Werner
[ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 173:2] 2022
► pp. 228–250

Using music in a word stress processing task

Does it favor learners with a musical background?

ORCID logo | UCLouvain

Previous studies have reported that the use of music-related activities (e.g. hand-clapping or songs) can help learners to acquire foreign languages. It remains unclear, however, whether music-based approaches help every learner equally or whether it is more beneficial for learners with a musical background, such as musical practice, musical abilities, or engagement in musical activities. In order to answer this question, we tested 80 French speakers whose musical background was evaluated using a questionnaire. They performed a word stress processing task in Dutch containing spoken stimuli, spoken stimuli with a beat, or sung stimuli. The results show that learners with some musical characteristics obtain higher scores than other learners and that the use of music in the task can favor learners with a musical background.

Keywords: music, songs, musical background, word stress, foreign language prosody
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Word stress acquisition
    • 1.2Prosody and music
  • 2.Data and methodology
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Material
    • 2.3Procedure
    • 2.4Data analysis
  • 3.Results
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
Published online: 11 May 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.21011.deg
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