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Music trains our subconscious mind to acquire a new language  faster and vice-versa. It relevant to me because I myself am a multilingual-music player and I learned Hindi just by listening to music and watching movies. Author Efaz claims, ''

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Language learning is a subconscious process. Grammar and memorizing bunch of vocabulary don't help that much. Most of what we learn in a new language is when we interact or listen and connect meaning without the involvement of our conscious mind.

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Language Learning - Subconscious Process

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Music learning influences Language acquisition

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Music learning influences Language acquisition

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Music learning is similar to language learning because both requires listening skills. Experiment was done, where a participant was given a task of listening to a sentence in a noisy background and those kids with musical training, heard the sentences better. 'When you are learning to read, you need to connect the sounds of words that you've heard for many years with the symbol on the page. So you're making a sound meaning connection.'

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Making sure young brains get the benefits of music training

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Language is better comprehended when we get the context or the body language of the people communicating in a situation. I myself learned Hindi, just by watching movies and listening to music in few years. Therefore this point holds true for me.
'...we’re able to process the language in our brain and link certain words or expressions to their meaning.'

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I believe this is one of the key concepts to understand the process by which a language is actually acquired.

We adults are used to wanting to have conscious control over everything in our lives, and it's certainly the case as well when it comes to language learning.

And we're also so used to those traditional language classes based on the conscious study of the language and its grammar rules, that we believe this is the only possible way to learn a language.

When we consciously learn a certain grammar rule or memorize certain vocabulary words, we experience a (false) feeling of improvement thanks to this "measurable" knowledge. However, we all know what happens when you come out to the real world and try to hold a conversation after learning a language this way.

What happens is you need to consciously think about absolutely everything you want to say, and you need time to access that conscious knowledge you got from traditional grammar classes. The problem is, unlike what happens when you take on a grammar exercise or exam, you just don't have that time in a real life conversation.

Like I've said many times before, this is why we keep witnessing that sort of hesitant speech with a lot pauses when someone speaks in a foreign language. This happens because they're trying to access that conscious knowledge and they need time for that. We all know as well how tiring this process of having to consciously think about everything you want to say is.

On the other side, true language acquisition is a subconscious process. Through comprehensible input, we process the language in our head and build a mental representation of it, and eventually our natural and spontaneous speech will show up.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to this: we improve when we understand what is being said to us. As strange as the previous paragraph may sound, it's nothing but the same process by which each and every person acquires their native language.

If you pay close attention, kids get comprehensible input (it is comprehensible because their parents make the effort to make it so through simple language, gestures, props...) for quite a while until they're ready to start speaking.

Obviously, nobody would think about teaching their kids the grammar rules or basing their language acquisition process on any sort of conscious learning. Kids actually acquire the language subconsciously thanks to the context and understanding what is being said to them.

This concept of subconscious language acquisition may be hard to understand for our conscious learning prone mind, but I believe it's one of the most important ideas to be able to understand how the process actually works and to realize that learning a language is way more pleasant than what we thought it was.

We don't need to consciously learn grammar rules or memorize vocabulary lists any more (a process I'm sure we all "love"), but rather we can truly acquire a language by carrying out interesting and pleasant activities like reading books, watching TV shows or series, talk with people from different countries... Activities that, ironically, are way more appropriate and effective.

We can also acquire languages through interesting and enjoyable language classes that are based on the right principles.

The idea then is for our attention to be focused on understanding the message (every time I talk about understanding, I mean the message or the storyline, I don't mean each and every word) and following the storyline whenever we're reading a book or watching a TV show. Because if we understand what's going on, we're subconsciously acquiring the language.

This is the way a language is truly acquired. Thanks to a story and a context, we're able to process the language in our brain and link certain words or expressions to their meaning. And again, this happens subconsciously when we understand what is being said to us.

The main problem is that our minds are so used to conscious learning that they're terrified when they can't control or "measure" that knowledge. This is why there's always a certain degree of uncertainty when subconsciously acquiring a language. However, we'll be able to challenge that uncertainty when we realize that we can understand more and more of the language, and when we see that we start being able to speak naturally and spontaneously, just as it happens with our native language.

In that sense, the main difference between us adults and children is that the latter (due to lack of consciousness) don't worry about the process and start speaking whenever they're ready for it. Thanks to their lack of consciousness, they don't worry about obtaining a conscious knowledge of the language, all they care about is the message and communication, and they'll start speaking only when they're ready.

On the other side, we adults love to have conscious knowledge over all the things in our lives, and we want to be able to speak as soon as possible. Although I do understand that we want to be able to speak as soon as possible and the fact that this is a result of an entire life learning languages with the traditional grammar approach, at the end of the day it's all about trusting the same process and principles by which we all acquired our native languages.

Communication is the truly important thing here, and not form, and that's why we'll be improving if we understand the message.

Moreover, once we realize that the process works like this and we internalize it, this whole process and any activity are going to be a thousand times more pleasant and interesting.

I personally can tell you that watching TV shows, series or movies in a foreign language has become a way more pleasant activity than it used to be. I don't worry about understanding each and every word or focusing my attention on a specific word one of the characters mentioned any more, my attention is rather focused on the message and following the storyline, because now I know that all I need to do to improve is understand the message. Believe me when I say that it's way more interesting and pleasant.

I've already mentioned many times the fact that the message obviously needs to be comprehensible, because it would be just noise otherwise and no improvement would come about. That's why I wrote the free eBook "The World of Languages", to provide ideas about interesting and pleasant activities and resources broken down into different levels to keep improving on our own outside of the classroom.

Thanks a lot for reading this article and I truly hope it helped you start thinking outside the box a little bit, and realize that the language acquisition process is actually subconscious, because I believe this is one of the key ideas we need to understand for our language acquisition journey to be successful.

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THE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROCESS IS SUBCONSCIOUS - NaturaLanguages

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I believe this is one of the key concepts to understand the process by which a language is actually acquired. We adults are used to wanting to have conscious control over everything in our lives, and it's certainly the case as well when it comes to language learning.

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In language learning, studies reveal a correlation between the teaching of music and reading. “Both use a symbol structure that can be decoded into sounds that have meaning. Visual and auditory discrimination are required in both subjects and are oriented to a left-to-right framework” Eady and Wilson [4].

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Krashen proposes a theory with 5 hypothesis called the Theory of Second Language Acquisition. His theory explains how the subconscious mind can make language learning easier than conscious mind. ' Focus more on spending time with the language and move on to the grammar rules later, when you’re more likely to pick them up naturally.'

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There are lots of theories when it comes to how we learn language. In fact, the world of linguistics was rocked recently with the overturning Noam Chomsky's Universal Grammar Theory.

The theory claimed that the human brain has an innate ability to learn grammar. New research has discovered, however, that instead of being hardwired to understand the patterns of grammar, children actually use skills not specifically related to language learning to pick up their mother tongue, like the ability to classify and understand the relationships between people and objects. Fascinating stuff, especially for language nerds like us here at LingQ.

One language learning theory that is still widely accepted is that of linguist and University of California professor Stephen Krashen. It's called the Theory of Second Language Acquisition and you might be happy to know - depending on your language learning style - that it doesn't place any emphasis on boring grammar drills.

Krashen's theory is made up of five hypotheses. Is there anything a language learner like you from take from them? Let's find out.
English not your first language? Import and read this post on LingQ instead.
The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis

According to Krashen, humans become fluent in a language in one of two ways: by acquiring it or by learning it. Acquiring language is a "subconscious process identical in all important ways to the process children utilize in acquiring their first language." Learning a language, on the other hand, is "a conscious process that results in 'knowing about' [the rules of] language."

You won't be surprised to know which way Krashen claims is the most effective. I mean, how much easier was it to acquire your native language than to learn any other language after it? Krashen believes that when we consciously learn language, like drilling grammar rules for example, we don't absorb the language into our subconscious. This makes remembering what we've learned extremely difficult. It is much better, the linguist suggests, to learn language subconsciously. How is that done? That's where the next hypothesis comes in.

Takeaway - Lay off those grammar rules. When you consciously try to cram knowledge into your brain, it generally doesn't stick. Focus more on spending time with the language and move on to the grammar rules later, when you're more likely to pick them up naturally.

In order to create meaningful output, you need to have exposed yourself to enough input (reading and listening). Krashen believes that comprehensible input is the most effective kind. For material to be comprehensible, it needs to be slightly beyond your level of competence. In other words, not so easy that you get bored, but not so difficult that you get frustrated - you need to hit that input sweet spot.

Krashen also believes that this comprehensible input should appeal to your individual interests. It's all good and well finding a science fiction novel that fits the bill, but if you're more of a crime drama person, do yourself a favour and pick up an Agatha Christie instead. You also need to make sure you're exposed to a lot of this comprehensible input - every day, just like we are as children with our native language.
Takeaway - Get reading and listening. A lot of us start learning a language because we want to speak, then we get frustrated and put off when we can't speak early on. You will be able to speak eventually, especially with enough input. In the words of LingQ's Steve Kaufmann "People who read well and understand well when listening are eventually going to be able to speak well." The Monitor Hypothesis
Adults are so analytical. Some have a tendency to overanalyze, to second guess and edit in real time. This trait is useful in many areas of life, but in language learning it can actually hold us back.

When many adults learn languages, their analytical tendencies kick in and they try to correct all perceived errors. This is unhelpful as it gets in the way of acquiring the language naturally, and so Krashen believes it should play a minor role in the acquisition of a language. The major role should go to acquiring comprehensible input and becoming comfortable in the language before trying to tear every construction apart.
Takeaway - Don't overthink it. This will require some training, especially if you're a bit of a perfectionist. You will be happy you spent the time breaking the habit of self-editing, though. Sure, you'll make more mistakes, but that's exactly what you should be doing. That's how you'll improve. As long as the person you're speaking to understands the gist of what you're saying, they aren't going to be too bothered if you used the wrong verb ending (and if they are, they aren't worth talking to in any language).
The Natural Order Hypothesis

This hypothesis outlines the way in which grammar is acquired. Krashen believes that there is a natural sequence of acquisition and that we pick up certain rules of grammar before others. For example, English language learners pick up how to use the present tense (-ing), as in "She likes swimming" before the possessive 's', like in "Fumiko's swim cap is red".
Takeaway - Take it one step at a time. Sometimes it feels like you're making lots of progress, other times it feels as though you've been stuck at the same point for months. The Natural Order Hypothesis reminds us that, though we can help ourselves along with the right attitude and commitment, sometimes parts of the target language will just take a little time for our brains to process.
The Affective Filter Hypothesis

Everyone learns better when they are feeling relaxed and comfortable, and language learning is no different. Krashen believes when learners are feeling anxious, that emotion filters the comprehensible input they are learning and makes it more difficult to acquire the language.

This makes sense. We all have memories from school of shrinking into our chairs to avoid catching the eye of our language teacher. If singled out to speak, we might have had to come up with a canned response to a question like "what did you do at the weekend?", our shaky pronunciation corrected in front of our peers. There's something to be said about learning online, at home in a relaxed environment compared to going to class all the time.
Takeaway - Relax. If your language learning environment is making you anxious, bored or under stimulated, change it for one that works for you. Record yourself speaking and put it online for people to help you with if speaking on front of others terrifies you. The subreddit /r/languagelearning is a good place to get constructive feedback. Go join a conversation group if you're bored of watching YouTube videos. Do what makes you feel good.
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Stephen Krashen: What Can We Learn From His Theory? - LingQ Blog

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There are lots of theories when it comes to how we learn language. In fact, the world of linguistics was rocked recently with the overturning Noam Chomsky's Universal Grammar Theory. The theory claimed that the human brain has an innate ability to learn grammar.

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Language Learning - Subconscious Process

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Children growing up in a bilingual environment are better in distinguishing between musical notes. In other words, learning different languages helps us to perceive music better.‘Results showed that infants growing up in bilingual environments are more able to distinguish between two violin notes than their monolingual counterparts.’

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Exposure to multiple languages may sharpen infants' music sensitivity in the first year after birth, new research has found.

Compared to infants learning one language (monolinguals), those who grow up with more than one language (bilinguals/multilinguals) are more sensitive to the subtle pitch variations in language.

To understand whether such sensitivity is specific to language in nature, we further tested monolingual and bilingual infants' sensitivity to music pitch.

Results showed that infants growing up in bilingual environments are more able to distinguish between two violin notes than their monolingual counterparts.

These findings suggest heightened acoustic sensitivity for bilingual infants. That is, infants' multilingual experiences may make them better at detecting the small differences in sounds in the ambient environment than monolinguals, whether the sounds are coming from language or music.

It has been shown that speaking a tone language like Chinese will facilitate music perception probably due to the extensive usage of pitch on words in that language. The current research suggests that bilingual experience may yield a similar effect.

Sensitivity to sounds

When a child learns two different languages, they form a more complex, detailed system, with overlapping sounds enabling better comprehension of acoustics in general.

These infants may benefit from their experience of detecting and distinguishing subtle differences between two languages, and transfer this ability to non-speech sound perception, like music.

Infants may also pay more attention to input acoustic details than monolinguals, with the constant switching between languages serving as a frequent exercise for the ears and the brain.

Benefits of bilingualism

The effect of bilingualism is not restricted to the language domain. When bilinguals talk, all languages they know are activated by the brain.

A bilingual's brain is constantly working on this language suppression and activation process.

Many scholars argue that bilinguals have better cognitive abilities such as executive control. This practice generates life-long cognitive benefits, and makes bilinguals think more adaptively, abstractly, and creatively.

Benefits surface early in infancy. Apart from their heightened acoustic sensitivity to language and music, bilingual infants have also been shown to outperform monolinguals in their:

Are there any drawbacks?

Regardless of anecdotes claiming that children growing up bilingually will have a slower developmental trajectory than monolinguals, researchers have found that bilingual children have the ability to separate their two languages early on, and that their pace of language development is not different from monolingual children given adequate exposure.

Whether it is learning a new language, picking up a language you used to speak, or raising your child bilingually, becoming bilingual may change your perception, cognition, learning and even brain structures.

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Bilingual babies are better at detecting musical sounds, research shows

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Exposure to multiple languages may sharpen infants' music sensitivity in the first year after birth, new research has found. Compared to infants learning one language (monolinguals), those who grow up with more than one language (bilinguals/multilinguals) are more sensitive to the subtle pitch variations in language.

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Musicians are better at noticing the difference in pitches during language learning and can easily comprehend the intention behind spoken words.“Remarkably, they found that just six months formal musical training had positive effects upon subjects' abilities in speech. Specifically, subjects' musically trained ears allowed them to better discern differences in pitch."

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The debate over music and its benefits for the development of early cognitive abilities have raged now for almost two decades. Can classical music transform children into smarter, more effective learners? Today's research indicates that the clear answer is that this is the wrong question. The question is this: What are the differences in the effects of passively listening to music vs. active musical training upon cognitive abilities?

On passive listening
Ever since French researcher Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis, in his 1991 book Pourquoi Mozart?, put forth the assertion that listening to the music of Mozart can retrain the brain, laypeople and researchers alike have been on the hunt for evidence to support his claims. Two years later, University of California at Irvine psychologist Frances H. Rauscher reported findings demonstrating that passivelylistening to Mozart's music enhanced college students' cognitive abilities. (Such claims gave rise to numerous products that were aggressively marketed to parents, the most popular being the highly scrutinized Baby Einstein series. See this 2009 article in the NY Times.)

While they garnered a fantastic amount of attention, researchers around the world have been highly skeptical of Rauscher's conclusions. Today, numerous studies have demonstrated that, alas, passively listeningto music will not transform babies' brains into mini computational powerhouses. See this May 10, 2010 article in Science News.

On active training
All this does not translate to the conclusion that there is no educational benefit to music. I'm happy to report that activemusical training, such as taking formal lessons in learning to play the piano or read music, does produce substantive positive changes in the brain in children as well as adults. As we know, the brain is plastic; it changes based on how it is exercised. (That is why we talk so much about brain fitness at Scientific Learning.)

In contrast to Tomatis and Raucher's work in passive musical listening, last year a team of European researchers published a study entitled, " Musical Training Influences Linguistic Abilities in 8-Year-Old Children: More Evidence for Brain Plasticity." Researchers tested thirty-two non-musician children over nine months to look at their predispositions for music, as well as to measure the effects of musical training upon non-musical functions.

Remarkably, they found that just six months formal musical training had positive affects upon subjects' abilities in speech. Specifically, subjects' musically trained ears allowed them to better discern differences in pitch. Further, this research supported the idea of brain plasticity in showing that even short periods of training the brain can have large effects upon brain function.

But how does musical training affect language processing in adults? Again, the research clearly outlines the positive affects, demonstrating that brain plasticity continues on through adulthood:

Schon, Magne and Besson published in 2004demonstrated that training helps adults process not only music, but also speech. In studying the perception of fundamental frequency--the lowest threshold of audible tones--in eighteen musicians and non-musicians (mean age of 31), results showed that extensive musical training does have a clear affect on "the perception of pitch contour in spoken language."

The research from Gabb, Tallal, Kim, Laskminarayanan, Archie, Glover and Gabrielasuggests that musical training actually "changes the neural network involved in rapid spectrotemporal processing so that it overlaps primarily with brain areas traditionally associated with language processing (e.g., Broca's region)."

The significance of all this research is clear; don't just listen to the music. Take up producing your own and you'll be rewarded with all that music has to offer, while gaining improved brain function as a bonus.

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Musical Training and Cognitive Abilities

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The debate over music and its benefits for the development of early cognitive abilities have raged now for almost two decades. Can classical music transform children into smarter, more effective learners? Today's research indicates that the clear answer is that this is the wrong question.

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The part of the brain processing sound and speech are the same and is called the Broca's area. Since the history of creation of music and language are related , our speech center is affected when we listen to or play music."Humans first started creating music 500,000 years ago, yet speech and language was only developed 200,000 years ago. Evolutionary evidence, as interpreted by leading researchers such as Robin Dunbar from Oxford University, indicates that speech as a form of communication has evolved from our original development and use of music."

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Children who learn music from a young age find it easier to learn languages even in adulthood, research has found

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We can't learn a language as easily as we could when we were a child. Because our synapses get weak as we get used to the things around us and they don't form connections as rapidly as a child to whom everything is new and being processed.David Eagleman claims that 'Synapses weaken if they aren't useful and eventually they are eliminated.'

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Read 1,725 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Locked in the silence and darkness of your skull, your brain fashions the rich narrative...

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The author explains how he experienced improvement in cognitive skills when he started learning French. Since learning how to play a musical instrument improve our cognitive skills, I wondered if music and language learning are related.' Studying a language had been like drinking from a mental fountain of youth.'

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Op-Ed Contributor

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Credit Credit Jason Logan

I USED to joke that I spoke French like a 3-year-old. Until I met a French 3-year-old and couldn't hold up my end of the conversation. This was after a year of intense study, including at least two hours a day with Rosetta Stone, Fluenz and other self-instruction software, Meetup groups, an intensive weekend class and a steady diet of French movies, television and radio, followed by what I'd hoped would be the coup de grâce: two weeks of immersion at one of the top language schools in France.

"French resistance" took on an entirely new meaning as my brain repelled every strategy I employed. Yet my failure was in fact quite unremarkable. Advertising claims notwithstanding, few adults who tackle a foreign language achieve anything resembling proficiency. In the end, though, it turns out that spending a year not learning French may have been the best thing I could've done for my 57-year-old brain.

In the last few years, unable to hold a list of just four grocery items in my head, I'd begun to fret a bit over my literal state of mind. So to reassure myself that nothing was amiss, just before tackling French I took a cognitive assessment called CNS Vital Signs, recommended by a psychologist friend. The results were anything but reassuring: I scored below average for my age group in nearly all of the categories, notably landing in the bottom 10th percentile on the composite memory test and in the lowest 5 percent on the visual memory test.

This, obviously, did not bode well for my nascent language project, but I forged ahead. To be sure, learning a foreign language is a daunting task for any adult. How can something that a toddler accomplishes before learning to tie his shoes be so difficult for grown-ups?

Psycholinguists are divided on the answer, but they agree on several points. For starters, a 2-year-old's brain has a substantial neurological advantage, with 50 percent more synapses - the connections between neurons - than an adult brain, way more than it needs. This excess, which is an insurance policy against early trauma, is also crucial to childhood language acquisition, as is the plasticity, or adaptability, of the young brain.

Once the "critical period" - the roughly six years of life during which the brain is wired for learning language - is over, the ability to acquire a first language is lost, as your brain frees up room for the other skills you'll need as you mature, such as the ability to kill a wild boar, or learn math, or operate your iPad.

Another advantage a toddler holds is his very lack of experience. After speaking our native language for decades, we adults can't help but hear the second language through the filter of the first. And this filter doesn't take decades to develop. Researchers have found that newborn Japanese babies can distinguish between the English "L" and "R" sounds, but if not exposed to Western languages, they begin to lose that ability - not by the age of 6 or even 3 - but by eight months.

Adult language learners are, to borrow a phrase used by some psycholinguists, too smart for our own good. We process too much data at once, try to get everything right from the get-go and are self-conscious about our efforts. But toddlers instinctively grasp what's important and are quite content to say, "Tommy hitted me," as long as Tommy gets what's coming to him.

All this means that we adults have to work our brains hard to learn a second language. But that may be all the more reason to try, for my failed French quest yielded an unexpected benefit. After a year of struggling with the language, I retook the cognitive assessment, and the results shocked me. My scores had skyrocketed, placing me above average in seven of 10 categories, and average in the other three. My verbal memory score leapt from the bottom half to the 88th - the 88th! - percentile and my visual memory test shot from the bottom 5th percentile to the 50th. Studying a language had been like drinking from a mental fountain of youth.

What might explain such an improvement?

Last year researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Northwestern University in Illinois hypothesized that language study should prove beneficial for older adults, noting that the cognitive tasks involved - including working memory, inductive reasoning, sound discrimination and task switching - map closely to the areas of the brain that are most associated with declines due to aging. In other words, the things that make second-language acquisition so maddening for grown-ups are the very things that may make the effort so beneficial.

The quest for a mental fountain of youth, pursued by baby boomers who fear that their bodies will outlive their brains, and who have deeper pockets than Juan Ponce de León, has created a billion-dollar industry. There is some evidence that brain exercise programs like Lumosity and Nintendo's Brain Age can be beneficial, but if my admittedly unscientific experience is any indication, you might be better off studying a language instead. Not only is that a far more useful and enjoyable activity than an abstract brain game, but as a reward for your efforts, you can treat yourself to a trip abroad. Which is why I plan to spend the next year not learning Italian. Ciao!

William Alexander is the author of the forthcoming book "Flirting With French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart."

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: The Benefits of Failing at French. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Opinion | The Benefits of Failing at French

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Op-Ed Contributor I USED to joke that I spoke French like a 3-year-old. Until I met a French 3-year-old and couldn't hold up my end of the conversation.