Five Reasons Music is a Beneficial French-Learning Resource
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.”
While it is true that music can make you feel something whether you understand the lyrics or not, listening to music in your target language is a wonderful addition to your language-learning curriculum. I have always loved listening to music, and when I first began learning French, listening to francophone music was one of the first things I did. I am positive that music played an important role in helping me reach my current level of French fluency – and it can do the same for you!
This article falls into a series of posts about different resources that you can use during your own French journey to help you reach your language-learning goals. Keep reading to find out about using music as a French resource.
1. Ultimate Listening Practice
Listening to music really works on your French listening comprehension. When artists sing, speak over a beat, and rhyme words, they often heavily alter their speech by dragging out syllables, slightly mispronouncing words, speeding up or slowing down, and more. Becoming attuned to these intricacies will eventually help you to understand not only their songs and other music, but different people and accents in regular speech.
2. Accent Improvement
When I find a song that I like, I definitely like to sing along. This is one of the great things about music and general – and one of the reasons it can help improve your French. When listening to a song that makes you want to sing along, make sure that you focus in on the sounds that you hear and try to repeat them, or even exaggerate them, to the best of your ability. You may feel a little silly at first, but over time you will see that your accent sounds more and more like that of a native speaker.
3. Boosts Reading Skills
It can be difficult to sing along to foreign-language music if you can’t quite grasp what the artists are saying. That’s why reading the lyrics of a particular song while you listen is a smart idea. Following along with your eyes as the artist speeds up, pauses, and slows down will actually improve your ability to read and up your French comprehension skills.
4. Anytime, Anywhere
Another advantage of listening to French music is that you can do it almost anywhere at any time. Devices for consuming music, like phones, computers, or iPods, are easily portable and allow listeners to consume their favorite tunes discreetly. Use this to your advantage by taking as many opportunities as you can to listen to music. Doing so will increase your language input, which is very important if you’re looking to improve your French.
5. Passive or Active
The last reason that music is a quality resource for learning French is that you can use it effectively no matter how you’re feeling. If you are really motivated, you can use music in an active way by sitting down, putting on a song, pulling up some lyrics, and writing down unfamiliar words and phrases to study. If you’re not feeling particularly industrious, but still want to work on your French, you can use music in a more passive way by playing it out loud while you cook, clean, shower, or even scroll on your phone.
All in all, music is an awesome resource that can really boost your language skills. If you like to listen to music in your target language, let us know your favorite artists! As always, if you have any questions or want to know more, leave us a comment. Thanks for reading!
2 Comments
Yoel
Who are your top French artists ? Looking for new french music/ artist
Jalen & Maria
We mentioned some artists that you may or may not know already in this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/UJt8WSwhHTw
Also, here’s a bonus artist that you should check out: Christine and the Queens.
Happy listening!