Second Music and Second Language

Learning Among Adults

Second Music and Second Language

Learning Among Adults

Research Questions

• Can parallels be drawn between the processes of second music learning and second language learning?

• How do the processes work for second music and for second language?

• FOCUS - Adult learners - How do adults learn a second language or a second music?

Definitions• Second Language - A language consciously

acquired or used by its speaker after puberty (Lenneberg, 1969)

• Second Language - A language learned by a person after his or her native language (dictionary.com)

• Second Music - A music different from the first music learned by a person after his or her native, or first music, has been firmly established

Literature Review (part one)Music Learning

• (for example) Bamberger (1973), Elliott (1991), Gordon (1999), Green (2005), Serafine (1984), Wiggins (2001), Woodford (1996)

Literature Review (part two)Language Learning

• (for example) Asher (1972), Donato and MacCormack (1994), Ervin-Tripp (1974), Gardner, Hakuta, Bialystok, and Wiley (2003), Horowitz (1986), Hsaio and Oxford (2002), Lenneberg (1969), Macaro (2006), Svalberg (2007), Tremblay, and Masgoret (2010)

Literature Review (part three) Music and Language Learning

• (for example) De Groot (2006), Groff (1977), Jentschke, Koelsch, and Friederici (2005), Jett (1968), Trollinger (2010)

Social and Cultural Contexts

Formal / Informal Learning

Learners

Teacher

Cognition / Perception

Transfer

Internalizing Learning

“Real World” Contexts

COMMONALITIES

Literature Review (part four) Androgyny (Adult Learning)

• (for example) Ashforth (2001), Boswell (1992), Caine and Caine (1991), Cohen (2006), Ernst (2001), Knowles (1984), Langer (1997), Tough (1979), Wang (2005), Wolf (1994)

Bimusicality

Hood (1960)

The ability to hear (refrain from “correcting”)

Imitation and rote rather than notation

Sing and play. Sing to learn

Need to be convinced of methodsLack of training is helpful

Assimilation of the culture’s “whole identity”

Bilingualism

Tucker (1999)

Subject knowledge is easily transferrable once the L2 is gained

Academic language (different than social) success depends on

academic language success in L1 - “Nurture the first language”

Gap between making use of the L2 and using L2 as a method of

instruction (immersion)

Participant One

age 37- - Romanian English

Also learned French

Participant Two

age 52

Piano Lessons

African Drummin

g- -

Also voice lessons, musical theatre

Participant Threeage 57

- - EnglishMandarin Chinese

German, French

Participant Fourage 26

Classical Piano

African Drummin

gChinese English

Some English

Participant Five

age 45

Elementary General

Music

Guitar Lessons - -

Played some guitar

informally

1st Music 2nd Music1st

Language2nd Music (Notes)

Interviews

Reflective Journal

Interviews

Reflective Journal

Themes from Interviews

Themes from Interviews

Schema Immersion Identity

Quality/Quantity

Fluency Success

TeacherFunction/

Applicability

Social/ Individual

Themes from Interviews

Themes from Interviews

Schema Immersion Identity

Quality/Quantity

Fluency Success

TeacherFunction/

Applicability

Social/ Individual

• (Second music, African drumming) “The most helpful for me in the African drumming that I have a piano background is - - nothing. (laughs) oh because, because they are very different.”

• (Second language, Mandarin Chinese) “It was much harder than I thought, I - you know, have usually found it pretty easy to learn languages, but this - just was so different ‘cause there was nothing to hang onto...”

Structure of Learning - Schema

• (Second music, guitar) “I think I’ve kind of come up with my own system and anytime I’m learning anything new, the most important thing for me is the memorization aspect of it...”

• (Second language, English) “First we make - try to make some similarities to [my language], but some doesn’t exist, so you just have to learn when to - when to use them and to have some roles like continuous tense...”

• (Second music, African drumming) “I notate by my way - actually I don’t know how I did it how I notate - just use my way.”

Structure of Learning - Organizing (structuring) own learning

Structure of Learning - Quality / quantity of experience

• (Second language, French) “We did a lot of advanced literature, a lot... you know, heavy duty poetry.”

• (Second music, African drumming) “We read things, he demonstrated things, he showed things to us on video, but he didn’t come out and say I want you to know this.”

Signs of development - Success

• (Second language, English) “There was one time I went to a convenience store and my friend say ‘Hey, you have to do by yourself’ and I tried, and after I did that - Oh! I feel Oh yeah! It’s easy, you know?”

• (Second music, guitar) “I call those like breakthroughs where something that I - I kind of struggled with a little bit suddenly becomes easier and makes quite a little bit more sense, you know, bar chords, and just different stuff like that, I don’t know... but I’ve - I’ve definitely had those moments.”

Signs of development - Fluency

• (Second language, English) “The professor speaks - is really, really fast, and it’s a three hours class also, and I feel so frustrated because after first class I - I almost give up because I didn’t get anything and everybody was taking notes, and I cannot do anything.”

• (Second music, guitar) “I’ve had definitely moments where I’ve just had to put it down [the guitar] and usually those moments were kind of associated with something going on around the house or a really, really bad day at work... I think a lot of a musical instrument is mental.”

Signs of development - Function and applicability

• (Second music, guitar) “I have a profession, I have a job, and this is not it - so I kind of have to back myself down a little bit and just tell myself that it’s more recreational for me and give it time and it usually works.”

• (Second language, English) “In my country we learn English - it’s for tests, so not for use like so we are very weak in speaking and listening. Yeah, so but we good at tests... we don’t know how to use it, so the first time when I came here I don’t know how to speak, and then we think about like okay I want to say something, it’s better to write down first, and then I can speak.”

Experiences - Identity

• (Second music, African drumming) “I always had some sort of music going on in my head, although at the time I don’t think I ever thought I was going to be a musical person, um, it wasn’t until high school that those ideas started coming into my brain...”

• (Second language, French) “The other semesters you could pick topics and I know I picked two that were French topics.”

Experiences - Immersion

• (Second language, Chinese, but also spoke some German) “I remember the morning we were leaving I had a little bit of money left over, so I went up to the news counter and in German asked how much TIME magazine would cost, and I’d just forgotten that I would have to understand the answer.”

• (Second music, guitar) “I was just spending so much time doing it, I mean practicing two and three hours at a time...”

• (Second music, African drumming) “The best way that you can take this experience is to try to immerse yourself in as much of what they are doing and try to - try to put your biases in the background and try to - it’s almost like take on, or clothe yourself with their skin a little bit. It’s not going to be perfect.”

Experiences - Teacher

• (Second music, guitar) “I think that he recognized early on that I was kind of hard on myself and he had to back me down a little bit and tell me that I was actually, uh, you know, doing fairly well...”

• (Second music, African drumming) “I immediately liked [my teacher]... he walked like a giraffe, he was very graceful, he was very tall and slender and um, he just reminded me of that wise old sage that I could learn something from.”

• (Second language, Mandarin Chinese) “I got a little annoyed with him as a teacher, cause it didn’t seem like he put a lot of effort into things, he sort of had his schtick down.”

Experiences - Social and individual learning

• (Second music, African drumming) “We had a whole bunch of percussionists in our class and they would pick up the rhythms like that! - and the rest of us would go - ‘Uh...’”

• (Second language, Mandarin Chinese) “There were some really motivated students, there were a couple of us, you know, just doing this recreationally...”

Clusters of ideas from the literature and the study

Clusters of ideas from the literature and the study

Contexts of learning Informal Learning, Immersion, Opportunity and Exposure,

“Real World” Context, Participation

Learner characteristics Motivation, Personality, Input-Output, Risk

Structure of learning Schema, Problem Solving, Shock, Sequence, Whole-Part-

Whole

Social contexts Group / Individual, Feedback, Practice, Teacher

f

Contexts of learning Informal Learning, Immersion, Opportunity and Exposure,

“Real World” Context, Participation

Learner characteristics Motivation, Personality, Input-Output, Risk

Structure of learning Schema, Problem Solving, Shock, Sequence, Whole-Part-

Whole

Social contexts Group / Individual, Feedback, Practice, Teacher

f

•How does one get to the point of becoming bilingual or bimusical?

How does one gain second language or second music fluency?

Literature involving themes of “immersion” as best suited to gain bilingualism or bimusicality

Why is immersion more powerful?

•How does one get to the point of becoming bilingual or bimusical?

How does one gain second language or second music fluency?

Literature involving themes of “immersion” as best suited to gain bilingualism or bimusicality

Why is immersion more powerful?

Immersion takes advantage of clusters (multiple processes)

Immersion demands internalizing the new system, whether music or

language.

Foundational relationships of first and second learning (music or

language)

Immersion takes advantage of clusters (multiple processes)

Immersion demands internalizing the new system, whether music or

language.

Foundational relationships of first and second learning (music or

language)

Second MusicClose Foundational Relationship

Second MusicDistant Foundational Relationship

African Drumming

Drum Set / Percussion

Blues HarmonicaGamelan

Second LanguageClose Foundational Relationship

Second LanguageDistant Foundational Relationship

Norwegian Mandarin Chinese

French Spanish

More Questions

• How do the foundational systems of music or language effect the learning process?

• How does age play a role in the process of second language and second music learning? Are adults typically engaged in continuous learning? Are younger learners?

• How can acquisition and learning go hand-in-hand for music as well as language learners? (natural and formal learning)

• If there are similarities, how can the similarities between processes be used to improve teaching strategies for both?

Continuation

• Researching learners of different ages

Teenagers

Middle School Students

Elementary Students

Early Childhood Learners