Language learning using songs 7 steps

This article will guide you through 7 steps of using a song to practice languages, explains why you should incorporate Spotify (or simply music) in your language learning, and how to find songs in your target language.

Are you addicted to a song you just discovered? You could listen to it all day? I love that feeling! And you know what’s even better? We can use this feeling to get motivated to practice.

Listening to music is a good way to practice your target language, but what usually happens, is that we listen to the song, and call it a day.

Doing these 7 quick steps ensure that you make the most out of your practice, by not only improving your listening skills but also training your memory, expanding your vocabulary in a fun and efficient way, and helping you better your pronunciation.

Here are the steps in order:

1. Listen to the song without looking at the lyrics
2. Listen to the song while reading the lyrics
3. Listen to the music without the lyrics again and see if you can understand more than you could at the 1st step
4. Translate the words you don’t know
5. Read the lyrics aloud without the music, as if you were reading a text
6. Sing with the song until you memorize it (or a part of it)
7. Sing by yourself without the music

For advanced learners, I recommend rap, as it is usually fast and the lyrics are packed with slang and references. It is a fun pronunciation challenge to try to rap in your target language.

via GIPHY

Music can be a great tool to widen your vocabulary. It is so much easier to remember music lyrics than to have to memorize words the old-fashioned way. 

It is also a great window into the culture of a country. Observe what they sign often about, and what cultural references they use. What are the main topics of the songs? Google words, names, and places they mention to gain a little insight. 

Read more about how to learn about the culture of your target language here: The culture of your target language

Do you have a language exchange partner? Ask your tandem learning partner to recommend music to you!

More language learning partner activities here: Activities to do with a language exchange partner

Don’t have a tandem partner? That’s ok, look up “top 15 music chart ‘your target language’ “ and start from there. Or go on YouTube and put the word music (in your target language) in the search bar plus the name of a country. See if they mention other artists in the comments.  Go on Wikipedia to see if they have any local genres. 

Now go put on your headphones and have fun 🙂

Zsófi

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