The European Music Portfolio. Music Pedagogies as a Support for Language Learning

• Published in: Hellenic journal of music, education and culture education and culture, 2016-09, Vol.7 (1)
• Main Author: Marjanen, Kaarina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brain; Language instruction; Music; Music Education; Pedagogy; Phrase Structure
• ISSN: 1792-2518

The basis for music and language can be found deriving from the same net. On the basis of the analysis of phrase structure and phonological properties of musical and linguistic utterances, language and music have evolved from a common ancestor, a ”musilanguage” stage, presented as five alternative choices within the theory of Brown (2000). Music conveys the musically meaningful emotive meanings and language conveys for propositional phrases and referential meanings, when observed as purely acoustic embodiments of a sound from which a verbal song is formed. Our voices can serve the most primitive brain structures. When breathing and when singing, the primitive brain and the new brain function simultaneously, harmonizing their powers of control. When considering of theories for music teaching, one must know, how a child’s holistic and musical development and the ongoing musical and holistic learning events are structured and connected, based on philosophies of music education, musical structures and components and the bodily, mental and cognitive effects of music working in the brains, starting prenatally. In this paper, it is described, what it is about music that impacts us, and how does it work - to make us better understand the underlying musical processes to support a child’s learning, and to find the suitable and best ways of planning the teaching and to set the goals for it, having music as a support in learning. In a deep learning event, emotions, body and reason are working together, the experiences connected in the limbic system of the brain. Music and language are both tools for human communication.