Musical ability just a little bit linked with second-language learning

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-01-15 11:01

International

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There is a link between our musical ability and our ability to learn a second language, according to researchers who analysed the results of close to 60 previous studies. The correlation between the two was small, however—particularly after they corrected for ‘publication bias’, which could mean research identifying such links is more likely to be published. Looking more closely at the different studies’ findings, the authors say the link to musical ability could be strongest for the early stages of language learning. They also suggest that the relationship could be because music and second language ability relate to the same processes in the brain underlying how we listen to and learn sounds.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Investigating factors that contribute to second-language learning is increasingly important in our multicultural world; however, adult second-language learning is met with varying success. While musical ability and native-language processing are correlated, it is unclear if this relationship extends to second-language learning. Therefore, we synthesized 184 effects across 57 independent studies and found that musical ability is positively related to second-language learning. While future work with more diverse participant populations and methodologies is necessary to disentangle this relationship, the current evidence suggests that individuals with better musical ability are more successful at second-language learning.

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Maryland, USA

Funder: This research was supported in part by an Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship to RMT, the William Orr Dingwall Dissertation Fellowship to LKS and by the National Science Foundation (NSF #1449815 and #2020813). We also wish to acknowledge research assistants at the Language Music and Cognition Lab for early data collection efforts, and Jared Linck for providing valuable advice.

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