Grammar books, flashcards, what’s wrong with them? Nothing, really. If you like using them, then they’re a great resource. The thing is, sometimes those things alone don’t keep language learning motivation high. That’s why music is a must-have resource for language learning. But how can you make it worth it? Here’s how.

Music makes repeated listening more memorable and less monotonous

Music makes repeated listening more memorable and less monotonous. Compared to useful but potentially boring audio lessons, music gives us more of a reason to want to return and listen again. When we like what we’re hearing, it becomes less monotonous and much more memorable.

This makes music a great way to learn vocabulary in context too. Since words are part of the music, you can’t help but repeat them as you sing or hum along. The best part is that if you hear a song often enough, the words eventually stick with you. You might not be able to consciously recall a specific word at any time; however, when placed in the right context, you’ll remember it.

Music allows us to discover more about the structure of languages we’re learning

Music allows us to discover more about the structure of languages we’re learning. And we all know that learning grammar gets a bad reputation as the boring and difficult bit of learning a language! This doesn’t have to be the case – especially when we involve music to make it more enjoyable and memorable as we learn structures of a language.

When we listen to music in another language, we subconsciously pick up lots of different linguistic elements; for example rhythm, intonation and word order. The brain likes music because it’s predictable, so it can anticipate what comes next. A super helpful thing when we want to get better at speaking with a good flow and fluidity.

Related: How to Become a Better Language Learner

Music acts as a great doorway to culture for language learners

Music acts as a great doorway to culture for language learners. Motivation comes in many form when learning a language.

In my experience, music has always been present with languages I’ve taken further. I even started learning Spanish many years ago as a teenager purely because I wanted to translate Shakira songs! That has led me to discover so much more about cultures that use Spanish too, which is such a joy.

Whenever we learn a language, it’s always about more than just words – we’re learning about cultures too. Let music be that door that opens up your intrigue and discovery to other cultures!

Music gives us a low pressure way to improve pronunciation

Listening to music in another language is a great way to support your language learning. And singing along with music is even better! Music gives us a low pressure way to improve pronunciation for language learners.

We all want to “speak like a native”, right? (Whatever that means!) But traditional repetitive and tedious pronunciation drills can get boring very quickly. And it can feel really high pressure to get everything right after just one pronunciation lesson. Listening to and singing along with music in another language is a great low stress way to work on your pronunciation in another language.

Singing along with music lets you work on the things you heard in class, like intonation, rhythm, stress and vowel sounds — without the anxiety of feeling silly or making mistakes in front of other people. Have you ever noticed that when you’re alone listening to music, you’ll often sing at top volume? This is because you feel comfortable enough (and safe enough) to have fun with it!

So if you’re looking for an easy, low pressure way to practice your pronunciation skills — give it a try! Listen to songs in the language you’re studying and sing along! If you don’t know all of the words yet, just sing “la la la” or make up words as you go along!

Related: When to Worry About Pronunciation When Learning a Language (+ What To Do About It)

Enjoy music anywhere and take your language learning on the go!

Enjoy music anywhere and take your language learning on the go! Music (especially nowadays) has the big advantage of being portable. It’s a lot easier to take your phone with a music player app like Spotify out with you for a day than it is to take your big heavy language books and messy notes! Music therefore becomes a great tool for language learning that can be used anywhere and at various moments throughout our day.

Music can also be integrated in your commute. Depending on where you live, this can mean anything from simply listening to music in the car, to sitting on a bus or train with headphones in. In any case, time spent listening to songs is time not spent staring at the ceiling or out the window doing nothing. Try listening to French radio stations for instance, you might hear something new!

Endless ways we can use music to learn languages beyond just listening and enjoying songs

There’s endless ways we can use music to learn languages beyond just listening and enjoying songs. Bringing music into your language learning isn’t just simply about listening to some songs in the language and hoping it goes into your brain and makes you fluent. The good news is that there’s plenty of fun, different, and enjoyable ways to make music a great tool for language learning.

Related: How to Make the Most of Travel for Language Learning

Get Music Maestro & bring the fun back to your languages!

Discover how to make the most of music for language learning in Music Maestro, an interactive workshop.

Music is a powerful tool for learning a language. It’s something we all love, but often don’t know how to use effectively. You can listen to it while driving or working out, but what if you want to really enjoy listening to music with your new language? What if you actually want to create music with that language? 

In this informative video workshop recording, I’ll show you how to turn listening and enjoying music into an active part of your language learning routine. We’ll cover everything from finding the right songs for you (and how they can inspire you) to making your own music with that language! 

Not only will this course help you discover new ways to use music in your language learning—but it will also give you lifetime access to future updates when new ideas come along!