Musical Competence and Second Language Learning

Abstract

In recent years, we have witnessed a renewal of interest in the language — music relationship due to the development of cognitive science and the advent of brain imaging methods, such as positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, and event-related brain potentials, which has led to a number of major discoveries. The relationship between music and language has been examined from many different perspectives. Taken together, these findings indicate that musical competence positively influences some aspects of speech processing, from auditory perception to speech production and may benefit second language acquisition. In this review, we focus on the main results of the current research, discuss several interpretations that may account for the influence of musical competence on speech processing in native and foreign languages, and propose new directions for future research.