Abstract
In previous research on speech imitation, musicality, and an ability to sing were isolated as the strongest indicators of good pronunciation skills in foreign languages. We, therefore, wanted to take a closer look at the nature of the ability to sing, which shares a common ground with the ability to imitate speech. This study focuses on whether good singing performance predicts good speech imitation. Forty-one singers of different levels of proficiency were selected for the study and their ability to sing, to imitate speech, their musical talent and working memory were tested. Results indicated that singing performance is a better indicator of the ability to imitate speech than the playing of a musical instrument. A multiple regression revealed that 64% of the speech imitation score variance could be explained by working memory together with educational background and singing performance. A second multiple regression showed that 66% of the speech imitation variance of completely unintelligible and unfamiliar language stimuli (Hindi) could be explained by working memory together with a singer's sense of rhythm and quality of voice. This supports the idea that both vocal behaviors have a common grounding in terms of vocal and motor flexibility, ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, neural orchestration and auditory memory with singing fitting better into the category of “speech” on the productive level and “music” on the acoustic level. As a result, good singers benefit from vocal and motor flexibility, productively and cognitively, in three ways. (1) Motor flexibility and the ability to sing improve language and musical function. (2) Good singers retain a certain plasticity and are open to new and unusual sound combinations during adulthood both perceptually and productively. (3) The ability to sing improves the memory span of the auditory working memory.
Highlights
Auditory signals form the basis of human communication
The difference between the English and the Hindi scores shows the reliability of the data as the higher means and higher maximum scores in English are an indicator that the participants had a higher proficiency in English than in Hindi
The pronunciation score referred to as speech imitation (SI) in the final analysis is the sum of the individual scores in the speech imitation tasks
Summary
Auditory signals form the basis of human communication. The ability to correctly perceive and produce complex auditory signals is reliant upon a number of mental capacities. In foreign language acquisition, huge individual differences are observed with regards to the success rate and ultimate attainment of a learner These individual differences in language perception and production can be noted in the language of native speakers (Pakulak and Neville, 2010; Andringa, in press). Traditional theories surrounding the natural acquisition of the mother tongue suggest that acquisition starts immediately, even before birth (DeCasper and Fifer, 1980; McMullen and Saffran, 2004). This is the point at which, in principle, infants are open to acquiring any and “all phonetic units in language” (Kuhl, 2004). Within the field of musicality, the ability to sing well was one of the clearest indicators of this (Nardo and Reiterer, 2009; Reiterer et al, 2011; Hu et al, 2012)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
