CLTA-GNY 2008 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Paper Proposal

Developing Language Proficiency through Singing

Hong Zhang

Senior Lecturer of Chinese

Binghamton University, SUNY

The affinities between language and song have been explored by musicologists and voice teachers, but have drawn scant attention from linguists and language teachers. This paper intends to correct that oversight by promoting the study of Chinese through the study of song: the highest form of speech. As sung language, a good song combines the linguistic, poetic and musical beauty of speech. Because song “ups the ante” by emphasizing the color, pronunciation, and intonation of every syllable, it is a valuable tool for improving the student’s spoken language skills. Students develop their Chinese language proficiency—they expand their vocabularies and improve their pronunciation, voice projection, and language expression in a way that is fun and stimulating.

As sung language, a good song combines the linguistic, poetic and musical beauty of speech. This paper will focus on four pedagogical issues. The first is diction—singing in a foreign language helps students focus more on phrasing and enunciation than they do during grammar exercises, which usually stress memory skills and mastery of sentence patterns over articulation. The second is expression. The emotional color that is an intrinsic part of music will help students facilitate communication with the audience and interlocutors. The third is fluency. An appreciation for the mechanisms of legato will help students avoid choppy speech and achieve greater fluency. The last is memorization—rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, and other poetic devices make most poems more memorable than ordinary speech, and when music is combined with poetry, the result is often unforgettable. Students thus develop their Chinese language proficiency in a way that is fun and stimulating.

The audience will be introduced to this new approach in foreign language teaching and will learn the rationale and practice step by step. The presentation will cover basic singing techniques and a selection of songs for the purpose of language teaching, so the audience will be furnished with the necessary knowledge and skills to apply this new approach.

PowerPoint Presentation will be used to illustrate sample texts, key methods of teaching, and photos and video clips of the Chinese thorough Song class at Binghamton University. Basic teaching practices will be demonstrated. The presentation will be interactive and the audience will be involved in the teaching/learning process.