侯冬意

Have you ever found yourself in this situation： When you hear a song you used to sing as a child， you can’t help looking back on your childhood. But it is not a distant childhood memory. The words come back to you as clearly as when you sang them all those years ago.

你是否遇到過這樣的情況：當(dāng)你聽到你小時候經(jīng)常聽的歌時，你就會情不自禁地回憶起你的童年。但這并不是遙遠(yuǎn)的童年記憶，而是你對這些歌詞記憶猶新。

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied the relationship between music and remembering a foreign language. They found that remembering words in a song was the best way to remember even one of the most difficult languages.

愛丁堡大學(xué)研究者們研究了音樂和學(xué)習(xí)外語之間的關(guān)系。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)：用唱歌的方式來背單詞是記憶語言最有效的方法，哪怕那是世界上最難學(xué)的語言。

Researchers took 60 adults into three groups of 20. Then they gave the groups three different types of “l(fā)isten-and-repeat” learning conditions. Researchers had one group simply speak the words. They had the second group speak the words to a beat. And they asked the third group to sing the words. All three groups studied words from the Hungarian language for 15 minutes. Then they took part in a series of language tests to see what they remembered.

研究者們將60名成年人分成了三組，每組20人。然后，他們分別給了三組人員三種不同的“聽寫和復(fù)讀”的學(xué)習(xí)環(huán)境。其中一組只用念出單詞。第二組要有節(jié)奏地將詞語說出來。第三組則要將詞匯唱出來。三組人都學(xué)習(xí)匈牙利語中的詞語15分鐘。之后他們接受了一系列詞語測試來檢測他們到底記住了多少。

After the tests were over， the singers came out on top. They did the best in four out of five of the tests. They also performed two times better than those who simply learned the words by speaking them.

在測試結(jié)束之后，要求唱歌組的成績最好。在五分之四的測試中都表現(xiàn)最佳。成績甚至比念單詞組要高出兩倍。

According to the study， singing could lead to new ways to learning a foreign language. The brain， it seems， likes to remember things through tune.

根據(jù)這次實驗，唱歌可能給外語教學(xué)帶來一種新的學(xué)習(xí)方法。大腦看起來更容易通過曲調(diào)記住東西。

Language teachers already know the value of using music and singing. A teacher at a Chinese language school in Washington， D.C. relies heavily on songs and chants to teach Chinese. She teaches students who most likely have never spoken Chinese before coming to the school. She says she uses music all the time to teach children Chinese. “For example， for little kids usually we will use English songs but we are teaching them the Chinese lyrics. So it’s easy for them to start because they know the music. They just need to translate into Chinese words.” She adds that not only does it work， but it is fun for the kids.

語言教師們已經(jīng)知道使用音樂和歌唱來教學(xué)的價值。一位在華盛頓教授中文的老師就十分依賴用歌曲來教學(xué)。她所教的學(xué)生在進(jìn)入學(xué)校以前幾乎都沒接觸過中文。她說她在教孩子中文的過程中一直都使用音樂?！袄?，對于一些小孩子，我們會用一些英語曲調(diào)中文歌詞的歌。這對于他們來說容易得多，因為他們知道這些音樂。他們只需要把歌詞轉(zhuǎn)化成中文。”她補(bǔ)充道，這不僅僅很有用，而且孩子也感到很有趣。