Interdisciplinary Study of Language and Music : Learning French Grammar with Rhythm

This thesis explores the influence music has on learning a foreign language. The purpose of the thesis is to find out if rhythm and music encourage students to learn French grammar, and more precisely how to conjugate verbs. We have created a rap-style learning technique to assist in conjugating the verbs “être” (to be) and “avoir” (to have). We then taught two different lessons to each grammar in this context: one with the “rap-method” and one without rhythm, which is a more classic approach. The students, who are all beginners of the French language, come from a school in the south of Sweden. After the two lessons we conducted a comparative study where we asked the students which lesson was the best. To support our study, we present theories based upon the connection between language learning and music. The two theories are: L’Apport de la musique dans l’apprentissage d’une langue étrangère (2012) written by Camille Jedrzejak and Sensibiliser les enfants à une langue étrangère par le biais d’une activité musicale (2008) by Pamula Malgorzata. The study showed that music has a value in foreign language learning and that students learned better the materiel during the “rap-method” than during the other, more classical method. Grammar lessons are often considered as boring and the students don’t like them. Changing them into a more playful method could get them more interested to learn. The theories in action reap positive results and could be used more in language-learning than they currently are. It turned out that the “rap-method” is a good method to learn grammar.