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Learning to speak a language through song is something every child knows about. Parents and teachers typically teach children simple, repetitive songs to reinforce their grasp of their language. This technique is one of the oldest among educators, one of the favorites among children and one of the most effective of all the techniques available. Learning to speak French can be challenging. While French had a powerful influence on the development of the English language, the two have very different patterns of speech, syntax rules and basic sounds. Songs are a great way to communicate this information.

One of the advantages of singing a new language is that your singing voice isn’t as tied to your language as is your speaking voice. In fact, it’s readily apparent that singers don’t sing in any accent at all, but merely recite the words as the melody, meter and diction require. Learning this way makes it much easier for new students to speak French correctly. Hearing the words spoken immediately causes a student to compare, contrast and translate the sounds in their head before they speak. With music, it’s much easier to just go with the flow and to say and understand the word.

The human memory is, obviously, far from perfect. One of the hardest things about learning to speak French is finding occasions to use the words in everyday life. If you don’t use your language skills, you tend to lose them. Songs, however, can be sung casually most anywhere and provide an easy way to remember the words that you were taught. For students, recalling the words is connected to recalling the memory and, no matter how foreign the language, music is understood by every human being, and it’s easy to remember.

Learning to speak French has many benefits for students. However, learning to speak it in the traditional manner lacks for instilling a passion for the language. For students, the blend of art, humor and clever word usage that oftentimes characterizes songs provides a very fun—but more importantly, effective—way to learn a new language. Anyone can pick up a few words or phrases from a song in a foreign language. This is the reason that learning in this way is so effective. No matter what they’re age, a student will recall the words to a song, even foreign words, very easily.

Dr.Dennis Dunham has over 25 years in international education experience and is a co-creator of LanguageandLyrics.com, a website designed to help you learn French the right way. If you’ve tried every language product out there and haven’t made progress, visit LanguageandLyrics.com to see how learning French can be easy and fun.