Von: admin

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:33:26 +0000

Ghazal my Dear, I have to think if in my case a mixed saxon-prussian dialect at home can also be considered bi-lingual environment. Perhaps not. The first foreign language I got in contact with was Polish, when we spend three weeks holidays in a mountain farmers ranch and I was the entire day with his kids.
About prenatal music, however, I can tell you precisely what I was listening to before being born: My parents had a good collection of french chansons (Edit Piaf,Jaques Brel,Charles Aznavour,Juliette Greco etc) and of Jazz-records (Paul Kuhn,Kenny Ball,Mr.Acker Bilk,Chris Barber,Ella Fitzgerald,Louis Armstrong), all stuff one could get in East-Germany without having to smuggle in records from the west. My parents were playing these records every free minute, not very loud, I never considered it annoying, it was just the normal background sound at home. It was like a theme tune and I think really coined a bit my taste, although I never learned French to understand the lyrics of Edith Piaf. In fact Chanson is the only music type where I consider French extraordinary rich and innovative.

Interesting what you wrote about your grandparents reading you Persian fairy-tales. You know that in addition to exposing you to this multilingual-environment, the sheer act of reading a book aloud to kids has a very benifical effect onto their literacy skills and their ability to express themself. A 2008 scientific article in the journal Archives of Disease in Children also came to the conclusion that parents, who read books aloud to their kids provide them with advanced literacy skills later in school. As you suggested in your post between the lines, the authors also found evidence that the style of reading was crucial for the children’s early language and literacy development.

You can read a review and link to the entire article in Science Daily.

Kommentare zu: Multilingualism and music both enhance intellectual performance

Von: admin