Improve your English through...Singing?
“Cause every night, I lie in bed, the brightest colours fill my head, a million dreams are keeping me awake, I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see, a million dreams is all it’s gonna take…”
Taken from the chorus of ‘A million dreams’ from 2017’s “The Greatest Showman”, whether you sing in the shower or if you’re on the karaoke app, Smule, did you know that singing can be a fun way to help you elevate your English? Here’s why:
Improves pronunciation
To pronounce words clearly in English, exercising the muscles in your mouth to make the different sounds will help achieve that. This of course can be done through speaking but when you sing, you learn to make each sound a lot clearer and louder. Giving you the chance to exercise these muscles even more, making it easier to speak in real life.
Learning to sing a song helps you practice your pronunciation as you try to follow the singer’s phrasing and pronunciation of each word in the lyrics; learning the rhythm of a language in the process which helps you learn how words are linked together in connected speech. This rhythm eventually leads you to have better pronunciation, better intonation and in time more fluency in the language.
Expanding vocabulary
Once you’ve learned the lyrics to a song, it’s not easy to forget them as you’ll listen to them over and over again throughout your life. Singing helps you to learn new pieces of vocabulary from a song in a context; making it easier to remember those new words / phrases.
If you take time to learn one song a week for a whole year; that makes 52 songs packed with new vocabulary and phrases that will be hard to forget, adding to your vocabulary chest over time.
Sharpening Listening skills
When you start paying attention to a song’s lyrics to learn how to sing it, you would begin to identify and understand the words that are in its lyrics. This in turn activates your listening skills eventually making it an enjoyable activity which will contribute in elevating your English.
Now that you know how singing can be a fun way help elevate your English to new heights, it’s time to turn up your speakers, listen close and sing your hearts out.
唱歌…可以提高英语水平？
“Cause every night, I lie in bed, the brightest colours fill my head, a million dreams are keeping me awake, I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see, a million dreams is all it’s gonna take…”
摘自于2017年的“大娱乐家”（The Greatest Showman）中的“A million dreams”的副歌，无论你是在淋浴中高唱还是在卡拉OK的应用程序，Smule中唱歌，你可知道唱歌是提高英语的一种有趣的方式吗?原因如下:
提升发音
为了清晰地发出英语单词，锻炼口腔肌肉发出不同的音调将有助于实现这一目标。当然，这可以通过说话来实现，但当你唱歌时，你可学会让每个音调更清晰、更响亮。让你有机会更多地锻炼这些肌肉，使你在现实生活中更流利的会话。学习唱歌可以帮助你练习发音，当你试着跟着歌手的乐句和歌词中每个单词的发音; 在这个过程中学习语言的节奏，这有助于你了解单词是如何在连贯的语音中链接在一起。这节奏可让你拥有更好的发音，更好的语调，并让你的话语更加流利。
扩大词汇量
一旦你学会了一首歌的歌词，你就很难忘记它们，因为你会在一生中反复地听它们。唱歌可以帮助你从一首歌曲中学习新的词汇; 让你更容易记住这些新的单词/短语。
如果你每周学一首歌，坚持一年; 这就使得52首歌曲充满了让人难以忘怀的新词汇和新短语，随着时间的推移，你的词汇量也随之增加。
加强听力技巧
当你开始聆听一首歌的歌词，学习如何唱它，你将开始识别和理解歌词中的单词。无形中这激活你的听力技能，使之成为一个愉快的活动，这有助于提高你的英语水平。
现在你已经知道唱歌是如何将你的英语提升至一个新的水平，那么是时候打开你的扬声器，仔细听，用心唱了。
参考资料来自以下来源：