Exploiting Sound and Music for Foreign/Second Language Acquisition

Learning a foreign language can be troublesome, and takes time and dedication. Usually, learners are profoundly influenced by their teachers’ moods, attitudes and methods, yet teachers sometimes lack the ability to engage learners actively in language acquisition activities. In this work, I aim at suggesting a few teaching tips regarding the employment of sound and music to increase students’ motivation in foreign/second language acquisition. My findings originated from a seminar held on 5. December 2011 at the British Council in Naples. On that occasion, participants had the opportunity to explore the advantages and disadvantages of using sound and music in the classroom, which I supplemented with my own personal ideas and experience, drawing from the fact that both sound and music have been acknowledged to be universal means of intercultural communication.