關(guān)于學(xué)樂(lè)器有很多“傳說(shuō)”，有人認(rèn)為學(xué)樂(lè)器能開(kāi)發(fā)智力，讓孩子更聰明，有人認(rèn)為學(xué)樂(lè)器能提高孩子的注意力和記憶力。最近的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，學(xué)樂(lè)器并不能帶來(lái)認(rèn)知能力的普遍提高，但是學(xué)樂(lè)器確實(shí)能顯著提升孩子的語(yǔ)言能力，尤其是辨音方面，效果甚至超過(guò)了上閱讀課外班。

Giving children music lessons won't just introduce them to a world of rhythm and melody – it could also significantly improve their language skills.

讓孩子上音樂(lè)課不僅會(huì)將他們引入旋律的世界，而且還會(huì)顯著提升他們的語(yǔ)言技能。

While numerous studies have shown that learning an instrument can impact things like language ability, it wasn't understood if this was a side effect of a general boost to cognitive skills, or something that directly affected language processing.

盡管已有許多研究顯示，學(xué)習(xí)樂(lè)器能影響語(yǔ)言能力，但科學(xué)家不清楚語(yǔ)言能力的提高是認(rèn)知能力普遍提高的附帶效果，還是說(shuō)學(xué)樂(lè)器能直接影響語(yǔ)言處理能力。

Now, we are getting closer to an answer, thanks to a study of 74 Chinese kindergarten children, led by neuroscientist Robert Desimone from MIT.

如今，得益于麻省理工學(xué)院的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)科學(xué)家羅伯特?德西蒙的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查研究，我們離答案又近了一步。 該研究涵蓋了中國(guó)幼兒園的74名兒童。

"The children didn't differ in the more broad cognitive measures, but they did show some improvements in word discrimination, particularly for consonants," explains Desimone.

德西解釋說(shuō)：“學(xué)樂(lè)器的孩子和其他孩子在廣義的認(rèn)知能力上沒(méi)有差別，但他們確實(shí)在辨字尤其是辨認(rèn)聲母這方面更勝一籌。

"The piano group showed the best improvement there."

“學(xué)鋼琴的小孩在這方面的優(yōu)勢(shì)最明顯?！?/p>

For the study, Desimone's team – including MIT scientists and researchers from Beijing Normal University – recruited children from the Chinese education system, with the support of education officials who wanted to see how music learning might boost their academic results.

德西蒙的團(tuán)隊(duì)包括來(lái)自麻省理工學(xué)院的科學(xué)家和來(lái)自北京師范大學(xué)的研究人員。為了開(kāi)展這項(xiàng)研究，該團(tuán)隊(duì)在中國(guó)教育部門(mén)官員的支持下，從中國(guó)教育系統(tǒng)中招募了一些兒童作為研究對(duì)象。這些官員想知道學(xué)音樂(lè)是如何能提高學(xué)業(yè)成績(jī)的。

The 4- to 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children in the study were randomly divided into three groups. One group received a 45-minute piano lesson three times a week, while another received extra reading instruction classes. The third group acted as controls, taking no extra lessons beyond their usual routine.

在這項(xiàng)研究中，母語(yǔ)為漢語(yǔ)的4到5歲的幼童被隨機(jī)分為三組。一組孩子每周上三次鋼琴課，每次45分鐘，另一組孩子上額外的閱讀課。第三組是對(duì)照組，在日常課程外不再上其他課。

The classes lasted for six months, after which the children were tested on their ability to discriminate words based on differences in tone, consonants, or vowels.

上了六個(gè)月的課以后，研究人員就辨別字的聲調(diào)、聲母和韻母的能力對(duì)幼童進(jìn)行了測(cè)試。

The test results showed that the children who had taken piano lessons performed significantly better at discriminating between words that differ by a single consonant, when compared against the children who took extra reading lessons.

測(cè)試結(jié)果顯示，上過(guò)鋼琴課的孩子在辨別聲母不同的漢字上明顯優(yōu)于上過(guò)閱讀課的孩子。

Compared to the control group, both the music learners and the extra reading group did better in terms of discriminating words based on vowel differences.

與此同時(shí)，學(xué)音樂(lè)的孩子和上額外閱讀課的孩子在辨別韻母不同的漢字上都優(yōu)于對(duì)照組的孩子。

To get a sense of why these differences might be occurring, the researchers measured the children's brain activity via electroencephalography (EEG) and found the piano group exhibited greater sensitivity to tonal changes when tones were played to them at different pitches.

為了弄清這些差異產(chǎn)生的原因，研究人員通過(guò)腦電圖觀測(cè)了孩子的腦活動(dòng)，發(fā)現(xiàn)在收聽(tīng)抑揚(yáng)頓挫的朗讀時(shí)，鋼琴組的孩子對(duì)聲調(diào)變化更敏感。

The thinking goes, the exposure to music lessons helped develop this tonal sensitivity, which in part explains their better verbal word discrimination.

研究人員認(rèn)為，這說(shuō)明上音樂(lè)課有助于培養(yǎng)對(duì)聲調(diào)的敏感性，這也是音樂(lè)組孩子辨別字音的能力更強(qiáng)的部分原因。

"That's a big thing for kids in learning language: being able to hear the differences between words," Desimone says. "They really did benefit from that."

德西蒙說(shuō)：“辨別字音——能夠聽(tīng)出字與字之間的差別——對(duì)于孩子學(xué)語(yǔ)言很重要。更強(qiáng)的辨音能力確實(shí)能讓孩子受益?！?/p>

Perhaps more importantly, results of IQ, attention, and working memory among the three groups didn't show any significant differences, suggesting that the boost given by music instruction isn't a general cognitive lift, but something specific to language (and perhaps the tone-based elements of it).

或許更重要的發(fā)現(xiàn)是，三組孩子的智商、注意力和工作記憶水平都沒(méi)有表現(xiàn)出任何明顯的差別，這意味著音樂(lè)課不能帶來(lái)認(rèn)知能力的全面提高，而是僅限于語(yǔ)言能力或聲調(diào)辨別能力的提高。

Of course, we're only looking at a fairly small sample of kids here, and all of them were from a Mandarin-speaking background. Given Mandarin's reliance on tonal differentiation, the researchers acknowledge that might have influenced the results.

當(dāng)然，研究人員只調(diào)查了一小部分兒童，而且所有這些兒童的語(yǔ)言環(huán)境都是中文（普通話(huà)）。考慮到學(xué)習(xí)中文和聲調(diào)辨認(rèn)息息相關(guān)，研究人員承認(rèn)這也許會(huì)影響到研究結(jié)果。

But it's also worth emphasising that the musical education helped these children outperform their peers in language tests – even beyond the results of kids who took extra reading classes, which is something that should make educators pay close attention.

不過(guò)值得強(qiáng)調(diào)的是，學(xué)音樂(lè)幫助這些孩子在語(yǔ)言測(cè)試中勝出，甚至超過(guò)了那些上額外閱讀課的孩子，這是教育者應(yīng)該密切關(guān)注的事實(shí)。

"It looks like for recognising differences between sounds, including speech sounds, it's better than extra reading. That means schools could invest in music and there will be generalisation to speech sounds," Desimone says.

德西蒙說(shuō)：“這說(shuō)明，要更好地辨別聲音的差異，包括語(yǔ)言發(fā)音的不同，學(xué)鋼琴比額外的閱讀更有效。這意味著學(xué)?？梢愿匾曇魳?lè)課，以普遍提高孩子的辨音能力?！?/p>

"It's not worse than giving extra reading to the kids, which is probably what many schools are tempted to do – get rid of the arts education and just have more reading."

“許多學(xué)?？赡苷噲D多上閱讀課、少上或不上藝術(shù)課，其實(shí)上音樂(lè)課并不比上閱讀課外班的效果更差?！?/p>

The findings are reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

該研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《美國(guó)國(guó)家科學(xué)院院刊》上。

英文來(lái)源：Science Alert

翻譯&編輯：丹妮