Expatica – Madalena Cruz-Ferreira
“Wink-wink to those of you who, like me, were reminded of alphabet songs, here. In both cases, we have a random sequence of items but nevertheless makes sense to those in the know – which is a good definition of any spoken language. The thing is that when we chunk apparently random things together we’re signalling that they’re not random after all: these chunks carry meanings. As with my phone number, different chunking may impair intelligibility – or carry different meanings. Take this classic example of disambiguation of print through prosody (or if you prefer, the uselessness of print for carrying prosodic meaning): what does ‘this is how small shops should be’ mean? We’re not speaking different languages when we chunk this utterance in different ways, but we’re saying different things – either ‘how small’ shops should be, or how ‘small shops’ should be – and this is also what we do when we use different languages. Chunking language as we speak is what makes it memorable, too. Rhythmical beats ‘stick’ in our memories. Carolyn Graham, musician, writer, teacher, and teacher trainer, explains why. She developed jazz chants to use in her language teaching because, as she puts it in her website, ‘The brain loves rhythm. This means memory’. Brains love anything else that adds to making sense to their owners. Carolyn Graham’s other major insight about language teaching is that the language used in the classroom must be real, useful and appropriate to the learner.”(more)