Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Musical Rhythm Perception and Production, Phonological Awareness, and Vocabulary Knowledge in Preschoolers: A Cross-Language Study

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
International Journal of Early Childhood Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Numerous studies have evidenced the relationship between musical rhythm and language performances, derived from temporal acoustic signal processing. This relationship might be affected by different language experiences. Receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, and musical rhythm perception and production were examined in Chinese-speaking (n = 112) and English-speaking preschoolers (n = 73), by using standardized or self-designed linguistic assessments, and musical rhythm discrimination and tapping tests. Generally,results evidenced a cross-language association between musical rhythm performance and vocabulary knowledge in preschoolers. Significant associations were found between receptive vocabulary knowledge and musical rhythm perception as well as production skills in Chinese-speaking pre-schoolers; while Chinese expressive vocabulary knowledge was only associated with musical rhythm production but not perception. As for the English-speaking fellows, both receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge showed significant association with musical rhythm perception and production skills. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses were implemented to explore the contribution of phonological awareness and musical rhythm performance towards vocabulary knowledge. Results exhibited that musical rhythm production skills effectively predicted the expressive vocabulary knowledge in Chinese-speaking preschoolers, whilst musical rhythm perception skills predicted the receptive vocabulary knowledge in English-speaking fellows. To note, none of any musical rhythm significantly predicted Chinese receptive vocabulary knowledge and English expressive vocabulary knowledge, suggesting a possible mediation role of phonological awareness to rhythm-vocabulary relationship. Our findings provide cross-language evidence for the robustness of the rhythm-language relationship and possible predictive effect between musical rhythm and specific vocabulary knowledge.

Resumen

Numerosos estudios han evidenciado la relación entre el ritmo musical y las interpretaciones lingüísticas, derivadas del procesamiento temporal de señales acústicas. Esta relación puede verse afectada por diferentes experiencias lingüísticas. Se examinó el conocimiento de vocabulario receptivo y expresivo, la conciencia fonológica y la percepción y producción del ritmo musical en niños de edad preescolar de habla china (n = 112) y de habla inglesa (n = 73), mediante el uso de evaluaciones lingüísticas estandarizadas o diseñadas por ellos mismos, y pruebas de discriminación de ritmo musical y golpeteos. En general, los resultados evidenciaron una asociación entre idiomas entre la interpretación del ritmo musical y el conocimiento del vocabulario en niños de edad preescolar. Se encontraron asociaciones significativas entre el conocimiento del vocabulario receptivo y la percepción del ritmo musical, así como las habilidades de producción en preescolares de habla china; mientras que el conocimiento del vocabulario expresivo chino solo se asoció con la producción del ritmo musical pero no con la percepción. En cuanto a los de habla inglesa, tanto el conocimiento del vocabulario receptivo como el expresivo mostraron una asociación significativa con la percepción del ritmo musical y las habilidades de producción. Además, se implementaron análisis de regresión jerárquica para explorar la contribución de la conciencia fonológica y la interpretación del ritmo musical al conocimiento del vocabulario. Los resultados mostraron que las habilidades de producción del ritmo musical predijeron efectivamente el conocimiento del vocabulario expresivo en niños de edad preescolar de habla china, mientras que las habilidades de percepción del ritmo musical predijeron el conocimiento del vocabulario receptivo en los niños de habla inglesa. Cabe señalar que ninguno de los ritmos musicales predijo significativamente el conocimiento del vocabulario receptivo chino y el conocimiento del vocabulario expresivo en inglés, lo que sugiere un posible papel de mediación de la conciencia fonológica en la relación ritmo-vocabulario. Nuestros hallazgos proporcionan evidencia entre idiomas de la solidez de la relación ritmo-lenguaje y el posible efecto predictivo entre el ritmo musical y los conocimientos de vocabulario específico.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors, Yu-Ling Chen and Hsiao-Lan Sharon Wang, upon reasonable request.

References

  • Anvari, S. H., Trainor, L. J., Woodside, J., & Levy, B. A. (2002). Relations among musical skills, phonological processing, and early reading ability in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 83(2), 111–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Asaridou, S. S., & McQueen, J. M. (2013). Speech and music shape the listening brain: Evidence for shared domain-general mechanisms. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, B. (2011). Social disparities in children’s vocabulary in early childhood. Does pre-school education help to close the gap? 1. The British Journal of Sociology, 62(1), 69–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bekius, A., Cope, T. E., & Grube, M. (2016). The beat to read: A cross-lingual link between rhythmic regularity perception and reading skill. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, 425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bishop-Liebler, P., Welch, G., Huss, M., Thomson, J. M., & Goswami, U. (2014). Auditory temporal processing skills in musicians with dyslexia. Dyslexia, 20(3), 261–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonacina, S., Krizman, J., White-Schwoch, T., Nicol, T., & Kraus, N. (2020). Distinct rhythmic abilities align with phonological awareness and rapid naming in school-age children. Cognitive Processing, 21, 575–581. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-020-00984-6

  • Christiansen, M. H., & Kirby, S. (2003). Language evolution: Consensus and controversies. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(7), 300–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • David, D., Wade-Woolley, L., Kirby, J. R., & Smithrim, K. (2007). Rhythm and reading development in school-age children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Reading, 30(2), 169–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, D., & Dunn, D. (2019). Peabody picture vocabulary test (5th ed.). Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goswami, U., Thomson, J., Richardson, U., Stainthorp, R., Hughes, D., Rosen, S., & Scott, S. K. (2002). Amplitude envelope onsets and developmental dyslexia: A new hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(16), 10911–10916.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Honing, H. (2018). The origins of musicality. MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Huang, R., Jian, X., Zhu, L., & Lu, L. (2010). Receptive and expressive vocabulary test. Psychological Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasdan, A. V., Burgess, A. N., Pizzagalli, F., Scartozzi, A., Chern, A., Kotz, S. A., Wilson, S. M., & Gordon, R. L. (2022). Identifying a brain network for musical rhythm: A functional neuroimaging meta-analysis and systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 136, 104588.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koelsch, S. (2019). Music and the brain.

  • Kuhl, P. K., Stevens, E., Hayashi, A., Deguchi, T., Kiritani, S., & Iverson, P. (2006). Infants show a facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception between 6 and 12 months. Developmental Science, 9(2), F13–F21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Y. S., Ahn, S., Holt, R. F., & Schellenberg, E. G. (2020). Rhythm and syntax processing in school-age children. Developmental Psychology, 56(9), 1632.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ling, W., & Grüter, T. (2022). From sounds to words: The relation between phonological and lexical processing of tone in L2 Mandarin. Second Language Research, 38(2), 289–313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J., Hilton, C. B., Bergelson, E., & Mehr, S. A. (2021). Language experience shapes music processing across 40 tonal, pitch-accented, and non-tonal languages. bioRxiv.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo, H., Boemio, A., Gordon, M., & Poeppel, D. (2007). The perception of FM sweeps by Chinese and English listeners. Hearing Research, 224(1–2), 75–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masataka, N. (2020). The origins of language revisited: Differentiation from music and the emergence of neurodiversity and autism. Springer Nature.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Montague, K. J. (2002). Music and reading: Evidence for shared cognitive processes and implications for theory, diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia Tufts University].

  • Moritz, C., Yampolsky, S., Papadelis, G., Thomson, J., & Wolf, M. (2013). Links between early rhythm skills, musical training, and phonological awareness. Reading and Writing, 26(5), 739–769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikolsky, A. (2020). Emergence of the distinction between “Verbal” and “Musical” in early childhood development. The origins of language revisited (pp. 139–215). Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Overy, K., Nicolson, R. I., Fawcett, A. J., & Clarke, E. F. (2003). Dyslexia and music: Measuring musical timing skills. Dyslexia, 9(1), 18–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ozernov-Palchik, O., & Patel, A. D. (2018). Musical rhythm and reading development: Does beat processing matter. Annals New York Academy of Sciences, 1423, 166–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ozernov-Palchik, O., Wolf, M., & Patel, A. D. (2018). Relationships between early literacy and nonlinguistic rhythmic processes in kindergarteners. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 167, 354–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patel, A. D. (2010). Music, language, and the brain. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patel, A. D., Peretz, I., Tramo, M., & Labreque, R. (1998). Processing prosodic and musical patterns: A neuropsychological investigation. Brain and Language, 61(1), 123–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patscheke, H., Degé, F., & Schwarzer, G. (2018). The effects of training in rhythm and pitch on phonological awareness in four-to six-year-old children. Psychology of Music, 47(3), 376–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735618756763

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pelzl, E., Lau, E. F., Guo, T., & DeKeyser, R. (2019). Advanced second language learners’perception of lexical tone contrasts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41(1), 59–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peynircioglu, Z. F., Durgunoglu, A. Y., & Úney-Küsefogˇlu, B. (2002). Phonological awareness and musical aptitude. Journal of Research in Reading, 25(1), 68–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Politimou, N., Dalla Bella, S., Farrugia, N., & Franco, F. (2019). Born to speak and sing: Musical predictors of language development in pre-schoolers. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reybrouck, M., & Podlipniak, P. (2019). Preconceptual spectral and temporal cues as a source of meaning in speech and music. Brain Sciences, 9(3), 53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen, G., & Froud, K. (2019). Electrophysiological correlates of categorical perception of lexical tones by English learners of Mandarin Chinese: An ERP study. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22(2), 253–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swaminathan, S., & Schellenberg, E. G. (2020). Musical ability, music training, and language ability in childhood. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46(12), 2340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tierney, A., Gomez, J. C., Fedele, O., & Kirkham, N. Z. (2021). Reading ability in children relates to rhythm perception across modalities. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 210, 105196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tierney, A., & Kraus, N. (2014). Auditory-motor entrainment and phonological skills: Precise auditory timing hypothesis (PATH). Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 949.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verney, J. P. (2013). Rhythmic perception and entrainment in 5-year-old children. Doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge.

  • Wang, H.-L.S., Huss, M., Hämäläinen, J. A., & Goswami, U. (2012). Basic auditory processing and developmental dyslexia in Chinese. Reading and Writing, 25(2), 509–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, H.-L.S., Wang, N.Y.-H., Chen, I.-C., & Tsao, Y. (2019). Auditory identification of frequency-modulated sweeps and reading difficulties in Chinese. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 86, 53–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, R., Torgesen, J., & Rashotte, C. (2013). Comprehensive test of phonological processing (2nd ed.). PRO-ED.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, K. T. (2019). Expressive vocabulary test (3rd ed.). Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu, Y., Gandour, J., Talavage, T., Wong, D., Dzemidzic, M., Tong, Y., Li, X., & Lowe, M. (2006). Activation of the left planum temporale in pitch processing is shaped by language experience. Human Brain Mapping, 27(2), 173–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, L., Xie, S., Li, Y., Shu, H., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Perception of musical melody and rhythm as influenced by native language experience. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 147(5), EL385–EL390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the generous support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [grant number MOST 106-2628-H-003-002-MY3]. We also acknowledge the children and caregivers for their participation, so do the research teams in both Taiwan and the United States for their assistance. Special thanks go to Miss Ya-Hui Chang, Leticia Castro, Betty Steelman, and Morgan Taylor for her help in data collection and analysis.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Grant Number MOST 106-2628-H-003 -002 -MY3).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chih-Hsuan Tsao

  2. Master Program of Youth and Child Welfare, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ya-Hsin Lai

  3. Department of Art, Design and Music, Queens University of Charlotte, 1900 Selwyn Ave., Charlotte, NC, 28274, USA

    Yu-Ling Chen

  4. Department of Special Education, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Sec. 1, Heping E. Rd, Taipei, 10610, Taiwan

    Hsiao-Lan Sharon Wang

  5. Research Center for Information Technology Innovation, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

    Hsiao-Lan Sharon Wang

Authors
  1. Chih-Hsuan Tsao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ya-Hsin Lai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yu-Ling Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hsiao-Lan Sharon Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

The study was designed by H-LSW. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Y-HL, Y-LC, and H-LSW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by C-HT and then revised by Y-LC and H-LSW. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yu-Ling Chen or Hsiao-Lan Sharon Wang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

No potential conflict of interests relevant to the current research, authorship, and publication were declared by the authors.

Informed Consent

Written informed consents were obtained from all participants and their caregivers before enrolling in the current study.

Ethical Approval

All procedure performed in the current study were approved by the Centre of Research Ethics at National Taiwan Normal University, and the Protection of Human Subjects Committee at the Southwestern Oklahoma State University for the participants in Taiwan and United States, respectively.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tsao, CH., Lai, YH., Chen, YL. et al. Musical Rhythm Perception and Production, Phonological Awareness, and Vocabulary Knowledge in Preschoolers: A Cross-Language Study. IJEC 55, 27–46 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-023-00355-0

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-023-00355-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation