關于學樂器有很多“傳說”，有人認為學樂器能開發智力，讓孩子更聰明，有人認為學樂器能提高孩子的注意力和記憶力。最近的一項研究發現，學樂器并不能帶來認知能力的普遍提高，但是學樂器確實能顯著提升孩子的語言能力，尤其是辨音方面，效果甚至超過了上閱讀課外班。

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

讓孩子上音樂課不僅會將他們引入旋律的世界，而且還會顯著提升他們的語言技能。

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，學習樂器能影響語言能力，但科學家不清楚語言能力的提高是認知能力普遍提高的附帶效果，還是說學樂器能直接影響語言處理能力。

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，得益于麻省理工學院的神經系統科學家羅伯特?德西蒙的一項調查研究，我們離答案又近了一步。 該研究涵蓋了中國幼兒園的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：“學樂器的孩子和其他孩子在廣義的認知能力上沒有差別，但他們確實在辨字尤其是辨認聲母這方面更勝一籌。

"The piano group showed the best improvement there."

“學鋼琴的小孩在這方面的優勢最明顯。”

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.

德西蒙的團隊包括來自麻省理工學院的科學家和來自北京師范大學的研究人員。為了開展這項研究，該團隊在中國教育部門官員的支持下，從中國教育系統中招募了一些兒童作為研究對象。這些官員想知道學音樂是如何能提高學業成績的。

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.

在這項研究中，母語為漢語的4到5歲的幼童被隨機分為三組。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.

上了六個月的課以后，研究人員就辨別字的聲調、聲母和韻母的能力對幼童進行了測試。

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.

測試結果顯示，上過鋼琴課的孩子在辨別聲母不同的漢字上明顯優于上過閱讀課的孩子。

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，學音樂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于對照組的孩子。

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生的原因，研究人員通過腦電圖觀測了孩子的腦活動，發現在收聽抑揚頓挫的朗讀時，鋼琴組的孩子對聲調變化更敏感。

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

研究人員認為，這說明上音樂課有助于培養對聲調的敏感性，這也是音樂組孩子辨別字音的能力更強的部分原因。

"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：“辨別字音——能夠聽出字與字之間的差別——對于孩子學語言很重要。更強的辨音能力確實能讓孩子受益。”

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).

或許更重要的發現是，三組孩子的智商、注意力和工作記憶水平都沒有表現出任何明顯的差別，這意味著音樂課不能帶來認知能力的全面提高，而是僅限于語言能力或聲調辨別能力的提高。

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.

當然，研究人員只調查了一小部分兒童，而且所有這些兒童的語言環境都是中文（普通話）。考慮到學習中文和聲調辨認息息相關，研究人員承認這也許會影響到研究結果。

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.

不過值得強調的是，學音樂幫助這些孩子在語言測試中勝出，甚至超過了那些上額外閱讀課的孩子，這是教育者應該密切關注的事實。

"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：“這說明，要更好地辨別聲音的差異，包括語言發音的不同，學鋼琴比額外的閱讀更有效。這意味著學校可以更重視音樂課，以普遍提高孩子的辨音能力。”

"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."

“許多學校可能正試圖多上閱讀課、少上或不上藝術課，其實上音樂課并不比上閱讀課外班的效果更差。”

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

該研究結果發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》上。

英文來源：Science Alert

翻譯&編輯：丹妮