Topical Blog Week 12 (Due Wednesday)

(1a) My topic is is music therapy
(1b) This topic relates to the chapter because it discusses music and emotion, and how some clinical psychologists use music therapy to improve mental and physical health.
(1c) I am interested in the topic of music therapy, because I think music involvement can help improve mental and physical health in ways we cannot even imagine.

(2) Music Therapy uses music interventions in a clinical and evidence based setting to accomplish personalized individual goals. A professional that has completed an approved music therapy program administers a therapeutic intervention to him or her. These goals address the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of that individual. Treatment includes creating, singing, moving to, and/or listening to music. Therapeutically through musical involvement, certain client abilities are strengthened and transferred to other areas of their lives. It can also act as a communication mechanism by helping individuals who find it difficult to express themselves in words. Research has provided effectiveness in overall physical rehabilitation and facilitating movement, increasing peoples motivation to become engaged in treatment, providing emotional support for clients and their families, and providing an outlet for expression of feelings.

When used properly, music can be a powerful treatment tool that is also fun, relaxing, and motivating. Music overall has a significant impact on our minds and bodies. Music is a core function of our brain, we detect differences in rhythm patterns. In infants, mothers use lullabies and rhythmic rocking to calm crying babies. Our bodies naturally entrain or match a rhythmic beat also like when you hum a song and step to the beat. Music can help people who have experienced strokes gain back strength and development in their upper bodies. Physiologically we respond to music, so it can also provide stimulation to a person in a coma or effectively help someone relax. Music also interacts which our emotions, certain associations with certain music enables us to easily access our emotions. Its also beneficial in gaining attention and enhancing learning, like musically learning the ABC’s. These are just some examples of why music therapy works!

My last source provides insight to how music therapy is being researched and used today. Posted on April 6th, 2015, the college of Northwestern had a father-daughter team that may have found a way to alleviate pain in young patients after they go through a medical procedure. Together they have been exploring whether music selected by pediatric patients can soothe their post-operative pain to a significant degree. The results they found provided evidence that it did in fact not only reduce the amount of pain, but reduced the amount of medication they took following operations. The test subjects were split into two adolescent groups, one with audiobooks, and the other in complete silence. Over time, patients were asked to rate their pain from 1-10 on a pain scale. Analyzing the results, the father and daughter duo provided insight that the pain was still present but the music provided mitigation towards the discomfort the patients were feeling. Music is proven to help with pain, but putting a specific number in relation to how much it helps is a different story because every individual is different and so many different variables can come into play. Parents of the adolescents went on to claim that it was nice to be able to provide comfort to their children and help out with the recovery process.

(3) music, music therapy, rhythm

(4) http://www.musictherapy.org/about/musictherapy/
I chose this source because it provided a very descriptive and accurate definition of music therapy since the website belongs to the American Music Therapy Association.

http://blog.brainhq.com/2010/04/22/top-12-brain-based-reasons-why-music-as-therapy-works/
I chose this source because it provided information and facts backing the use of music therapy and why it works.

http://btn.com/2015/04/06/btn-livebig-nu-father-daughter-research-team-explores-audio-therapy-for-medical-patients/
I chose this source because it provided me with an example of how music therapy is being researched and applied today in the medical field.

I choose to research vocal cord paralysis. This wasn’t specifically mentioned in the book, but I didn’t really see any interesting topics, and this chapter discussed the vocal cords, and vocal tract anatomy, so I thought this would still be an appropriate topic. In many cases it still related to the chapter.

Vocal cord paralysis is the partial to full paralysis of the vocal cords. There are two most common kinds referred to as unilateral or bilateral paralysis. In unilateral one of the vocal cords is affected, in bilateral they are both affected. Typically this is due to nerve damage, or physical damage to the vocal cords, and affects the ability of the vocal cords to fully close or open. This can cause the vocal cords to vibrate abnormally, or have the inability to vibrate at all. These forms can also be referred to as paralysis or paresis. paresis being the less severe form, and leading to only a weakened vibration, paralysis is the complete incapability to produce vibration.

There are several different causes of vocal cord paralysis. Most commonly the vagus nerve (responsible for communication with the brain and vocal cords) is damaged and causes an interruption that leads to the paralysis. This damage can come from surgery, injury, or viral infection. Some diseases such as Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis also have a higher rate of developing vocal cord paralysis. Women have also been known to develop this condition more than men. Scar tissue formation after surgery, and the use of breathing tubes, may also cause vocal cord paralysis. Injury can occur to the chest/neck/head and may still affect the vagus nerve, and cause paralysis.

Symptoms of vocal cord paralysis include, raspy voice, shortness of breath (or inability to breathe), choking, pneumonia, coughing, throat clearing often, inability to speak loudly, and loss of vocal pitch (especially when singing). Choking is common along with pneumonia because the vocal cords are supposed to close when we swallow, and this lack of closing due to paralysis leads to the inhalation of food and liquids. (This was discussed in the chapter in relation to humans choking far more often than other animals because of the way our vocal cords work.)

Tests for vocal cord paralysis typically include an electromyography or endoscopy. Endoscopy is the use of a camera or mirror with a tube to view the physical state of the vocal cords. The electromyography measures electrical currents going through the voice box. However, this is a very rare test. Blood tests can also be done to determine if disease may be the cause of paralysis, along with xrays/MRI/CT scans.

Treatment depends on what the cause of the paralysis is. Usually it will disappear on it’s own. Vocal therapy is used to help individuals control their voice muscles, as well as work on using their voice appropriately (such as not talking too loud). In more extreme cases, surgery can be used to bring the vocal chords closer together to improve functioning. If there is no fix, often times a feeding tube must be used to bypass the vocal cords. There is also a surgery to replace the muscle nerves to the vocal cords.

Terms Used: vocal cords, paralysis, vocal tract, vagus nerve, unilateral paralysis, bilateral paralysis, pitch,

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/vocal-cord-paralysis/basics/symptoms/con-20026357
This website offered an overview of all the aspects of this disorder, and was very informative.
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/vfparalysis/
This website had information about the different types of paralysis, as well as information about the overall disorder itself.
http://www.entnet.org/content/vocal-cord-paralysis
this website was used to confirm the information in the other two websites, it stated about the same information with small added details in some areas.

I decided to do more research on the topic pitch. Pitch relates to the chapter because Chapter 11 is about music and speech perception. To understand the entire chapter, you have to understand what pitch is. The reason I’m interested in it is because I think it’s interesting that we all have different voices and all have different pitches. I want to learn more on why our voices are the way they are.

Pitch is the psychological aspect of sound related mainly to perceived frequency. One of the most important characteristics of any acoustic signal is frequency. Brain structures for processing sounds are tonotopically organized to correspond to frequency. Musical pitch is one of the characteristics of musical notes, the sounds that constitute melodies. A very important concept in understanding musical pitch is the octave. Octaves are the interval between two sound frequencies having a ratio of 2:1.

When one of two periodic sounds is double the frequency of the other, those two sounds are one octave apart. Because of octave relations, musical pitch is typically described as having two dimensions. The first is tone height, which relates to frequency in a fairly straightforward way. The second dimension, related to the octave, is tone chroma. Frequency and tone height increase with increasing height correspond to changes in tone chroma. At the same point along each lap around the helix, a sound lies in the vertical line, and all sounds along that line share the same tone chroma and are separated by octaves.

It’s a perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale. They are compared as lower and higher in the sense associated with musical melodies, which require sound whose frequency is clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise. Pitch is a major auditory attribute of musical tones, along with duration, loudness, and timbre. Pitch may be quantified as frequency, but pitch is not purely objective physical property. It is a subjective psychoacoustical attribute of sound. The study of pitch and pitch perception has been a central problem in psychoacoustics. It has been instrumental in forming and testing theories of sound representation, processing, and perception in the auditory system.

It’s an auditory sensation in which a listen assigns musical tones to relative positions on a musical scale based primarily on the frequency of vibration. It’s closely related to frequency, but the two are not equivalent. Frequency is an objective, scientific concept, whereas pitch is subjective. Sound waves themselves do not have pitch, and their oscillations can be measured to obtain a frequency. It takes an actual mind to map the internal quality of pitch. Pitches are usually quantified as frequencies in cycles per second, or hertz, by comparing sounds with pure tones, which have periodic, sinusoidal waveforms. Complex and aperiodic sound waves can often be assigned a pitch by this method.

In most cases, the pitch of complex sounds such as speech and musical notes corresponds very nearly to the repetition rate of periodic of nearly-periodic sounds. To the reciprocal of the time interval between repeating similar events in the sound waveform. The pitch of complex tones can be ambiguous, meaning that two or more of the pitches can be perceived, depending upon the observer. When the actual fundamental frequency can be precisely determined through physical measurement, it may differ from the perceived pitch because of overtones, also known as upper partials, harmonic, or otherwise. A complex tone composed of two sine waves of 100- may sometimes be heard as up to three pitches.

Theories of pitch perception try to explain how the physical sound and specific physiology of the auditory system work together to yield the experience of pitch. In general, pitch perception theories can be divided into place coding and temporal coding. Place theory holds that the perception of pitch is determined by the place of maximum excitation on the basilar membrane.

Temporal theories offer an alternative that appeals to the temporal structure of action potentials, mostly the phase-locking and mode-locking of action potentials to frequencies in stimulus. The precise way of this temporal structure helps code for pitch at higher levels is still debated, but the processing seems to be based on autocorrelation of action potentials in the auditory nerve.

The just-noticeable difference, the threshold at which change is perceived, depends on the tone’s frequency content. The jnd is typically tested by playing two tones in quick succession with the listener asked if there was a difference in their pitches. The jnd becomes smaller if there was a difference in their pitches. The jnd becomes smaller if the two tones are played simultaneously as the listener is then able to discern beat frequencies. The relative perception of pitch can be misunderstood, resulting in aural illusions. There are several of these, such as the triton paradox, but most notable the Shepard scale, where a continuous or discrete sequence of specifically formed tones can be made to sound as if the sequence continues ascending of descending forever.

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_%28music%29

URL: http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/sound/Lesson-2/Pitch-and-Frequency

URL: http://study.com/academy/lesson/pitch-and-volume-in-sound-waves.html

The reason I chose these websites is because they all described pitch very well. They all helped me expand my learning on the topic and were very detailed. They also all explained it step by step and how frequency related to pitch.

Terms: Melody, notes, chords, coherent structure, pitch, contour, octave, tempo, relative durations, rhythm, speed, sounds, accents, stressed, unaccented, unstressed, patterns, pitch, relationship, listeners, sequence, musical folds, timbre, loudness, duration, vocal folds, vibrate, pressure, fundamental frequency, harmonic, speech, articulation, oral tract, nasal tract, frequencies, resonators, formants, concentrations, psychological, tonotopically, correspond, musical notes, coarticulation, inertia, acoustic patterns, oscillations, complex, aperiodic, sound waves, sinusoidal, hertz, reciprocal, speech, aural illusions, just-noticeable difference.

1a) The topic that I chose to research this week was language barriers.

1b) This topic relates to the section in the chapter that talked about learning to listen in a native tongue. Learning a new language is one thing, but to know how to speak it exactly like a native speaker would is a totally different endeavor.

1c) I chose this topic because I was almost completely immersed in a totally Spanish speaking country at the age of eighteen after going through four years of it in high school. It was an eye-opening experience and one that I will never forget. I thought that I had a decent grasp on the language but I was sadly mistaken. I find this topic interesting because I have experienced it firsthand. I remember laughing with my Spanish speaking friends in Colombia because of how we butchered each other’s languages.

2) A language barrier is anything, culturally or verbally, that prevents one person from understanding someone else with a different “mother tongue.” People who are non-native English speakers have a variety of difficulties as we learned about in the chapter. Pronunciation is among the top contenders when it comes to the difficulty of learning any new language. What comes with the pronunciation is also the timing of the language. Individuals who are not native speakers tend to have a different timing with their English which, on top of the difficulty with the pronunciation, makes it difficult for native speakers to understand.

A thought that is familiar to many is the idea that it becomes increasingly difficult to learn a new language once you reach a certain age. According to psychiatrist Norman Doidge, once we learn how to do something (for example, speak our native tongue) and do it well the signals are fast and clear. When we try to say a word with a different pronunciation there is a competition that goes on in our brains and the more familiar pronunciation almost always wins. It is difficult to learn a new language because our brains are constantly fighting against the new pronunciations and do not want to accept them as also being correct. This is why learning a new language is so difficult. The individual is simply so well versed in the English language that learning a new one is going against what the brain already knows very well.

Doidge goes on to talk about how he went with his wife to Paris to work on their French. It was supposed to be a six-week immersion class, but when they told their friends about it, they were also interested and decided to go as well. This was not true immersion because they were still surrounded by English. True immersion is when you silence the “mother tongue.” One has to be completely surrounded with the other language with no sign of the native tongue in order to get the true effects of immersion. Doidge encourages people who are trying a new language to do this as well. The easiest way to master a language is to completely surround yourself with it.

One real world example of true immersion was from a woman who was born in the United Kingdom but moved to the east coast of the United States. It is not news to anyone that the United Kingdom and the United States have completely different slangs for different words, but she goes on to talk about how she immersed herself in her environment as well. It was not about simply learning new slang. She also had to learn how to relate to the Americans in the way that she spoke. She tells the story of a time when she was shopping in a Boston supermarket where she was berated for politely waiting while a woman was choosing her head of lettuce. While not everyone in America is like that, and she does discuss that in her article, it is interesting that even though Americans and the British have the “same language,” we are separated by how it is perceived both with the meaning of words and the way in which the language is presented.

In the business world, she found it was more important to adapt the way that she spoke than in the “personal realm.” The communication style in the United Kingdom is far different from the one that Americans use, especially on the east coast. The British stereotype is that they are very polite and apologetic. When she would talk or send emails, she would have to catch herself to make sure she did not say “maybe” or “I believe.” In the American business world, having an apologetic or passive way of doing things makes you seem like you have a lack of self-confidence or weak. She had to teach herself to be more assertive and less apologetic, especially when it came to her work.

Language is very interesting to me. I find it fascinating that languages are so complex yet so easily used. While writing this blog post, I never once thought about the language that I was speaking, except for the proper use of grammar, of course. Rather I focused on how I wanted the words to be presented.

3) http://www.forbes.com/sites/sungardas/2014/08/14/lost-in-translation-overcoming-the-language-barrier-as-a-brit-in-america/
I chose this article because it was a perfect example of how even inside the same language we can have language barriers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-native_pronunciations_of_English
This article gave a good listing and explanation of why pronunciation is so difficult for non-native English speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DryHvm8-jxw
This video was really helpful when understanding why language is so difficult to learn and what it takes to really learn to speak a new language.

4) Key terms: language barriers, listen, native tongue, language, speak, pronunciation, timing, perceive, communication

1a) The topic I decided to research was language/speech acquisition.
1b) This topic relates to the chapter because the chapter was in part about speech perception. This post will explore major theories on how we, as humans, first perceive speech and eventually use that to learn language.
1c) I am interested in this topic because I am interested in people and how they live. I used to be an anthropology major, and I am still interested in the subject matter. I like learning about people’s cultures. Language is important building block of culture. Language provides a means of effective communication. Effective communication allows us to develop customs, traditions, and so on. I want to learn about how people are able to learn how to speak simply through being in a certain environment at a certain time in their life.

2) Language acquisition is the process in which humans learn how to speak a particular language. It is important to remember the distinction between speech and language. Speech is simply the act of speaking, whereas language is based more on particular patterns of speech. These patterns of speech join to create a commonly understood way of vocal communication. Basically, speech is a physical skill while language is a skill of reason and intellectual ability. Even though these concepts are different, they do intertwine. A child will hear speech, and through that learn speech and develop language. There have been several theories about exactly how language is acquired when we are young. However, it is commonly agreed that there is a critical period in which learning language is easiest and most natural. This critical period lies in young childhood. In fact, a number of experts believe that if a language is not acquired by the teenage years, it will never be acquired in a fully proficient manner. Amazingly, the vast majority of humans are able to speak their native language with functional skill by 5 years old.
As mentioned previously, there have been a few theories on how humans develop language. One of the earliest of these theories stems from Behavioral psychology. B.F. Skinner, a prominent early behaviorist argued an operant conditioning standpoint. He believed that a child would simply babble and make vocal sounds. Sometimes, these sounds would be a word in the child’s native language. When the child made this sound, which happened to be a word, those around the child would most likely exhibit signs of happiness, joy or recognition. They may provide attention and affection to the child for uttering this sound, which also was a word. This would then act as positive reinforcement for the child, increasing the chance for the sound to be uttered again. Once learned, this word would be considered input. Input refers to what is learned in this way. This process would continue for more and more words until language was developed.
Skinner’s theory did contain some holes. If children did learn language exclusively in this way, the capabilities would be heavily limited. In reality, children are often able to use grammar in ways that outnumber the input they receive. In response to this problem, Noam Chomsky developed the theory of Universal Grammar. This theory describes a born trait that enables children to automatically know the rules of such topics as noun groups and verb groups. This innate knowledge allows the child to only require the acquisition of words in order to create sentences and ideas. These children will only need to input those words into the grammar rules they are born knowing. This will then create a knowledge of language.
Research is still being conducted on Chomsky’s theory to this day. Yet, it is being challenged. Some researchers are not convinced that there is a Universal Grammar ability. Instead, these psycho-linguists support a notion of the utilization of basic cognition and learning. The problem with the theory of Universal Language is that it assumes a mature understanding of language when the words are learned. This is simply inaccurate. A new, more cognitive-based theory has come about called morphology acquisition. The concept of this idea revolves around morphemes. Morphemes are the units of grammar used to manipulate words. An example of this in the English language is adding an “ing” at the end of a verb to make it present tense. The theory states that children will hear morphemes being used many times. After hearing a particular morpheme being used enough times for different words, and in similar situations, they are able to learn what that morpheme does to the word. This process will go on until maturity.
The acquisition of a language is complex, and psychology does not have all the answers. Despite this, advances are being made as research continues. It will take time to dissect the differences between languages and use what we learn to understand how all human language develops.

https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/learn.jsp
I liked this site because it gave a good baseline of information.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html
This source was extremely helpful because it explained several of the theories of how language developed. That let me understand the thinking of psychologist up until this point.

http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/lang-acq.cfm
This source provided a lot of awesome detailed information. It really went into depth on everything about the topic.

Terms: Language; acquisition; communication; speech; critical period; behavioral psychology; input; positive reinforcement; operant conditioning; Universal Grammar; noun; verb; morpheme; linguist; morphology acquisition; cognitive

I chose to look further into phonation. I find this interesting as I know several students that are in the communications sciences and disorders and they talk a lot about speech and vocal chords and processes of speech. Phonation is the process which vocal folds are made to vibrate when air pushes out of the lungs. That is the very general definition in our text. In more detail speech occurs when air is pushed up through the trachea and the vocal folds are brought closer together. When the folds are together air pressure drops and they are sucked into the air stream and pulled closed. As the air pressure pulls open the folds, the elasticity in the folds pulls them back together. This occurs until the chords begin to vibrate. The folds open from the bottom to top and close the same way from bottom to top, which is what makes the acoustics of voice. How the chords vibrate is what causes pitch.

There are two theories on how the vibrations occurs they are myoelastic theory and aerodynamic theory. The myoelastic theory follows that a repetitive cycle of the vocal chords being brought together and the air pressure is applied that the chords are closed until the pressure below is able to push them apart and the air escapes which reduces the pressure enough for the muscle tension to pull them back together again. The rate that this is happening or cycles per second determines pitch. The aerodynamic theory is based on the Bernouli energy law in fluids. This theory sates that the stream of breath flowing through the glottis or vocal folds while the arytenoid cartilages (located near the top of the larynx) are held together by the movement of the interarytenoid muscles. This then creates a push pull effect. The push happens at the glottal closing and when the glottis is closed the pull comes as the air flow is cut off until the air pressure pushes the folds apart again, and continues in a cycle.

We also have what are referred to as false vocal chords. They are called vestibular cords or superioer vocal cords. The difference between the false vocal chords and what we call true vocal chords are seen a couple of ways. True vocal chords are what we mainly use in normal voice production. The false vocal chords are not able to produce the sounds we associate with speech, which is how they got the name false vocal chords. The true vocal chords are made of more delicate tissue which helps with vibration and the false chords are thicker. False chords can also regenerate when removed.

False vocal cords are at the upper portion of the vocal folds, they are sturdy and they help with swallowing by blocking foreign objects into the larynx entrance. They also serve to protect the vocal tract from bacteria and fungi because they have immune response cells. However they also more susceptible to disease and make up one third of laryngitic cancers. The sound they produce is used for screaming and growling. Some practical uses include Tibetian chants. While they are able to produce these sounds we are warned that overuse can lead to what is called hyperfunctional voice disorder.

There are things that can go wrong with the vocal cords that harm speech. Dysphonia is the term used for disorders of the voice. This is usually an impairment to the vocal folds. Common ailments that happen with dysphonia are laryngitis, neoplasm (cancer), a trauma to the area, and a few others. One that is rather surprising is acid reflux that is chronic and untreated can lead to really big issues with the vocal cords. Parkinson’s Disease is also particularly brutal as it slowly destroys the muscles ability function. My Grandmother died from Parkinson’s and it was brutal to see, as she lost speech and finally because of the problems fluid began to fill her lungs. These are generally diagnosed with tools that allow the doctor to look at the pattern of the vocal folds. There is also an examination that is done by recording sounds while speaking called an acoustic examination and sometimes electroglottography is used. These exams are done mainly by speech pathologists that then use various techniques of exercise and sometimes rest to help the person suffering.

One other abnormality found was called aphonia, which is the inability to produce voice. This disorder is more serious than dysphonia. Aphonia is usually caused by some type of trauma. This can be surgery, or a tumor. If a patient has a tracheotomy inserted this can also lead to aphonia. Pyschogenic aphonia is seen in patients with other psychological issues. Treatment for this usually includes both a mental health professional as well as a speech pathologist. I also found it interesting that Aphonia can be caused by fear. I know that I have heard stories and seen movies where this is referred to I never really knew that it was an actual condition. That the person legitimately could not speak.

Terms: phonation, vocal chords, vibration, myoelastic theory, aerodynamic theory, larynx, pitch, vocal folds, glottis, interarytenoid muscles, arytenoid cartilages, false vocal cords, hyperfunctional voice disorder, dysphonia, aphonia
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-false-vocal-cord.htm#
- good info false chords
http://www.gbmc.org/anatomyandphysiology
- good images
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonation

good info on phonation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aoa_N1vQS4M
Video on phonation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphonia
aphonia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphonia
disphonia

1. I choose to learn more about why we perceive foreign languages to be harder to learn than native languages. This relates to the chapter as it takes the part on how cultural differences and experience can impact a person’s perception about their world. This was interesting to me because I wanted to learn more about this because I have always heard that English was the hardest language to learn. This didn’t make sense to me as I tried to learn Spanish in high school, which only taught me from experience that Spanish must be harder to learn than English as I had no success in learning Spanish. I picked this opportunity to find out if it was true for most people that English was the hardest language learners.
2. Throughout my research, I found that there is no one language that is universally easy or hard to learn. This is because the ease or difficulty of learning a new language depends on the learner’s: perception of the world, motivation to learn the second language, and differences between home language and second language.
A person’s perception of the world is greatly impacted by the language being spoken at the moment. One such example is the difference between German and English. As a whole language, German tends to be more focused on the end result of a story while English tends to be more focused on the journey the story takes. Basically: German speakers emphasize the beginning, middle and end of sentences while an English speaker is more likely to leave off the ending of the story in order to tell more of the journey. Another example is how speakers of Japanese tend to categorize an object by its material over the shape. Korean speakers tend to focus on how well objects will together. These examples prove one thing, natural language is one way that cultural experiences impact how a person views and understands the world around them.
One way this could impact a person is by changing the music they listen to. Becoming fluent in a second language opens up many more musical opportunities. I can think of one example of this in my life, the intro songs of the Anime shows I watch. Without subtitles, the into songs are just noise that can be perceived good or bad. But when there are subtitles, I can find out the ideas the songs are trying to make the listener feel. Often times though, these Japanese to English translations become clunky, which only distract me. One specific example of how culture impacts a person’s musical preference is the Princess Jellyfish theme song’s vocals. Specifically that a person who prefers the western music heptatonic music is more likely to find the high pitch vocals of this exact themes song to be more a kin to nails on a chalkboard(which is an example of an idiom-one English language feature that doesn’t translate well). The textbook explained this as the Asian languages creating a preference for higher pitch music.
A person’s motivation greatly impacts the learner’s success at learning a new language. This one is pretty easily understood, as the intention is important. The learner will be more successful if they are learning it out necessary, like if they were going to school in a foreign country, than if they just using rote memorization in order to pass a class in high school.
The learners’ home language is very important to consider when talking about the difficulty level of learning a new language. Despite language learning difficulty being anything but universal, I found one such classification system that attempted to do just that from the Defense Language Institute. It uses English as is base, but I feel this can be used to evaluate how hard is learning English is inversely. Category 1 languages are relatively similar to English, which generally the easiest to learn for that exact reason. The types of alphabets and spellings used in both lanugos are mostly similar to the romance languages /Portuguese. Category 2 languages (German, Indonesian) are slightly less similar to English, but are still close enough to use similar letters. Category 3 languages are where the both alphabet and grammar starts to deviate from English. Russian, Serbian, and many of the Middle Eastern languages are expels of this. Category 4 languages are thought to be the most difficult to learn. This is because the language is represented by symbols that are very much different from the alp bet that English uses and the. Modern Standard Arabic uses words that don’t often look like English words, which is because it uses fewer vowels than English. Mandarin, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages are typically very difficult to learn as the also use symbols in place of letters. Japanese has 3000 kanji (along with 3 separate writing systems), and Mandarin/ Chinese/ Korean use 2000 kanji. The sentence structure in Japanese and Korean are also very different than English, which can be difficult to understand. On top of all the differences between category 4 languages and English, The category 4 languages are tonal-which means that the way a word is pronounced can drastically change the word itself. This doesn’t mean that any language is impossible to learn, it just means that it the learner must be ready find some languages easier than others and be willing to put the necessary work in.
3. foreign languages , native languages, cultural differences , experience, perception , English, Spanish, language learner, second language, German, beginning, end , middle speakers , Japanese, categorize, Korean, music, listen , fluent, Anime, vocals, idiom, language feature , Asian languages , higher pitch , intention , rote memorization , Defense Language Institute, Category 1 , romance languages , Portuguese, Category 2 , Indonesian, Category 3, Russian, Serbian,, Middle Eastern ,Category 4 , kanji, sentence structure , vowels.
4. http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2015/03/speaking-second-language-may-change-how-you-see-world I picked this site because it explained how language impacted how a person’s brain worked. I used it for: the specifics on German, Korean, and Japanese languages in first paragraph of number 2.
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/thesaurus-category/american/types-of-language-and-general-words-for-language I picked this site because it clearly explained the terms related to language. I used it for: native language, home language, second language
http://www.lingholic.com/hardest-languages-learn/ I picked this site because it objectively states reasons for difficulty learning a language. I used it for the information about the Categories.

I decided to look more into speech perception. because most of what i have looked into lately has been about hearing. this is about how fast we can develop different words. Coarticulation is part of speech perception. it is when the speech units overlap in articulatiory of accustic patters.
this is all about how are heard, interpenetrated and understood. with out this we would not be able to understand one anther
we have come a long was as humans to be able to understand each other.
we even have different languages we are able to learn and understand. we are able to crate a new language in our mouths that our brain knows nothing about and has to crated a new understanding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_perception
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/perception-auditory/supplement.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2921848/

I would like to further my research on the section in chapter 11 that covers "learning to Listen" where it describes how communication skills are developed at a young age, and are actually proven to be developing in children while they are late term fetuses. I found this topic to be very interesting because we all have known someone who is pregnant that talks to her baby while still in her belly, reads to it, lets it listen to music and communicates with their baby before it is born. I have always wondered if this was useful and if it would actually be beneficial to the baby or not.

The book states that measurements of heart rate as an indicator of the ability to notice change between speech sound shave revealed that late-term fetuses can discriminate between different vowel sounds. Prenatal experience with speech sounds appears to have considerable influence on subsequent perception. For one thing, newborns prefer hearing their mother's voice over other women's voices. When 4 day old infants in Paris were tested, they preferred hearing French instead of Russian showing that the baby can actually somewhat understand the language being spoken to it before it is even born. Newborns also prefer hearing particular children's stories that were read aloud by their mothers during the third trimester of pregnancy. This I found to be amazing because it shows that the babies not only could hear what their mothers were reading to them during the third trimester but they may have been able to either understand it somewhat, or remember the melody or tone of the story.

First I wondered just how capable a baby in during the third trimester was compared to a newborn baby. The results surprised me in finding that; at the sixteenth week of pregnancy the child becomes sensitive to light, though vision develops slowly in the dim, confined prenatal environment. By the fourth month he has developed basic reflexes and a repertoire of facial expressions. At five or six months he is as sensitive to touch as a newborn. From the 24th week on he hears all the time, listening to the noises in his mother's body, and to voices, music, etc. Between 28 to 34 weeks his brain's neural circuits are as advanced as a newborn's and the cerebral cortex is mature enough to support consciousness; a few weeks later brain waves, including those of REM dreams, become distinct. Thus, throughout the third trimester he is equipped with most of the physiological capability of a newborn.

I then wondered if it was just the mother that should speak to the baby or if it is beneficial to have the father speak to the baby as well. I found in my research that the father speaking to the baby is equally important. It helps form the bond between the baby and the father and research shows that fathers who spoke to their babies during the pregnancy had babies who knew who their father was by the sound of their voice at birth. The father should talk at a loud voice and should do it often, especially throughout the third trimester to help the baby form a bond wit their father, considering most of the bonding is done with the mother not the father right after birth.

Lastly, since I discovered that there are not any negative affects of speaking to your baby in the womb and that it can help build their communication skills and also help form a mother/father bond with the baby I wanted to look into other forms of communication. I read that it is important to talk with the baby, read stories and such however, I wanted to learn more about music therapy and the importance of letting the baby listen to music during the third trimester. I found that Music has played an important role in different cultures since time immemorial. It has profoundly affected human beings in their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being. But only in this century has music begun to attract scientific attention. The research at the University of California in Irvine has provided some information about the effect of Mozart on the spatial and mathematical intelligence of children, but it wasn't as easy finding information on unborn babies in relations to music therapy. The fetus often hears the mothers voice with little or no distortion however it hears others voices as muffled and not clear. This information tells us that the mother singing to the baby may be the most beneficial way to communicate with the baby through music.

After furthering my research most website said that prenatal music therapy is beneficial in all ways and had no negative affects to childbirth. Finding a list of benefits for the babies future communication skills seemed to be nearly impossible however I did gather the following list of benefits on prenatal music therapy for both the mother and baby:
- Stress relief
- Early bonding and strengthening the attachment to the baby
- Nurturing an early communication
- Supporting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being
- Stimulating a holistic development of the baby in the womb
- Promoting creativity and imagination, qualities needed for parenting
- Creating a transition from the baby's inner environment of
the womb to the outer world through lullabies and the womb-song
- Individual preparation for labor and delivery during the birth of your baby
- Perinatal support
I believe that these may also tie into the babies communication skills therefore, my overall recommendation would be that speaking to, reading to, and singing to your baby along with having the father do the same are beneficial to the child's overall well being.

http://forums.thebump.com/discussion/5124404/prenatal-communication this website was a little different from the websites I usually look for for the topical blogs. This was a online communication blog between mothers. They shared real life experiences and discussed how their husbands talking to their babies before they were born was either beneficial or not for them. I liked reading about real mothers' experiences.

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/issues/sx-sbd2.htm this website gave information on newborn babies compared to babies in their third trimester. Showing just how similar they were to each other and what they could experience the same.

https://birthpsychology.com/free-article/importance-prenatal-sound-and-music a doctor known for studying prenatal music therapy and her opinions on the matter along with her personal experiences. I found this website to be very helpful.

http://www.prenatalmusic.com/pages/benefits.php this website is where I got the beneficial facts of prenatal music therapy for both the mother and the child.

Terms: sensation, perception, music, hearing, newborn, cerebral cortex, communication skills, clinical psychology, prenatal consciousness, music therapy,