1.

CITATION OF THE ARTICLE

Hansen, Dee and Millian, Sarah A (December 2012), Aural skills: at the juncture of research in
early reading and music literacy. Music Educators Journal, Volume 9 (Issue 22). Page 75-80.

2. ANALYE THE LOGIC OF THE ARTICLE
The author is trying to answer the question of whether or not music education helps children in
learning literacy skills.
Identify the logical structure of the argument
a. CONCLUSION The author is trying to prove that music education does in fact help students
with learning how to read.
b. PREMISES learning music and learning to read have similarities that would allow one to help
the other.
c. EVIDENCE almost all of the evidence in the article came in the form of citations of research
done on this specific topic, broken up into four topics (neuroimaging, auditory brainstem response
to complex sounds (cABR), music classrooms, and general classroom instruction). The biological
aspects are backed up with research conclusions, all cited, while the connections to the music
classroom are outlined to provide examples of what kinds of lessons may help students with
literacy outside of the music classroom.

3. EVALUATION OF THE AUTHOR'S REASONING
Evaluate the argument:
a. Does the conclusion follow the premises? Does the conclusion clearly follow from the
information relevant to the issue, or does the author jump to unjustifiable conclusions?
The conclusion is very clearly stated only after all of the evidence is presented. The general
question is stated first, and only after all evidence is stated is the conclusion reached.
b. Evaluate the evidence offered to support the premises. Is the information accurate and directly
relevant to the question at issue? Does the author address the complexities of the issue? What is
the reliability of the source of evidence?
The evidence is almost entirely comprised of scientific research done by qualified scholars well-
versed in the topics they are studying, which makes it highly reliable. It is all broken down into
simple terms for comprehension, acknowledging that the exact causes behind the correlation are
not clear, but that the research indisputably supports what the author is trying to prove. When
talking about areas of the human mind, especially a developing childs, of course there will be
complexities involved, but they were all discussed as thoroughly as possible.

4. FOCUS ON IMPLICATIONS
I personally found it incredibly interesting to read that music classes are in fact proven, by this
article at least, to help with literacy as children. Being an avid reader myself and a hopeful music
teacher, it was interesting to see how the two are related, especially in the technical terms of
language and reading; the dynamics and tempos and interpretation markings of music do exist in
language, as prosody, and to see two seemingly different ideas brought together so thoroughly and
cleanly was really cool. Though I am not hoping to be teaching at a low enough level for this to be
relevant for my own teaching, I also dont know in what capacity I will be teaching in the future,
and feel a little more confident about teaching younger students now knowing that what I am
teaching will also help my students in other areas of study. The attitude of the author towards
interdisciplinary teaching, too, made me very happy to see, proven clearly in this quote taken from
the article: While music teachers are not reading teachers, how and what do music educators do
to support these important initiatives while still teaching music with integrity? Overall, I found this
article to be a much more enjoyable read than I had been anticipating.