Review of ‘Music Psychology — Why Does “Bohemian Rhapsody” Feel So Good?’
Welcome to the first in my series of reviews of FutureLearn courses. I joined FutureLearn’s Unlimited subscription service recently but as well as doing their courses for my own education, I’m also looking at the them from the point of view of an EFL teacher. Are these courses suitable for use in the EFL classroom? Join me as I look to find out!
Watch a video review of this course on my YouTube channel, where you can also follow my adventures with FutureLearn. If you’re an EFL teacher, feel free to ask me an EFL Question on my Facebook page, and I’ll make a video response to it.
Summary of the Course
The course looked at how we react to music — why we like the music we do, and how our brain is built to respond to such music. The first week presented a quick overview of neurology — what a neuron is, what neuroscience is, and how music is transmitted to the brain. A few related psychological experiments were discussed, such as the Capilano Suspension Bridge experiment. In week two, the focus moved to the music itself, and we discussed how our feelings for music might be tied up with other emotions as well. The structure of the course was ideally designed to allow participants to use what they had learned in context — it would not have made sense for the weeks to have been reversed, or for the lessons on neuroscience and psychology to be skipped.
Level of Difficulty
The course wasn’t difficult at all. No prior experience of the subject domains — psychology and music — was assumed, and the presentation was always clear and never patronising.
3 Things I Learned
The ‘hairs’ on the cochlea in the ear are of different lengths, and are designed for picking up different frequencies of sound — and when the shorter ones are damaged we suffer from tinnitus.
The word ‘frisson’ is used to describe the goosebumps effect that music has on us.
There are both physiological and cognitive aspects to emotion.
For EFL Teachers — Is this teachable?
Yes, absolutely. One of the best things about the course is that there are many opportunities for reflection. Learning is reinforced through recapitulation of the main ideas at several points in each week, and this would provide the EFL teacher with ready-made review lessons. I’ve actually started using this course in a 1–2–1 lesson, and the student seems eager to engage with the material.
Presentation — Videos, Articles, Sequencing
There was a nice balance between videos (either the presenter telling us about something, or examples of the music we were meant to be discussing) and text to read. The videos were never too long, and were well-produced. The presenter spoke clearly, which made his ideas easy to follow, and the subtitles helped in this regard as well. The articles were short and to the point — they introduced a concept and then asked you a discussion question, or they reinforced a concept and gave you something to discuss, or they reviewed the material you had encountered so far.
Interactivity — Discussion Boards, Quizzes
Every step in the course led to a discussion point, and the discussion boards were pretty active. This of course would vary from intake to intake, but there seemed to be a lot of talk every week that I did the course. There were a few quizzes to check your learning, and if you made a mistake you were directed back to the relevant part of the course to check your answer. This would be very useful in the EFL classroom.
My Grade: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed this short course, and I feel I learnt a lot from it.
EFL Grade and CEFR Level: 5 Stars. B2 and above
This course is ideal for use in the EFL classroom — the workload is light, and there are plenty of opportunities to go over the material once again. EFL students will really benefit from the pace of this course and from the well-written material.
