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Episode 7: Rhythm and Embodied Learning feat. Dr. Kim Rockell - Part 2
PIE SIG Podcast
Episode 7 : Rhythm and Embodied Learning - Part 2
Dr. Rockell’s path moves through ethnomusicology and language teaching in Japan and Taiwan, and back to New Zealand for graduate study supported by a PhD scholarship. Across this movement, a recurring theme emerges: the hidden melody inside speech. Drawing on research showing improvements in vocabulary recall and intonation, he treats rhythm and melody as parallels to stress and pitch in spoken English.
The episode moves between research, biography, and classroom practice. Earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand disrupt his academic life, forcing him to retrieve books to complete his doctorate and instruments to earn a living, and marking a point where returning to Japan no longer meant returning to the same place. Out of this disruption come elective courses linking music and language, an interest in soundscapes—the overall mix of sounds that shape an environment—and research encounters in Taiwan that extend to migrant musical traditions and endangered languages.
These strands converge in teaching practice. Rockell describes using looping software to practice common word patterns, techniques that make repetition enjoyable, and group activities where students mark or trace intonation patterns as they listen. Teachers will come away with concrete ideas, including reinforcing new vocabulary with simple melodies, lyric-based cloze tasks, music-focused interviews, and the use of Nohperformance—rooted in tanka poetry—as a form of embodied language learning. The episode culminates in a Noh chant from Kurama-tengu and an acoustic guitar performance, reinforcing the central claim: language learning begins not with abstraction, but with sound.
ABOUT DR. KIM ROCKELL
Kim Rockell, PhD – Ethnomusicology and music-language research
https://krockell.wordpress.com/ethnomusicology/
Kim Forrester Rockell on Researchmap (publications & projects)
https://researchmap.jp/7000028643?lang=en
RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS MENTIONED
Teaching Language Through Music: Reflections of a Professional Musician
By Kim Rockell
https://www.mindbrained.org/2025/02/teaching-language-through-music-reflections-of-a-professional-musician/
Migrant Contributions to the Tainan Soundscape: A Preliminary, Online Study of Migrant, Filipino Musicians. In Fiorella Allio & Yen Ting-yu, Art and material culture in the Tainan Area
International Center for Tainan Area Humanities and Social Sciences Research, Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Government
ISBN: 9789860701524
TAIWAN, SIRAYA, AND SOUNDSCAPES
Edgar L. Macapili and the Siraya language (Taiwan Panorama)
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