This is Episode Five of PsychCrunch, the podcast from the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, sponsored by Routledge Psychology. In this episode we explore whether psychology can help us learn a new language.We hear about research showing the benefits of music training to language learning, and how it may be possible to boost your learning of foreign words while you sleep. Our presenter Christian Jarrett also hears about the anxiety that many people feel when trying to speak a foreign language and why it's so important to just give it a go!Our guests in order of appearance are Dr Christina Gkonou of the University of Essex, Dr Sylvain Moreno, Director of Canada's Digital Health Hub at Simon Fraser University, and Professor Björn Rasch at the University of Fribourg.

Among the research studies that we talk about in this episode are:

Short-Term Music Training Enhances Verbal Intelligence and Executive Function

Foreign languages easier to learn when they're sung rather than spoken

Boosting Vocabulary Learning by Verbal Cueing During Sleep

Episode credits: Presenter/editor Dr Christian Jarrett. Producer Dr Lorna Stewart. Mixing Dr Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Music: Go Maman. Art work Tim Grimshaw.