Using the body to activate the brain. Research trends and issues.
(2023) Review of Cognitive Linguistics — Vol. 21, n° 1, p. 1 (2023)
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- The aim of this thematic section is to build a bridge between Embodied Cognition (EC), Cognitive Linguistic (CL) Theory and language teaching and learning. EC postulates that high-order cognitive processes such as thought and meaning construction are reliant on the same sensory-motor neural circuitries involved in perception and adaptation of/in the environment in which the human being acts (Barsalou, 2008). The activity of our mind is grounded in our bodily experience and concepts are mapped within our sensory-motor system, classically considered a “low” process device in our brain (Gallese & Lakoff, 2005). In Linguistics, the theory of Embodied Semantics, that derives directly from the EC paradigm, states that “linguistic concepts” (propositions) “are represented within the same sensory-motor” (neuronal) “circuitry in which the enactment of the same concept relies” (Aziz-Sadeh & Damasio, 2008, p. 5). According to the Embodied Semantics paradigm, linguistic concepts are represented in the brain within partially overlapping neural substrates recruited to enact and experience the action a word refers to (Kemmerer, 2014; Della Putta, 2018). EC approaches have fruitfully informed applied sciences, among which educational research. The usefulness of incorporating bodily enactment into the teaching of disciplines such as mathematics is demonstrated under the general condition of an effective integration of embodied task in the general teaching plan, i.e. if embodied activities are not isolated from but rooted in and linked to other activities proposed over the whole course (see review in Skulmowski & Rey, 2018). When it comes to language teaching, ever since Asher (1977), the positive role of the enactment of the body in the process of language learning – at least as far as lexicon retention is concerned - has been demonstrated, but, apart from these first approaches, the role of EC in language teaching has been underestimated or, at least, less empirically researched.
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Paolo della Putta, Suner Munoz, F., & et al. (2023). Using the body to activate the brain. Research trends and issues. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 21(1), 1. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/103222 (Original work published 2023)