The present and the future of embodiment and cognitive linguistics in language teaching

Paolo della Putta;Suner Munoz, Ferran
(2023) 7th International Symposium on Figurative Thought. Cognitive, bodily, and cultural processes in Figurative Thought and Language — Location: Genoa (20.September.2023)

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Embodied Cognition 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). According to this paradigm, the activity of our mind is grounded in our bodily experience and even 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; Gallese & Lakoff, 2005). Embodied Cognition 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 tasks in the general teaching plan, i.e. if embodied tasks are not isolated from but rooted in and linked to other practices 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 Embodied Cognition in language teaching has been underestimated or, at least, less empirically researched. Nevertheless, in recent years a new impetus to investigating the viability and effectiveness of embodied practices in the language classroom has come from the advances in Cognitive Linguistics (CL), which encompasses different theoretical models with the shared aim of explaining language by considering it as an integrated cognitive ability that is strongly connected to our physical, mental, and cultural experience. CL-inspired teaching practices aim therefore to foster the recognition, understanding and internalisation of the cognitive mechanisms motivating the morphosyntactic aspects in question by prompting learners to concretely experience them through different kinds of embodied practices such as gesturing, perception or enactment (Ruiz de Mendoza & Agustín, 2016; De Knop, 2020). The panel would like to continue this line of inquiry in language teaching and embodied cognition. References Asher, J. (1977). Learning Another Language Through Actions: The Complete Teacher’s Guidebook. California: Sky Oaks Productions. Barsalou, L.W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645. De Knop, S. (2020). From Construction Grammar to Embodied Construction Practice. Constructions and Frames, 12(1), 121–148. Gallese, V., & Lakoff, G. (2005). The brain's concepts: the role of the sensory-motor system in conceptual knowledge. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 22, 455–479. Kemmerer, D. (2014). Visual and motor features of action verbs: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. In R. G. de Almeida, & C. Manouilidou (Eds.), Cognitive science perspectives on verb representation and processing (pp. 189–209). New York: Springer. Ruiz de Mendoza, F. J., & Agustín, P. (2016). Cognitive Pedagogical Grammar and meaning construction in L2. In S. de Knop, & G. Gilquin (Eds.), Applied Construction Grammar (pp. 151–183). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Skulmowski, A., & Rey, G.D. (2018). Embodied learning: introducing a taxonomy based on bodily engagement and task integration. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3(1), 6.
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Paolo della Putta, & Suner Munoz, F. (2023). The present and the future of embodiment and cognitive linguistics in language teaching. 7th International Symposium on Figurative Thought. Cognitive, bodily, and cultural processes in Figurative Thought and Language, Genoa. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/26956