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Article published In: Applying Embodied Cognition and Cognitive Linguistics to language teaching:
Edited by Paolo Della Putta and Ferran Suñer
[Review of Cognitive Linguistics 21:1] 2023
► pp. 35–63

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Special issue articles

Bodily engagement in the learning and teaching of grammar

On the effects of different embodied practices on the acquisition of German modal verbs

 | Université Catholique de Louvain
 | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
 | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Published online: 31 January 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00126.sun
Abstract
Cognitive Linguistics claims that language is not purely abstract and arbitrary, but meaningful and grounded in concepts arising from our embodied experiences (Oakley, T. (2007). Image schemas. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 214–235). Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The potential of using imagery and bodily representations to explain the conceptual motivation of grammar has been widely recognized in the context of language acquisition and teaching. This study investigates whether an increase of learners’ bodily engagement through the performance of bodily movements and locomotion produces even greater learning outcomes. To this end, we refer to (2000). Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar Force Dynamic System to conduct a pretest-posttest interventional study with two groups of learners dealing with the German modal verb system. Whereas the first group watched multimedia animations (low bodily engagement), the second group was asked to perform bodily movements in line with the force-dynamic notions underlying the different modal verbs (high bodily engagement). The results show that both groups produced similar learning gains and that an increased bodily engagement could not be associated directly with a significantly better performance.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Embodiment and language teaching
  • 3.A Force Dynamic approach to the description of the German modal verbs
    • Müssen/sollen
    • Dürfen/können
    • Wollen/möchten
  • 4.Research questions
  • 5.The study
    • 5.1Participants and materials
    • 5.2Data collection procedure
    • 5.3Data analysis
  • 6.Results
  • 7.Discussion and outlook
  • References
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