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Cited by 13EFL/ESL Teaching and LearningSecond Language Acquisition and LearningHearing Impairment and Communication

The Embodied Teaching of Spatial Terms: Gestures Mapped to Morphemes Improve Learning

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Janzen Ulbricht, Natasha·2020·Frontiers in Education
DOI 10.3389/feduc.2020.00109
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Abstract

Learning spatial terms in a second language is often an arduous task which learners perform with varying levels of success. While classroom-based studies of gesture have shown the importance of embodied learning, predictions about which teaching gestures are most effective remain rare. In the context of learning and performing a play, this study investigates two English language teaching methods, one with teacher gestures at the level of morphology and one with gestures at the sentence level. This experiment with a diverse group of primary-school-age children from Germany and Poland (N = 76) shows that although over time both groups made similar gains in understanding and using spatial terms, this gain was more immediate for learners exposed to one gesture per morpheme. For beginning learners spatial terms are frequent, important and abstract, hence this research may have important implications for understanding the nature of effective methods for teaching and testing abstract concepts.

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  • For more abstract words, gestured input at the level of the morpheme, as opposed to reading plus gestures at the sentence level, benefitted all learners, regardless of their initial level.

    “Here it was found that for these more abstract words, gestured input at the level of the morpheme, as opposed to reading plus gestures at the sentence level, benefitted all learners, regardless of their initial level.”

    From Can grammatical morphemes be taught? Evidence of gestures influencing second language procedural learning in middle childhood (2023) · cites this paper as [61]

    The Differences Between Experimental Groups section reports a larger immediate gain in spatial-term ability for children taught with morpheme-level gestures than for those taught with sentence-level gestures and written text. The Summary says the groups’ results became less distinct over time. Our copy does not establish that morpheme-level gestures benefited all learners regardless of their initial level. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • A follow-up study using the same teaching methods investigated spatial term learning.

    “A follow-up study using the same teaching methods investigated spatial term learning [61].”

    From Can grammatical morphemes be taught? Evidence of gestures influencing second language procedural learning in middle childhood (2023) · cites this paper as [61]

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Cited by

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Authors
Janzen Ulbricht, N.
Venue
Frontiers in Education
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2020-07-17
Volume
5
ISSN
2504-284X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/feduc.2020.00109
OpenAlex
W3041971468
Cited by
13
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2020: 1
FWCI
6.98
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Frontiers in Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Universitätsbibliothek der FU Berlin Hochschulschriftenstelle u. Dokumentenserver (cc-by)
Funders
Freie Universität Berlin
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Hearing Impairment and Communication
Keywords
embodied learning, gesture, spatial terms, morphemes, second language acquisition, English as a foreign language, elementary school students, abstract concepts, play-based learning

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