Children’s Language Learning from an Embodied Cognition Perspective: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions

The emergence of embodied cognition theory has altered our traditional understanding of children’s language learning, emphasizing the close connection between the body, environment, and movement. This paper discusses the opportunities, challenges, and future directions of research on children’s language learning from the perspective of embodied cognition. It concludes that multisensory engagement can greatly improve children’s comprehension and memorization of language knowledge and that language acquisition is intimately tied to bodily perception, movement, and emotional experience. In addition, children’s language acquisition can also be effectively aided by embodied cognition techniques as multimedia aids, gesture and enactment, and imagery. Based on previous evidence, we propose an integrated language learning framework and a new relevance-integration taxonomy for children’s language learning from the perspectives of embodied cognition and cognitive load theories. In order to support the long-term growth of children’s language education, future research should focus more on the requirement of embodied language learning in the preschool-primary transition and optimize the teaching objectives and contents.

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