Anchoring Foreign Language Learning – AnchorFL

In a first study combining behavioral and EEG measures, we assessed the influence of manual gestures on the learning of foreign language verbs. French-speaking adults learned, over the course of three sessions, Greek action verbs associated or not with manual gestures derived from the French sign language, which either did or did not reflect the meaning of the words. Learners were required to repeat the verb and, when applicable, observe or imitate the associated gesture. Learning quality was assessed using a verb recognition task administered after each session and again one month later. EEG recordings conducted before and after learning aimed to examine patterns of brain activity in response to the learned Greek verbs, compared to French verbs. This study was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 health crisis, both in terms of data collection and analysis, preventing us from exceeding a maximum sample size of 20 participants. For seven of them, behavioral data were collected remotely, and EEG acquisition was not possible. EEG data, available for only 13 participants, are therefore not usable. Moreover, we did not renew the contract of the postdoctoral researcher in charge of the study (funded by another organization), resulting in the absence of full-time personnel dedicated to data analysis.

In a second study, we examined brain activity using fMRI during the perception of consonants from the participants’ native language (French) and from a foreign language (Mandarin). Participants performed a syllable identification task (consonant-vowel), with stimuli presented either intact or embedded in noise. The Chinese consonants varied in their distance from the native phonological repertoire: aspirated stops /ph/ and /th/ differing from French stops in manner of articulation; the retroflex fricative /ʂ/, differing from the French /ʃ/ in place of articulation; and the fricative /X/, differing from the French /ʁ/ in voicing and place of articulation. Participants also performed a motor task consisting of performing small movements of the lips (silently articulating “ma”), the tongue (silently articulating “la”), or the left and right index fingers. This “localizer” task aimed to identify motor regions involved in the production of labial and dental consonants for subsequent fMRI analyses.

After several difficulties in recruiting staff (postdoc then ingénieur d'études), we are currently conducting a third behavioral study aimed at evaluating the impact of manual gestures on the perception and production of Arabic consonants by adult French learners. The gestures illustrate the place of articulation of the consonants. One group undergoes gesture-based learning, while another group receives traditional audiovisual learning.

Study 1: The results indicate an improvement in learning performance across the three sessions, demonstrating the overall effectiveness of the protocol. Learning through imitation and observation of iconic gestures leads to better recognition of Greek verbs (67% and 65.5%, respectively) than traditional audiovisual learning (61%) and learning through imitation of non-iconic gestures (55%). No additional benefit of gesture imitation over simple observation is observed. The nature of the imitated gesture is crucial, as performing a non-iconic gesture during learning interferes with verb encoding. Although the advantage of iconic gestures is statistically significant, it is less pronounced than we had hoped. Moreover, participants’ overall average performance after the three learning sessions struggles to reach 70% correct recognition. These findings prompt us to question the frequency of training, which likely needs to be increased.

Study 2: The results show stronger activation of motor regions during the perception of non-native phonemes and syllables presented in noise, consistent with the role of the motor cortex in speech perception under challenging conditions. Multivariate pattern analyses (MVPA) revealed that phoneme processing activates the motor system in a somatotopic manner, at least in the native language and when acoustic conditions are unfavorable. Activity elicited by listening to labial consonants is classified as corresponding to labial movements, whereas activity related to the perception of dental consonants is classified as corresponding to tongue movements. This effect is observed only in the native noisy condition. Finally, we conducted representational similarity analyses (RSA) to determine whether brain activity patterns evoked during the perception of native and non-native consonants, regardless of perceptual condition (intact or noisy), showed similarities for consonants sharing the same phonetic features—namely place and manner of articulation, aspiration, and voicing. The results reveal the involvement of a bilateral cortical network including motor and auditory regions in the encoding of these features, with more or less extensive patterns depending on the feature. This study, which formed the basis of T. Tseng’s doctoral dissertation (defended in January 2025), is currently the subject of a manuscript to be submitted shortly to an international journal (+ preprint bioRxiv). The preliminary results have also been presented at international conferences (SNL 2023, ESLP 2024, ISSP 2024).

In preparation for Study 3, we conducted a literature review on the role of motor regions in speech perception in both native and foreign languages, as well as on existing learning paradigms, highlighting the potential of manual gestures to enhance phoneme production and perception (Tseng et al., 2026, Neurobiology of Language).

AnchorFL will constitute a major breakthrough in language research by unveiling the fundamental role of embodied motor processes in establishing the fingerprints of a new phonological code and of new word-meaning associations. By giving a hand to FL learning, our research program will provide solid foundation to conceptualize and develop innovative pedagogic approaches that bring the body into play and that will incontestably strengthen foreign language learning in children and adults.

En cours.

Learning and mastering a foreign language (FL) is one of the greatest challenges that we, as kids and adults, have to deal with. This is especially true in our ever-increasing multilingual society, wherein we interact with people from all over the world or have to migrate to another country for professional, personal or political reasons. All aspects of the to-be-acquired language are hindered, from decoding and accurately pronouncing sounds to being able to follow a conversation and grasp the pragmatics of the language. Over the past 20 years, theories of embodiment have propelled our hands and body as stakeholders in language comprehension. We identify speech sounds thanks to our capacity to embody how they are articulated, we understand words denoting actions through our own motor skills. Despite the substantial scientific evidence showing that our bodily experiences shape linguistic processing, learning a foreign language remains static: we are typically asked to remember vocabulary lists by heart, read and listen to teachers, with no space for movement. This is clearly far from optimal. Our groundbreaking research program aims to introduce a theoretical shift in foreign language learning protocols: from passive to embodied FL learning. Using a multidisciplinary approach at the interface between language sciences and cognitive neuroscience, we will anchor FL learning into the body to build up enriched, long-standing linguistic representations in the brain. The project will follow two lines of research seeking to 1) investigate how manual gestures can engrave FL phonological and semantic representations into the motor system of adult learners and 2) boost FL learning through embodiment. Our hypothesis is that grounding the sounds and meaning of words in a foreign language into physical motor experiences will optimize learning, paving the way to native-like representations. Our program, structured in three Tasks, will exploit various methodologies (EEG, fMRI, kinematic recordings and psychophysics) to unravel the potential of manual gestures as a lever for FL learning. Task 1 will aim at enacting learning of FL word meaning with manual iconic gestures, so as to develop anchored, stable semantic representations and therefore guarantee efficient learning. In Task 2, we will decipher the role of the motor production system in FL phonological processing by examining the motor neural signature of non-native speech sound perception. This will provide the basis for Task 3’s objective to foster learner’s perception and production of FL phonemes by refining their representations into articulatory brain regions. Overall, AnchorFL will constitute a major breakthrough in language research by unveiling the fundamental role of embodied motor processes in establishing the fingerprints of a new phonological code and of new word-meaning associations. By giving a hand to FL learning, our research program will provide solid foundation to conceptualize and develop innovative pedagogic approaches that bring the body into play and that will incontestably strengthen foreign language learning in children and adults.