Anchoring Foreign Language Learning – AnchorFL

Our program, structured in three Tasks, exploits various methodologies (EEG, fMRI, kinematic recordings and psychophysics) to unravel the potential of manual gestures as a lever for FL learning.

Data under analysis.

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.