ABSTRACT
Physical activity can facilitate lexical integration, a phenomenon described as “embodied learning,” learning that involves self-performed or self-generated action that is directly linked to the learned content. Embodied semantics posits that cognition is grounded in multimodal representations originating in human experience and that motor processes play an essential role in language processing. Much of the evidence for this lies in neuroimaging studies showing that sensory and motor systems are recruited during lexical processing, both during development and in adults. Studies of adult second language (L2) learners showed that sensorimotor networks are also involved in L2 processing, but less so than in the L1, likely due to L2 learning often being decontextualized. This chapter focuses on the neurocognitive processes behind facilitated embodied learning and their implications for L2 learning, and reviews behavioral and neurocognitive evidence on embodied language processing and learning both in L1 processing and in adult L2 learners.
