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The Place of Embodied Learning Activities in the English Classroom Marcello Giovanelli January 2013

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I was waiting at the station feeling a little down as I had some heavy issues on my mind. But I was looking forward to seeing my friend and going out that evening. I saw a man at the other end of the platform. He had an icy stare. He walked over to me. His eyes were continually on me. He stopped and told me he was a Spurs fan. I could now see why he was sad: he was clearly having a rough time of it too. Sadness is down Emotions are objects Emotions are movements Emotions are physical states (warm = good; cold = bad) Seeing is touching Seeing is understanding Life is a physical surface (good = smooth; bad = rough)

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Embodied Cognition Thought and speech use our experience of physical movement and the bodys interaction in space to explain the abstract The whole bodys role in perceiving and learning to make sense of the world

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Climbers stated that a hill appeared steeper when wearing a backpack Students holding a warm drink rated an imaginary person as more friendly than those who were given a cold drink to hold Participants were more likely to remember a positive experience when pushing marbles up a ramp than rolling them down People imagined object rotations more quickly when they could physically rotate an object with their hands Children who practised reading a passage whilst manipulating figurines to mirror the actions in that passage were better at recalling events from new passages they subsequently read Participants responded yes faster to the question is it possible to squeeze a tomato? when they had their hand formed into a closed grip rather than a flat palm

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Structure A) Some fundamental principles behind a cognitive approach to teaching aspects of grammar, structure, and meaning in the context of the English classroom B) Illustration of some ideas for and examples of teaching complex topics

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A: Fundamentals Embodied cognition From the physical to mental conceptualisation Image schemas The pedagogy of embodied learning activities: teaching through movement

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B: Embodied Learning Activities Modality Metaphor

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Orientational metaphors HAPPINESS IS UPSADNESS IS DOWN

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Stand Retaining a position We must stand our ground He stands for freedom I cant stand that music Becoming more visible or prominent Shes standing in for Paula today She stands out in a crowd Hes a teacher of real standing Standing up

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Image schemas STAND meaning structures

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bodily experience>>cognition

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Image Schema CONTAINER He was in the room He went into the room PATH TRLM

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Image Schemas Are not images but analogue representations Are multi-modal Are inherently meaningful

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Functional Significance

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Interpretative Significance

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Embodied Learning Activities Approaches to learning that deliberately use the body to engage with abstract concepts Make use of the bodys capacity to make explore and make sense Rely on the notion of embodiment since meanings develop from concrete bodily experience........it makes sense if pedagogical sequences do also Holme (2009: 22)

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Seattle Pacific University Energy Project

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ELAs in the English Classroom L2 vocabulary and grammar teaching (e.g. Holme 2009) Hallidays (2002) grammatics: using grammar to think with Grammar as meaningful

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Modality

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1.You must not enter 2.You cannot buy tickets here 3.You may now open the window 4.You can sing really well 5.You will be fined 6.You might win

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Modal senses are connected and related by virtue of force schemata Johnson (1987: 49)

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COMPULSION BLOCKABLE REMOVE CONSTRAINT

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1.You must not enter = COMPULSION 2.You cannot buy tickets here = BLOCK 3.You may now open the window = REMOVE CONSTRAINT 4.You can sing really well = ABLE 5.You will be fined = COMPULSION (certainty) 6.You might win = ABLE (perhaps?)

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Epistemic >>>>may>>>>will>>>>must Arsenal might win>>>Arsenal will win>>>Arsenal must win LESS CERTAIN MORE CERTAIN

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Deontic >>>>may>>>>ought to>>>>must He may go>>He ought to go>>He must go PERMISSION OBLIGATION NECESSITY

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BLOCK He mustnt be the one I was thinking of

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BLOCK

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REMOVE CONSTRAINT

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Modality in written discourse

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Your vehicle must either be taxed You may not be able will not be committing.. You must keep your vehicle off the road You must declare your vehicle You could be fined 1000 you could be fined and sent to prison.. You must display the tax disc

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COMPULSION

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Taking it further Each force schema could be explored in turn to identify degrees of modality along a continuum. For example, are there some modal constructions (and therefore texts) which present greater degrees of compulsion? Explore modal lexical verbs (e.g. permit) and modal adjectives/adverbs (possible/possibly) to produce a more detailed analysis of the kinds of power inherent in modalised expressions in a text Ask students to rewrite or re-act texts which rely on modal constructions, replacing them with either stronger/weaker modals or non-modalised expressions. A comparison of the two should give further insight into the role of modality. Find and analyse texts where modalised expressions occur with other dominant features such as imperative sentences. Ask students to collect examples of texts and consider how these language features combine to create particular effects.

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Metaphor

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Structuring one thing through another Understanding the abstract through the physical

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Politics = sport (football) Politics = physical activity/struggle Politics = physical violence (victims) Politics = battle Politics = sport (boxing) Politics = journey

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Politics = sport (football) Players on a pitch Kick footballs around Footballs are passive Players take the glory Its a game Politicians Voters Power Rewards Consequences Provides a structure for understanding SOURCE DOMAIN (FOOTBALL) TARGET DOMAIN (POLITICS) Mapped onto

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Politics = sport (football) Players on a pitch Kick footballs around Footballs are passive Players take the glory Its a game Politicians Voters Power Rewards Consequences Provides a structure for understanding

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GOOD IS UP; BAD IS DOWN GOOD IS MOVEMENT; BAD IS STASIS COUNTRIES ARE PEOPLE POLITICS IS AN OBJECT IMMIGRATION/FINANCIAL DEFICITS ARE BARRIERS CHANGE IS ACTION

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Exploring metaphorical mapping Take one metaphor Identify source and target domains Explore what attributes are being mapped across How is metaphor used as a structuring device?

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Taking it further Rewrite (re-act) making the source domain more up front (e.g. write the Frank Dunne text as a football commentary) Script and perform an advertisement to emphasise the embodied nature of abstract ideas

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A model for using ELAs Set up deliberate embodied activities Ask students to consider the role of the physical in the structuring of meaning Discussion of patterns of experience and patterns of meaning Synthesis of learning and theoretical Interpretation and testing

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Wider implications: pedagogy Generative and functional dominance Hammond and Macken-Horarik (2001): 69% of teachers thought that functional grammar would be useful in supporting the teaching of writing; 6% felt confident to use it in their teaching Watson (2012): competing grammar discourses Giovanelli (2010, 2012): a cognitive grammatics in the secondary classroom (text world theory)

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Wider implications: the classroom In traditional classroom situations, students are seated, often in individual desks, and often all facing the front of the classroom. This....leads to the restriction of many forms of expression (Close et al. 2010 )

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References and further reading Close, E.W., Close, H.G., McKagan, S.B. and Scherr, R.E. (2010) Energy in action: the construction of Physics ideas in multiple modes, 2010 Physics Education Research Conference. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1289, pp. 105-108. Evans, V. and Green, M. (2007) Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Gallagher, S. (2005) How the Body Shapes the Mind, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Giovanelli, M. (2010) A text world theory approach to the teaching of poetry, English in Education 44 (3), 214-31. Giovanelli, M. (2012) Text world theory and the teaching of reading and writing, Paper delivered at National Association for the Teaching of English Conference, York. Halliday, M. (2002) On grammar and grammatics in J. Webster (ed.) On Grammar: Vol 1 of the Collected Works of MAK Halliday, London: Continuum: pp. 384-417. Hammond, J. and Macken-Horarik, M. (2001) Teachers voices, teachers practices: insider perspectives on literacy education, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 24 (2), 112-132. Holme, R. (2009) Cognitive Linguistics and Language Teaching, Basingstoke: Macmillan. Johnson, M. (1987) The Body in the Mind: the Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. Lakoff, G and Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors We Live By, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press Lakoff, G. and Turner, M. (1989) More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. Mandler, J. M. (2004) The Foundations of Mind: Origins of Conceptual Thought, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Scherr, R., Close, H., McKagan, S. And Close, E. (2010) Energy theater: using the body symbolically to understand energy, 2010 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings, Volume 1289, pp. 293- 296. Ungerer, F. And Schmid, H. (1996) An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics, Longman: London. Watson, H. (2012) Navigating the pit of doom: Affective responses to teaching grammar, English in Education 46 (1), 21-36.