The Place of Embodied Learning Activities in the English Classroom

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

2. 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) I was waiting at the station feeling a little down as I had some heavy issues on my mind. But I was looking forwardto 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 seewhy he was sad: he was clearly having a rough time of it too.

3. Embodied Cognition • Thought and speech use our experience of physical movement and the body’s interaction in space to explain the abstract • The whole body’s role in perceiving and learning to make sense of the world

4. 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

5. 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’

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

7. B: Embodied Learning Activities • Modality • Metaphor

8. Orientational metaphors HAPPINESS IS UP SADNESS IS DOWN

9. Stand Retaining a position • We must stand our ground • He stands for freedom • I can’t stand that music Becoming more visible or prominent • She’s standing in for Paula today • She stands out in a crowd • He’s a teacher of real standing Standing up

10. Image schemas meaning structures STAND

11. bodily experience>>cognition

12. Image Schema He went into the room PATH TR LM CONTAINER He was in the room

13. Image Schemas • Are not ‘images’ but analogue representations • Are multi-modal • Are inherently meaningful

14. Functional Significance

15. Interpretative Significance

16. Embodied Learning Activities • Approaches to learning that deliberately use the body to engage with abstract concepts • Make use of the body’s 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)

17. Seattle Pacific University Energy Project

18. ELAs in the English Classroom • L2 vocabulary and grammar teaching (e.g. Holme 2009) • Halliday’s (2002) ‘grammatics’: using grammar to think with • Grammar as ‘meaningful’

19. Modality

20. You must not enter • You cannot buy tickets here • You may now open the window • You can sing really well • You will be fined • You might win

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

22. REMOVE CONSTRAINT ABLE COMPULSION BLOCK

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

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

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

26. BLOCK He mustn’t be the one I was thinking of

27. BLOCK

28. REMOVE CONSTRAINT

33. Modality in written discourse

34. Modality in written discourse • 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

35. COMPULSION

36. 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.

37. Metaphor

38. Structuring one thing through another • Understanding the abstract through the physical

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

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

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

43. 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

44. 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?

49. 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

50. 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