Reconceptualizing Language Acquisition through Embodiment and Materiality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71435/688508Keywords:
Embodiment, Materiality, Language Acquisition , PhenomenologyAbstract
Purpose: This study aims to reconceptualize language acquisition through the integrated perspectives of embodiment and materiality by examining how bodily actions, material resources, and classroom spaces interact to shape language learning in multilingual elementary classrooms. The study also seeks to develop a conceptual explanation of how these dimensions collectively contribute to language acquisition beyond conventional cognitive perspectives.
Subjects and Methods: A qualitative interpretive design was employed in two multilingual elementary school classrooms involving 24 learners aged 10–14 years and four English language teachers. Data were collected through participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and artifact analysis over a three-month period. The data were analyzed using thematic and multimodal interpretive analysis to examine patterns of bodily engagement, material mediation, spatial interaction, and collaborative meaning making.
Results: Three interconnected themes emerged from the analysis. Gestures supported vocabulary retrieval, reduced communication anxiety, and sustained classroom participation. Material resources mediated meaning construction by enabling multimodal interaction between learners and learning artifacts. Flexible classroom spaces facilitated collaborative participation and authentic communicative practices. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that language acquisition develops through the reciprocal interaction of bodily, material, spatial, and social dimensions rather than through isolated cognitive processes.
Conclusions: This study proposes an Embodied Material Language Learning Framework that conceptualizes language acquisition as an ecological process emerging from the continuous interaction among bodily action, material mediation, spatial participation, and collaborative meaning making. The framework extends embodied cognition and socio-material perspectives by integrating cognitive, affective, interactional, and ecological dimensions into a unified explanation of language acquisition.
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