psychological thinking about the trend of embodied cognition and its inspiration to the foreign lang

1、<p>　　Psychological Thinking about the Trend of Embodied Cognition and Its Inspiration to the Foreign Lang</p><p>　　Abstract. Currently, the nature of cognition is being-reconsidered. Instead of emphasi

2、zing formal operations on abstract symbols, the new approach foregrounds the fact that the cognition is, rather, embodied and a situated activity. The study on cognition has moved from theory to experiment. And through v

3、arious experiments and tests, many psychological scholars and cognitive scientists prove that the brain is embedded in he body and the body is embedded in the environment which emphasizes an emb</p><p>　　Key

4、 words: embodied cognition, foreign language teaching, situated teaching </p><p>　　I. Introduction </p><p>　　Embodied cognition is a quite popular topic in psychological even in the whole cognit

5、ive science field now. Angier, an American psychologist, said in the New York Times “brain and mind are not two separate parts of our own. How do we process information is not only related with the mind, but also closed

6、linked with the whole body. ” Besides, a research report, published in the Psychological Science magazine in 2011, points out that more evidences show that human mind is embodied and does not go </p><p>　　II

7、. What is Embodied Cognition? </p><p>　　Embodied cognition emphasizes that the nature of human mind s largely determined by the form of human body. And the cognition is affected and even molded by the constr

8、uction, state, feeling and movement of the body. According to Lakoff and Johnson, the mind is inherently embodied not just because all of its process must be neutrally instantiated, but also because the particulars of ou

9、r perceptual and motor systems play a fundamental role in the concept definition and in rational inference. </p><p>　　Philosophers, psychological, cognitive scientists and artificial intelligence researchers

10、 who study embodied cognition and the embodied mind argue that all aspects of cognition are shaped by aspects of body. Here, the aspects of cognition include high level mental constructs (such as concepts and categories)

11、 and human performance on various cognitive tasks (such as reasoning or judgment). The aspects of the body include the perceptual system, the institutions that underline the ability to move, </p><p>　　III. W

12、hy Cognition is Embodied? </p><p>　　After knowing what embodied cognition is, we may doubt why cognition is embodied, rather disembodied, Generally, embodied cognition scientists prove this by the following

13、three main points : </p><p>　　a, The state of body affects cognition process directly. Just as the words of Lakoff and Johnson I mentioned earlier, human mind is inherently embodied. That's mainly becaus

14、e the particulars of our perceptual and motor systems play a foundational role in concept definition and in rational inference .What’s more, A series of experiments done by psychologists also confirm this point. Some psy

15、chological researchers of Yale university did a test with 41 college students who was divided into two grou</p><p>　　b, Mind and cognition ,in nature, is not processed or represented by abstract symbols, but

16、 a “simulation”. According to Barsalou, simulation is the reenactment of the perception ,movement and introspection produced in the interaction of body ,mind and the world (environment).That’s to say higher cognitive pro

17、cesses operate on perceptual symbols and that concept use involves partial reactivations of the sensory-motor states that occur during experience with world. On this view, the processing of </p><p>　　c. Cogn

18、itive system is made up of physical process of the body and interaction between body and outside environment which affects cognition directly. Cognition is, therefore, not only embodied, but embedded. Brain is embedded i

19、n the body and body is embedded in the environment. And that makes up a integrated whole system. So according to this view, we should try to enable ourselves to embed into environment in order to get exact cognition. 　　

20、IV. Inspiration towards Foreign Language Teaching. </p><p>　　As a qualified foreign language teacher, it is an essential premise to know how language is acquired and what the cognitive process is like when l

21、eaning language. Only knowing those can we teach the language exactly according to the rule. Here, embodied cognition brings much inspiration to foreign language teaching. </p><p>　　On the basis of embodied

22、cognition, we can see that cognition and body are not irrelevant from each other, but coupling. And along with research in situated cognition, embodied cognition scientists further suggests that intelligence lies less in

23、 the individual brain and more in the dynamic interaction of brains with the wider world--including especially the social and cultural words which are so central to human cognition. Hence, the acquisition of language is

24、not just the responding, understand</p><p>　　a, What is Situated Teaching? </p><p>　　Situated teaching is an embodied cognition model where knowledge and skills are taught in real (or simulate-r

25、ealistic) situations. Here, students learn language through specific and practical activities not abstract ways. Obviously, situated teaching challenges the traditional way where language was taught abstractly and lack o

26、f specific context. Instead, situated teaching advocates that language should be taught in different kinds of contexts in order to enable students to grasp he language spe</p><p>　　In situated teaching, the

27、role of a teacher mainly is an organizer, sometimes a participant. Practice and activity are the center of situated teaching. Students learn knowledge and internalize them through practice to verify their own perception.

28、 Body, here, as the basis of communication, understanding, applications, makes connections between perception and movement. And the goal of this teaching pattern is maximize the effect that restore the language back to i

29、ts real situation or simulated sit</p><p>　　If a teacher wants to teach the new word “friendly”, he can organize the scene to meet in the classroom. Two students form a group. Then the teacher asks them to s

30、hake their hands, hug each other and say “very nice to see you” with smile. Teacher can also tell the students different ways to show friendness when meeting in difference cultural background. Hence, through touching, vi

31、sual sense, sense of listening, students can experience the warmth and friendness of their partner personally and exa</p><p>　　Here, what I want to add is the importance of cultural situation. Foreign langua

32、ge teacher should pay more attention to the culture. When learning festivals, it is very essential to introduce the cultural background and custom in order to create a more real and vivid activity situation. </p>

33、<p>　　Although it is just a very simple example, I really hope we can conclude or learn something from it. </p><p>　　V. Conclusion </p><p>　　Although the real relation shop between mind and

34、 body is still yet the trend of embodied cognition really brings much to foreign language teaching. On the basis of embodied nature more and more research achievements done by psychologists and cognitive scientists, fore

35、ign language teacher should change the traditional abstract way of teaching. They should adopt the situated teaching pattern in order to enable students to learn a language in its real and vivid way. Only by this can stu

36、dents gain t</p><p>　　References </p><p>　　[1] Xue Cancan, Ye Haosheng. Embodied social cognition: cognitive psychology ecology steering [J] Psychological Science, 2011. </p><p>　　[

37、2] Ye Haosheng, Mind Embodied resistance: evidence from different disciplines [M]. Social Sciences, 2013. </p><p>　　[3] Wang Ruian, Sang Biao. Social Cognition in Embodied Perspective [M]. Psychological Scie