Article: Learning a Language May Come Down to Gestures

From http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/learning-a-language-may-come-down-to-gestures/2012/01/03/gIQAJ5fFmP_story.html

Learning a language may come down to gestures
January 9, 2012

Language classes of the future might come with a physical workout because people learn a new tongue more easily when words are accompanied by movement.

Manuela Macedonia and Thomas Knoesche at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, enrolled 20 volunteers in a six-day course to learn “Vimmi”, a phony language designed to make study results easier to interpret. Half of the material was taught using only spoken and written instructions and exercises, while the other half was taught with body movements to accompany each word, which the students were asked to act out.

Students remembered significantly more of the words taught with movement, and they used them more readily when creating sentences, according to the researchers.

Read the full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/learning-a-language-may-come-down-to-gestures/2012/01/03/gIQAJ5fFmP_story.html

Access the study at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-228X.2011.01129.x/abstract;jsessionid=5C1B0B2CDDCF3652BE22217B828C807C.d01t01