My foreign body: exploring lived experiences of speaking a foreign language

ABSTRACT

The significance of the body in learning and speaking a foreign language is an under-researched topic in a field characterized by a strong focus on cognition and sociolinguistics. This paper is designed to contribute to a newly emerging line of inquiry addressing the move away from the pure linguistic approach towards a more humanistic perspective. Within this context, phenomenology has been considered both as a relevant and as an under-researched approach. This article contributes to the current research on foreign languages studies by expanding our understanding of what it means to speak a language as experienced in the body.

El papel del cuerpo dentro del aprendizaje y la expresión de una lengua extranjera es un tema escasamente estudiado en este campo, caracterizado por el énfasis en lo cognitivo y la sociolingüística. Por el contrario, este artículo se sitúa en la tendencia actual de distanciarse de la visión puramente lingüística del aprendizaje de lenguas y moverse en dirección hacia una perspectiva más humanista. Dentro de este contexto la fenomenología, puede considerarse altamente relevante y no suficientemente investigada. Este articulo contribuye al estudio de la corporeidad y las lenguas extranjeras.

KEYWORDS:

• Foreign language speaking
• bodily awareness
• lived experience
• primacy of sound
• phenomenology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Luisa Pérez Cavana

Dr. Maria Luisa Pérez Cavana studied Philosophy, History and Education in Spain and Germany. She is a Senior Lecturer in Languages at the Open University. One facet of her research expertise concerns learner autonomy, learner-centred pedagogy and learning ePortfolios in relation to language learning. She is part of the expert team for the European Language Portfolio (ELP) at the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in Graz. Another main research theme is using phenomenology to study the lived experience of teaching and learning a foreign language.