Interhemispheric foreign language learning is a form of learning that activates both hemispheres of the brain, based especially on the discovery of the mirror neurons by Giacomo Rizzolatti. It could be applied to many types of learning, but so far has been scientifically applied only to second language teaching and foreign language learning. Traditional foreign language learning, which focuses on learning vocabulary and grammar and using textbooks, mainly activates the left hemisphere. Interhemispheric learning, however, also stimulates the right hemisphere and enhances interaction between both hemispheres. Research shows that gestures and all nonverbal communication activate Brodmann area 44 and 45, responsible for language (Broca's area) in the left hemisphere. Research on mirror neurons also shows that mental imagining gestures without actually carrying out gestures also activate the same area of the brain. Those results are used now for foreign language teaching and learning.
Read more about Interhemispheric Foreign Language Learning: How Does It Work?, The Crucial Factor: The Behavior of The Language Teacher, Empirical Studies
Famous quotes containing the words foreign, language and/or learning:
“There can only be one Commander-in-Chief. In these times, crises cannot be managed and wars cannot be waged by committee. To the ears of the world, the President speaks for the nation. While he is of course ultimately accountable to Congress, the courts, and the people, he and his emissaries must not be handicapped in advance in their relations with foreign governments as has sometimes happened in the past.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“Though language forms the preacher,
‘Tis “good works” make the man.”
—Eliza Cook (1818–1889)
“The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)