The embodied cognition effect of the second language: Automatic activation or native language mediation?

Abstract: Embodied language cognition highlights that language processing is not only involves internal representation of purely abstract symbols but also body and environment which play an important role. The majority of the evidences are from the field of the first language (L1), and there is still debate on whether this effect exists in second language (L2) cognition or not. We proposed two hypotheses, “automatic activation” and “native language mediation”, after summarizing the evidences for the L2 embodiment effect from behavioral and neurophysiological studies. And we analyzed the advantages, disadvantages, and influencing factors. Finally, the existing issues in this field and the research orientation in the future are discussed, studies on these issues are helpful to enrich the theory of language embodied cognition and further clarify the mechanism of bilingual representation, and effectively improve L2 teaching.