This section of the blog attempts to conclude the information in other sections as well show an area of research in this field that was of interest to us.

The information that has been presented in this blog are all targeted at the different functions the body and mind play in second language acquisition. These various parts must all be viewed as interconnected. No one part can exist without  effecting and being affected by the other parts. Thus the various implications that the research covered has on second language learning and how it may impact teaching methods depends very much on which components individuals choose to center their own focus on for either more research in laboratories or in practice in the classroom.

One area of interest in on the local front. The keen relationship the body and mind have with language acquisition is all the more significant, with Singapore’s racial and cultural diversity giving rise to a unique bilingual and even multilingual background not found in most other nations of the world. Traditionally, the time-on-task method of learning English through increased exposure was used, with English becoming the language of instruction for mathematics and science in the 1970s, instead of a mother tongue language (Chinese, Malay or Tamil). This however resulted in a decline in the science results of Chinese-medium students, proving that merely increasing the amount of time students received exposure in these languages was clearly not sufficient in enabling the students to have a better grasp of English as their L2. Instead, Dixon (2009) suggests that the quality of input in the target language should be emphasized on instead, and such high-quality input would include the use of “body motions” and “visual aids” among others, which would provide input which students will be able to comprehend during language learning. At present, the same concept can be applied when teaching the mother tongue languages (Chinese, Malay and Tamil) instead of encouraging students to learn by rote or the time-on-task method. With such an approach, young learners will be more engaged and develop a more positive attitude towards learning their mother tongue language.