Teaching German Words and Verbs in Motion: A Quasi-Experimental Study with Swiss French-Speaking Secondary School Students

Abstract

The theory of Embodied Learning is founded on the notion that the body and mind are inextricably linked during the learning process and encourages active student engagement both inside and outside the classroom. A daily challenge for many French-speaking students in Switzerland is learning German words and verbs. Teachers can support students in overcoming this challenge by offering active learning opportunities seen as Embodied Learning activities. This quasi-experimental study tests the following hypotheses: (a) students memorize more vocabulary in motion, (b) words or verbs learned in motion are memorized in the longer term than those learned traditionally, and (c) movement-based learning does not have a significant influence on spelling. A total of 73 French-speaking Swiss secondary school students (Mage = 13.1 years) participated in this study. The participants were exposed to both traditional and embodied teaching methods for a period of three months. The results of this study highlight the benefits of Embodied Learning, including (i) long-term vocabulary memorization, (ii) short- and long-term verb acquisition, and (iii) improved spelling of words and verbs. Notably, the findings underscore the potential of physical engagement to mitigate disparities between boys and girls, suggesting that it may serve as a catalyst for enhancing the efficacy of foreign language learning. The findings of this study call into question the effectiveness of traditional teaching and education methods while highlighting the potential benefits of Embodied Learning in foreign language education.

Received: 27 November 2024 | Revised: 7 May 2025 | Accepted: 26 August 2025

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support this work are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Author Contribution Statement

Magali Descoeudres: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Vincent Hagin: Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization.