Spatial Play in Language Acquisition

Spatial play is of vital importance to various disciplines concerned with developing spatial intelligence, and awareness of the formal languages used to address space. While spatial language ability is a critical aspect of spatial intelligence and play, little research attention has been paid towards its L1 or L2 acquisition in such contexts. I first review relevant papers, then identify a significant shortfall in the research literature regarding spatial play in language acquisition, and finally suggest avenues for further research. The nature of spatial play should be clarified, and its role in facilitating language acquisition addressed. Multisensory spatial play helps students learn experientially and linguistically. Acquisition of new language should be related to existent spatial language ability. Discovery during spatial play may helpfully destabilize spatial interlanguage, inhibit fossilization, and allow development. Collaborative spatial play stimulates spatial language play and thus language acquisition. Architectural design philosophy may benefit spatial language acquisition theory.