The Relevance of Spatial Play to First and Second Language Acquisition

Spatial play is vitally important to various disciplines in developing spatial intelligence, and awareness of the formal languages used to address space. Spatial language ability is a critical aspect of spatial intelligence and play; but little research attention has been paid towards its L1 or L2 acquisition in such contexts. After reviewing relevant papers, this review identifies a significant shortfall in the research literature regarding spatial play in language acquisition, and suggests various avenues for further research. The nature of spatial play should be clarified, and its role in facilitating language acquisition addressed. Multi-sensory spatial play helps students learn experientially and linguistically, and 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 contribute to spatial language acquisition theory