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How are motion events conceptualized in second language acquisition?

Evidence-based answer · Last updated · How it’s made

The short answer

Research on second language acquisition shows that how people describe "motion events" (like someone walking into a room or a ball rolling down a hill) is shaped by their native language's grammar, and learning a second language can partially reshape — or "restructure" — that way of thinking. This is especially well studied for English learners, since English handles motion very differently from languages like Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Turkish, making English a frequent test case in this research.

Asked as someone learning English. Findings drawn from English-specific research are framed for English learners and may not hold for other languages; where the evidence is general second-language research, the report says so.

Languages split into two families for describing motion

Linguists classify languages into two broad types for describing motion: "satellite-framed" languages like English, which put the manner of movement (walking, running, crawling) in the main verb and the path/direction (in, out, up, down) in a separate word; and "verb-framed" languages like Spanish, Turkish, Korean, and Japanese, which put the path in the main verb and treat manner as optional extra detail.1,2,3,9,10,11,15

In plain terms

"Manner" of motion means how something moves (walking vs. running vs. crawling), while "path" means the direction or route it takes (into, out of, up, down). A satellite is just the small extra word or particle attached to the verb that carries this path information, like the "out" in "climbed out."

Example

An English speaker naturally says "she ran into the room" (manner verb + path word), while a Spanish speaker would more naturally say the equivalent of "she entered the room running" (path verb, manner as an add-on).

Learning English shifts how people describe motion, even in their first language

Multiple studies of children and adults find that learning English as a second language changes not just how people speak English, but how they describe motion in their native language too — they start using more manner verbs and fewer path verbs even when speaking their L1.1,2,3,4,8,12

Example

A Spanish-speaking child learning English might start saying the Spanish equivalent of "the ball rolled down" instead of the more typically Spanish "the ball descended," even when talking to family in Spanish, simply because of exposure to English.

Adult learners often keep their native-language thinking pattern

Even highly advanced adult learners tend to retain their first language's way of conceptualizing motion when speaking the second language, especially when it comes to matching speech with hand gestures — proficiency alone doesn't erase this pattern.5,9,10,14

Example

A Korean speaker who has learned English to a very high level might still gesture and structure sentences in a path-focused way typical of Korean, even while using English manner verbs correctly.

Gradual change is possible with enough time and exposure

Long-term case studies tracking the same learner over many years show that the way they think about and gesture about motion can continue to shift gradually in both their first and second language, suggesting these patterns are not permanently fixed after childhood.11,13

Example

A 14-year longitudinal study followed one Spanish-speaking learner of English and found her gestures for describing direction of movement changed over time in both languages, not just her second language.

Proficiency and typological similarity speed up the shift

Learners whose native language works more similarly to English (in how it packages motion information) pick up English-like motion patterns faster than learners whose native language works very differently, and higher English proficiency generally predicts more English-like patterns.6,15

Example

In one study, Danish learners of English (Danish works similarly to English) showed more target-like motion descriptions than Japanese learners of English (Japanese works very differently), even with similar teaching.

Effects go beyond just verb choice

The influence of a learner's native language on how they conceptualize motion isn't limited to which verbs they pick — it also affects how much attention they pay to background scenery versus the main moving object, and it can even affect memory for what was seen in a motion video.7,14

Example

Korean speakers learning English still tended to describe background details the "Korean way" (more attention to context) even when speaking English, and Spanish/English bilinguals speaking in their second language sometimes remembered motion details less accurately than when using their first language.

Bilinguals sometimes converge on a single blended pattern

Some studies of early bilinguals (who learned English very young and use it constantly) find they don't keep two separate motion-thinking systems for each language — instead their thinking converges toward one dominant pattern, usually leaning English-like, across both languages.2,4,16

Example

Cantonese-English bilinguals who started English at around age three, and use both languages daily, described motion events the same manner-focused way whether they were speaking Cantonese or English, unlike true Cantonese monolinguals.

Explicit teaching of these patterns can help learners

When learners are directly taught about these cross-language differences in motion description (rather than left to notice them on their own), their production of English-style motion events improves, suggesting the pattern is teachable, not just something that develops automatically.18

Example

In one classroom study, Chinese English learners who received four weeks of explicit instruction pointing out these path/manner differences wrote more accurate, English-like motion descriptions afterward than a control group taught in the usual way.

Common trouble spots for English learners

Even advanced learners of a satellite-framed language like German or English often struggle specifically with the small connecting words (particles and directional adverbs like "out," "up," "through") that carry path information, more so than with prepositions, which is where traditional teaching usually focuses attention.5,17

Example

A learner might correctly use the preposition "into" but still get tripped up on whether to add a particle like "in" as well ("climbed in through the window" vs. just "climbed through the window"), because their native language doesn't require this kind of double-marking.

What to do with this

If you're learning English and your first language is a "verb-framed" language (like Spanish, Turkish, Korean, Japanese, or Chinese to varying degrees), it can help to consciously notice that English usually packs the "how" of movement into the main verb (ran, crawled, strolled) and the "where" into small words tacked on afterward (into, out of, up, down, through). Since research suggests these patterns are teachable through explicit instruction rather than something you'll necessarily absorb just from exposure, deliberately studying and practicing these path particles — and comparing them side-by-side with how your native language expresses the same events — may speed up sounding natural. Because native-language habits can resurface especially in fast or spontaneous speech and in gesture, extra practice describing action scenes out loud (narrating videos, silent picture books, or cartoons) is a concrete way to build the target pattern, and getting feedback from a proficient speaker or teacher on these small connecting words specifically (not just prepositions) may catch errors that standard grammar-focused lessons overlook.

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Worth knowing

  • Most of these studies focus narrowly on how people describe or remember short motion scenes (videos, cartoons, wordless picture books) — they don't tell us about broader English fluency or general learning speed, so these findings apply specifically to this one conceptual domain.
  • Sample sizes in many studies are modest (often 25-150 people), several focus on children, and results sometimes conflict slightly between studies (for example, whether bilinguals converge on one pattern or keep two separate ones seems to depend on age of learning, amount of daily use, and which languages are involved).
  • One study cited (on Turkish EFL learners) is very recent and appears to still be a preliminary or non-peer-reviewed writeup, and another (English-Chinese review) is a literature synthesis rather than new experimental data, so some conclusions rest more heavily on a handful of well-cited experimental papers than on broad consensus.

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  1. [1]Fraibet Aveledo, P. Athanasopoulos. Second language influence on first language motion event encoding and categorization in Spanish-speaking children learning L2 English. International Journal of Bilingualism 2016. doi.org/10.1177/1367006915609235
  2. [2]Yi Wang, Li Wei. Cognitive restructuring in the bilingual mind: motion event construal in early Cantonese–English bilinguals. Language and Cognition 2019. doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2019.31
  3. [3]Asli Aktan-erciyes, T. Goksun, A. Tekcan, A. Aksu-Koç. Children’s thinking-for-speaking. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 2020. doi.org/10.1075/lab.19027.akt
  4. [4]Yi Wang, Li Wei. Multilingual learning and cognitive restructuring: The role of audiovisual media exposure in Cantonese–English–Japanese multilinguals’ motion event cognition. International Journal of Bilingualism 2022. doi.org/10.1177/13670069221085565
  5. [5]Karin Madlener-Charpentier, Elsa Liste Lamas. Path Under Construction: Challenges Beyond S-Framed Motion Event Construal in L2 German. Frontiers in Communication 2022. doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.859714
  6. [6]Haijie Wang. A Study on English-Chinese Differences and Topological Transfer from the Perspective of Motion Events Construal. International Journal of Education and Humanities 2026. doi.org/10.58557/(ijeh).v6i1.365
  7. [7]L. Filipović. First language versus second language effect on memory for motion events: The role of language type and proficiency. International Journal of Bilingualism 2021. doi.org/10.1177/13670069211022863
  8. [8]Asli Aktan-erciyes. Effects of second language on motion event lexicalization: Comparison of bilingual and monolingual children’s frog story narratives. Dil ve Dilbilimi Çalışmaları Dergisi 2020. doi.org/10.17263/JLLS.803576
  9. [9]Rosa, Alonso. Motion Events in L2 Acquisition: The Boundary-Crossing Constraint in English and Spanish. 2013. doi.org/10.17265/1539-8080/2013.10.002
  10. [10]Choi, Soojung, Lantolf, James P.. Representation and Embodiment of Meaning in L2 Communication: Motion Events in the Speech and Gesture of Advanced L2 Korean and L2 English Speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 2008. doi.org/10.1017/s0272263108080315
  11. [11]Stam, Gale. Changes in Thinking for Speaking: A Longitudinal Case Study. Modern Language Journal 2015. doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2015.12180.x
  12. [12]Aktan-Erciyes, Asli. Effects of Second Language on Motion Event Lexicalization: Comparison of Bilingual and Monolingual Children's Frog Story Narratives. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies 2020. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1273346
  13. [13]Gale Stam. Verb-framed, satellite-framed or in between?. Human Cognitive Processing 2017. doi.org/10.1075/hcp.59.14sta
  14. [14]Hae In Park, S. Jarvis, Jeong-eun Kim. Exploring motion event construal: How much attention do speakers of different languages and cultures pay to context?. Lingua 2021. doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2021.103164
  15. [15]Teresa Cadierno, Peter Robinson. Language typology, task complexity and the development of L2 lexicalization patterns for describing motion events. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 2009. doi.org/10.1075/arcl.7.10cad
  16. [16]Lai, Vicky Tzuyin, Rodriguez, Gabriela Garrido, Narasimhan, Bhuvana. Thinking-for-Speaking in Early and Late Bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2014. doi.org/10.1017/s1366728913000151
  17. [17]Nebahat Badem. Typological Constraints on Motion Event Encoding: Path Satellite Usages and the Perspectives of Turkish EFL Learners. Journal of language research 2026. doi.org/10.51726/jlr.1860895
  18. [18]Sanmao Zhu. An Empirical Study of the Teachability and Learnability of L2 “Thinking for Speaking” Patterns. International Journal of English Teaching and Learning 2024. doi.org/10.11648/j.ijetl.20240202.11