- Home
- e-Journals
- AILA Review
- Previous Issues
- Volume 23, Issue, 2010
AILA Review - Volume 23, Issue 1, 2010
Volume 23, Issue 1, 2010
-
Explicit knowledge and learning in SLA: A cognitive linguistics perspective
Author(s): Karen Roehrpp.: 7–29 (23)More LessSLA researchers agree that explicit knowledge and learning play an important role in adult L2 development. In the field of cognitive linguistics, it has been proposed that implicit and explicit knowledge differ in terms of their internal category structure and the processing mechanisms that operate on their representation in the human mind. It has been hypothesized that linguistic constructions which are captured easily by metalinguistic descriptions can be learned successfully through explicit processes, resulting in accurate use. However, increased accuracy of use arising from greater reliance on explicit processing may lead to decreased fluency. Taking these hypotheses as a starting point, I present a case study of an adult L2 learner whose development of oral proficiency was tracked over 17 months. Findings indicate that explicit knowledge and learning have benefits as well as limitations. Use of metalinguistic tools was associated with increased accuracy; moreover, there was no obvious trade-off between accuracy and fluency. At the same time, resource-intensive explicit processing may impose too great a cognitive load in certain circumstances, apparently resulting in implicit processes taking over. I conclude that explicit and implicit knowledge and learning should be considered together in order to gain a full understanding of L2 development.
-
Applying cognitive linguistics to instructed L2 learning: The English modals
Author(s): Andrea Tyler, Charles M. Mueller and Vu Hopp.: 30–49 (20)More LessThis paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental effects-of-instruction study examining the efficacy of applying a Cognitive Linguistic (CL) approach to L2 learning of the semantics of English modals. In spite of their frequency in typical input, modal verbs present L2 learners with difficulties, party due to their inherent complexity — modals typically have two divergent senses — a root1 sense and an epistemic sense. ELT textbooks and most grammar books aimed at L2 teachers present the two meanings as homophones, failing to address any systematic semantic patterning in the modal system as a whole. Additionally, ELT texts tend to present modals from a speech act perspective. In contrast, CL analyses (e. g., Langacker 1991; Nuyts 2001; Sweetser 1990; Talmy 1988) offer both a systematic, motivated representation of the relationship between the root and epistemic meanings and a rather precise representation of the semantics of each modal. To test the pedagogical effectiveness of a CL account of modals, an effects-of-instruction study was conducted with three groups of adult, high-intermediate ESL learners: a Cognitive treatment group, a Speech Acts2 treatment group, and a Control group. Results of an ANCOVA indicated that the Cognitive treatment group demonstrated significantly more improvement than the Speech Acts treatment group. The experiment thus lends empirical support for the position that CL, in addition to offering a compelling analytical account of language, may also provide the basis for more effective grammar instruction than that found in most current ELT teaching materials.
-
Making sense of phrasal verbs: A cognitive linguistic account of L2 learning
Author(s): Rafael Alejo-Gonzálezpp.: 50–71 (22)More LessPhrasal verbs (PVs) have recently been the object of interest by linguists given their status as phraseological units whose meaning is non-compositional and opaque. They constitute a perfect case for theories of language processing and language acquisition to be tested. Cognitive linguists have participated in this debate and shown a certain interest for PVs, although their research on this topic stems in most of the cases from their central interest on prepositions and the language of spatiality. In this paper, I aim to make a comprehensive and critical summary of the cognitive linguistics (CL) literature on PVs with particular attention to its connection with usage-based approaches, especially in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), and to the concept of (meaning) motivation, which has proven to be useful in teaching. I will also present a CL analysis of the out-PVs (i.e., those containing the particle out) used by 3 groups of non-native speakers of English whose L1 respectively belongs to a Germanic satellite-framed (S-) language (Swedish and Dutch), a non-Germanic S-language (Russian and Bulgarian) and a verb-framed (V-) language (Spanish and Italian). The results obtained from this analysis show: (1) that both Germanic and Non-Germanic S-language learners use a greater number of out-PVs than V-language learners, not only when these verbs have a motional meaning but also when they express other meanings; and (2) that S-language learners also use a greater elaboration of path (Slobin 1996) when non-motional out-PV meanings are involved. These findings suggest that ‘the thinking for speaking hypothesis’ (Slobin 1996, 1997; Cadierno 2004), which has been shown to work for the domain of manner and path of motion, may in part be extended to the acquisition of PVs by L2 learners.
-
Why cognitive grammar works in the L2 classroom: A case study of mood selection in Spanish
Author(s): Reyes Llopis-Garcíapp.: 72–94 (23)More LessThis paper presents a series of experiments that tested the usefulness of teaching Spanish mood using an approach to Cognitive Grammar specifically developed for the foreign language classroom: Operational Grammar. Mood selection is one of the most difficult aspects of learning Spanish as a FL, and it is one of the last features acquired. It is unquestionably complex, involving issues of subordination, alternation, and speaker’s communicative intent. This complexity has been amplified by the traditional approach to mood, which has changed little over the last 50 years. The alternative presented here sees language as a symbolic representation of the speaker’s mental model of the world. Grammar is closely linked to this model as the tool used in class to help learners communicate meaning through form. This enables them to understand how native speakers choose to communicate. Language, then, portrays an outcome of the speaker’s own selection, guided by communicative intent and not as part of a taxonomic set of rules. The empirical study showed that the combination of a cognitive approach to mood with a Processing Instruction methodology had positive effects on how the students identified mood selection in both input and output learning situations.
-
Helping learners engage with L2 words: The form–meaning fit
Author(s): Julie Deconinck, Frank Boers and June Eyckmanspp.: 95–114 (20)More LessThe pace at which new words are acquired is influenced by the degree of engagement with them on the part of the learner. Insights from cognitive linguistics into the non-arbitrary aspects of vocabulary can be turned into stimuli for such engagement. The majority of Cognitive Linguists’ proposals for vocabulary teaching aim at helping learners appreciate the way a single word form can develop different meanings. This, however, presupposes knowledge of the ‘basic’ meaning of that word. We report an experiment in which learners under an experimental treatment were stimulated to consider the possibility that the form–meaning link in target words might not be fully arbitrary. The mnemonic effect of this task-induced engagement was assessed in relation to comparison treatments in immediate and delayed post-tests measuring both receptive and productive knowledge. Results show that simply prompting learners to evaluate the form–meaning match of words can foster vocabulary acquisition, although not all target words lends themselves equally well to this type of engagement.
-
Construction grammars: Towards a pedagogical model
Author(s): Randal Holmepp.: 115–133 (19)More LessConstructions are the central unit of grammatical analysis in cognitive linguistics. In formal linguistics ‘construction’ referred to forms that were projected from lexical items rather than from an autonomous syntax. Thus, an expression, ‘I danced the night away’ requires an intransitive verb in a transitive construction provided ‘away’ is present. In cognitive linguistics, constructions comprise any grouping of words or morphemes that in combination possess meanings that cannot be predicted from the parts in isolation. This meaning belongs to the construction itself and is not necessarily dependent upon the presence of a given item of lexis. If this definition is accepted by second language teachers the fundamental interest is that language learning is about learning lexis, constructions, and the text types by which constructions are combined. This article first distills a concept of a construction useful to a pedagogical grammar and considers the relationship of this concept of form to better known language content ‘packets’ such as the structure and the lexical phrase. Last, it discusses how a CL concept of construction does and does not propose different pedagogical methods.
-
Metonymic inferencing and second language acquisition
Author(s): Antonio Barcelonapp.: 134–155 (22)More LessThe article is a reflection on the various areas of cognitive linguistic research on metonymy that are of potential relevance for SLA. Three of them are particularly relevant: (1) research on metonymy-guided inferencing; (2) research on metonymy-based lexical polysemy, and (3) research on metonymy-based grammatical constructions. Of the three main areas with which the paper is mainly concerned, area (1) is particularly relevant for research on second language comprehension, especially in utterance and discourse types heavily relying on the inferential work of the comprehender; area (2) has already proved to be very useful for research on the inferencing strategies followed by second language learners in their comprehension of new lexical senses in context; and area (3) should be helpful for research on the acquisition of grammatical constructions by these learners.
-
Metaphorical competence in EFL: Where are we and where should we be going? A view from the language classroom
Author(s): Fiona MacArthurpp.: 155–173 (19)More LessAlthough there exists a number of studies that have shown the benefits of applying the cognitive linguistics notion of motivation to foster comprehension and retention of conventional English metaphors, relatively little attention has been paid to EFL learners’ productive use of metaphor in speech and writing. Using data gathered in a post-intermediate English language classroom, I describe and explore the metaphorical language used by undergraduate students in their writing. The data show that learners use metaphor to express their ideas on complex, abstract topics, but that the resulting metaphorical usage is not always conventional or felicitous. Since metaphor is deployed by EFL learners in response to particular communication demands, teachers need to find ways of providing appropriate feedback on learners’ efforts to make use of their limited linguistic resources to express their own meanings. However, how effective feedback is to be given is not always straightforward. I discuss some of the problems involved and suggest areas that are in need of further research.
Volumes & issues
-
Volume 37 (2024)
-
Volume 36 (2023)
-
Volume 35 (2022)
-
Volume 34 (2021)
-
Volume 33 (2020)
-
Volume 32 (2019)
-
Volume 31 (2018)
-
Volume 30 (2017)
-
Volume 29 (2016)
-
Volume 28 (2015)
-
Volume 27 (2014)
-
Volume 26 (2013)
-
Volume 25 (2012)
-
Volume 24 (2011)
-
Volume 23 (2010)
-
Volume 22 (2009)
-
Volume 21 (2008)
-
Volume 20 (2007)
-
Volume 19 (2006)
-
Volume 18 (2005)
-
Volume 17 (2004)
-
Volume 16 (2003)
Most Read This Month
Article
content/journals/15705595
Journal
10
5
false

-
-
Input, Interaction and Output: An Overview
Author(s): Susan M. Gass and Alison Mackey
-
-
-
Language and Culture
Author(s): Claire Kramsch
-
- More Less