Pedagogical Linguistics - Online First

This study examines the (de)learning of (indirect) passives by Japanese-speaking learners of English (JLEs). While English allows only direct passives derived via NP-movement, Japanese permits both direct and indirect passives, the latter lacking active voice counterparts. Previous research suggests that JLEs have difficulty rejecting ungrammatical indirect passives in English; however, findings regarding the difficulty of delearning different types remain inconsistent. Building on these insights, we propose a new hypothesis: JLEs accept passive constructions only when they can be reanalyzed as involving NP-movement. To test this hypothesis, an acceptability judgment task was conducted comparing learners’ responses to potentially derived (pseudo-oblique intransitive and possessor transitive) and non-derived (non-oblique intransitive and non-possessor transitive) passives. Results showed that JLEs clearly distinguished between these types, incorrectly accepting passives that could be misanalyzed as involving movement while rejecting those that could not. These findings challenge simplistic L1-transfer explanations and suggest that JLEs’ interlanguage grammar incorporates the movement-derivation, albeit with misanalyses regarding the licensing environments. The study concludes with pedagogical implications, arguing that instruction should emphasize not just the necessity of NP-fronting in English passives but also the syntactic conditions that permit movement, such as the prohibition against null prepositions and illegitimate possessor-raising in English.

This article argues that generative and usage-based theories of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), which are often treated as incompatible, offer complementary insights for language teaching. While generative approaches can draw on formal linguistic theory to identify linguistic properties that are likely to cause difficulty for learners, usage-based models based on frequency, analogy and schematisation shed light on how learners can engage with the input to eventually overcome these difficulties. Drawing on recent theoretical discussions and classroom-based empirical studies, I argue that both traditions are therefore well-equipped to address two fundamental questions related to language pedagogy: what properties should be taught, and how should these be taught? I illustrate how this synergy can be applied to inform the teaching of complex grammatical features, such as article semantics and wh-questions, through both formal linguistic analysis and usage-based instructional design. By reframing SLA debates around a shared pedagogical goal, this article hopes to encourage more dialogue across traditionally distinct theoretical frameworks and contribute towards closing the gap between linguistic theory and classroom practice.

Studies that investigate how teachers actually teach with Cognitive Linguistics (CL) are rare and often stop short of entering the foreign language classroom, which is a necessary step to understanding if, how, and to what extent insights from CL are compatible with specific classroom ecosystems. To fill this research gap, we report on an exploratory case study with an in-service teacher in Belgium who was introduced to cognitive-pedagogical teaching materials for the Count/Mass Distinction and then asked to prepare and teach a 90-minute lesson on this grammar topic to a group of A1-A2 adult EFL learners. Data was gathered via semi-structured interviews and a classroom observation to analyze how the teacher integrated the cognitive-pedagogical teaching materials into her lesson. Results point to some of the challenges that an experienced teacher unfamiliar with CL may face when implementing a CL approach. More specifically, despite expressing openness to CL, this teacher unconsciously reverted to familiar teaching routines when faced with such an unfamiliar approach. This confirms prior research that calls for continuous teacher training to facilitate the dissemination of CL insights, emphasizes the importance of engaging with existing beliefs and practices, and considers the role of teacher agency in pedagogical change. We hypothesize that CL may be most effectively framed as a first-order change, i.e., a gradual enhancement that builds on teachers’ existing practices, rather than a paradigm shift.

Throughout the conceptual change approach, the subject-specific concepts of students, represented as ideas and knowledge structures about scientific phenomena and their changes through teaching-learning processes, are explained. Extensions related to mathematical and biological phenomena have already been made. The fact that learners also have subject-specific concepts in relation to language, which exist as assumptions, beliefs, ideas and changes, is often implicitly assumed in language didactics research but has not yet been systematically investigated as conceptual change. Thus, both the sufficient modeling of language-related concepts, as is the case in scientific research, and the empirical testing of selected language phenomena are lacking. In this article, the two perspectives dominating the (natural) scientific discourse are outlined to subsequently model conceptual change for language reflection and categorization in the context of a secondary analysis of causal relations. The focus is on the question of which basic ontological and epistemological concepts students have and how these can be operationalized. This is connected to the fundamental question of whether conceptual change can be used as a possible explanatory approach for changing subject-specific concepts in language learning processes.

Research on German L1 grammar instruction shows that successful teaching of metalinguistic knowledge alone does not influence language performance. One explanation is that working memory limitations prevent the simultaneous activation of metalinguistic knowledge and other cognitive processes in writing or revision tasks. Therefore, this paper investigates the interaction between bottom-up and top-down attention to grammatical features and the role of metacognition as a top-down attentional resource, using the example of comma placement. Based on an analysis of the relationship between attention and conscious access within language awareness a four-stage model of metalinguistically driven learning is proposed: (1) acquisition of metalinguistic knowledge and its transformation into self-regulatory guidelines; (2) proactive training of metacognitive strategies by applying top-down attention to specific grammatical features; (3) transition to reactive self-regulation, where associative learning establishes a link between grammatical features and bottom-up attention; and (4) gradual automation of this link. The article focuses specifically on the third stage, arguing that this is the critical phase where the effective application of metalinguistic knowledge for linguistic performance often fails.

Prosody, with its core elements the melody and timing of speech, is one of the aspects learners often struggle with when learning foreign languages in its spoken form. The teaching of prosody is however still largely overlooked — even though prosodic knowledge would help to improve learners’ comprehensibility. The present contribution concentrates on prosody teaching of French as a foreign language in Germany. We present the results of semi-structured interviews conducted with five experienced teachers of different regions in Germany. Our aim is to explore the needs among the foreign-language teachers. The teachers reported a rather marginal treatment of prosody, focusing instead on lexis and morpho-syntax in their teaching practice. Concurrently, all of them considered the relevance of prosodic topics as medium to high. We discuss several reasons for this discrepancy including issues of university education as well as quality of textbooks. The teachers also expressed the need to receive input on how to apply prosodic content in the classroom. This includes (a) comprehensible and didactically reduced teaching materials, (b) criteria for grading prosodic skills, (c) authentic audio material, and (d) in-service training. Finally, we present several ideas on how to make linguistic findings on prosody accessible for the foreign-language classroom.

In the realm of first language (L1) grammar education, research on instruments assessing explicit grammatical understanding is limited. This article discusses an Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis on the Test for Grammatical Understanding (TGU), a multiple-choice tool designed for measuring such grammatical understanding, in this case pertaining to the concept of valency and related concepts (e.g., subject, objects). The results draw from 189 pre-university students (aged 14), who completed different versions of the TGU at multiple time points. Using IRT models for categorical data, we assessed item difficulty, discrimination, and response category functioning. Results highlight the TGU’s usability, version interchangeability, and its potential as a tool for monitoring progress in grammatical understanding. Additionally, differential item functioning (DIF) analyses indicated that most test items performed consistently across versions, though a few showed discrepancies requiring further examination. The discussion addresses item success variations, proposing items that might be omitted under time constraints, and examines the value of a ‘partial understanding’ answer category alongside categories reflecting ‘full’ and ‘no understanding.’ Future study recommendations include expanding TGUs to different linguistic concepts beyond valency and exploring its correlation with open reasoning tasks to further validate its effectiveness in assessing explicit grammatical understanding.