Abstract
This study compares two instruction methods (cognitive and traditional) for teaching complex metaphorical motion constructions in Spanish and developing A2+ learners’ metaphoric competence in the L2. The cognitive instruction combined insights from the Conceptual Metaphor Theory with multimodal content and cognitive parameters, whereas the traditional package followed a communicative and formalist approach to language based on most current L2 textbooks. A group of 33 university students from a North American-based College participated in the experiment. Assessment tests were designed inspired by cognitive linguistics tenets and measured learners’ general metaphor comprehension (Task 1) and original production (Task 2), as well as performance in the comprehension (Task 3) and production (Task 4) of change-of-state constructions, thus breaking with the pervading assessment typology for empirical studies in applied cognitive linguistics. The cognitive methodology proved to be significantly more beneficial for all four tasks. Although students who received a traditional instruction improved over time, those from the cognitive group showed statistically higher performance in metaphoric competence and in the comprehension and production of the target constructions. These findings clearly suggest that a cognitive-based instruction, when followed by a consistent assessment, is an effective approach to teaching and learning difficult constructions in the L2.
Funding source: Spanish Fulbright Commission
Funding source: Ministry of Education Spain
References
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Supplementary Material
This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0043).
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Approaching motion in a second language: how bilinguals restructure motion event expressions inside and outside the classroom
- Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence in motion event conceptualisation in bilingual speakers of Spanish and English
- Motion event construal in L2 French and Italian: from acquisitional perspectives to pedagogical implications
- Low-level visual processing of motion events as a window into language-specific effects on perception
- Developing L2 learners’ metaphoric competence: a case study of figurative motion constructions
- How concept-based language instruction works in teaching thinking for speaking in an L2
- Review Article
- A bibliometric analysis of the IRAL over the past six decades
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Approaching motion in a second language: how bilinguals restructure motion event expressions inside and outside the classroom
- Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence in motion event conceptualisation in bilingual speakers of Spanish and English
- Motion event construal in L2 French and Italian: from acquisitional perspectives to pedagogical implications
- Low-level visual processing of motion events as a window into language-specific effects on perception
- Developing L2 learners’ metaphoric competence: a case study of figurative motion constructions
- How concept-based language instruction works in teaching thinking for speaking in an L2
- Review Article
- A bibliometric analysis of the IRAL over the past six decades