Integrating Cognitive Linguistics and foreign language teaching· historical background and new developments

Abstract

Recently foreign language teaching (FLT) research has been able to
benefit enormously from advances in Cognitive Linguistics (CL) (e.g.
Lakoff, 1987; Langacker, 1991, Taylor, 2002). As a consequence, CL has
become more and more interested in turning its rich, specialised, and
emerging body of research into a practical guide for language teachers,
course designers, and materials writers. To that end, CL-based classroom
instruction in a second or foreign language needs to show that (i) it can
move beyond the largely unmotivated rules, examples, and lists typical
of the traditional paradigm; (ii) that it can produce results-driven
grammar instruction and practice; and (iii) that it can ultimately balance
all of this properly with new insights gained from second-language
acquisition (SLA) research (e.g. Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). ln this paper,
we will first look at CL in a broader historical context of applied
linguistics, and more particularly, FLT, discussing how it builds on, and
differs from, such linguistic theories as transformational-generative
grammar and pragmatics. Then, we will show how the theoretical
assumptions, basic units, and constructs used in CL offer a better
understanding of the true nature of language and grammar, and how CL
can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of current FLT methods
(e.g. Robinson & Ellis, 2008; De Knop & De Rycker, 2008, Boers &
Lindstromberg, 2008).