Identification of prepositional constructions for pedagogical application in the teaching of Spanish as a second language

在认知语言学（CL）和构式语法（CxG）方法的指导下，我的博士项目将研究西班牙语介词结构（PC）的形式和语义特征，以开发一种教学模式，用于向西班牙语作为第二语言（L2）的学习者教授介词。本研究采用跨学科的研究方法，结合使用基础和应用语言学的观点，试图回答以下研究问题：1）西班牙语使用者目前使用的PC的库存是什么？如何描述和分类它们的含义？2)如何利用CL和CxG来创建一个有效的教学模式，促进PC的学习？3)与其他教学模式相比，语言学教学模式对西班牙语学习者获得PC有什么影响？介词是语言学习者普遍认为具有挑战性的一个领域。它们的异质性和看似任意的性质使它们难以分类和学习，并且是言语产生过程中常见的错误来源。在学习第二语言的过程中，学生倾向于依赖他们的母语（L1），有时会在他们的L1和L2的语言结构之间产生错误的对等，这一过程称为“迁移”（Kellerman，1979; Ortega，2008）。Brogan and Son（2015）在西班牙语的成年英语学习者中发现了这一现象，他们证明，尽管学习者越来越多地接触输入并提高技能水平，但他们仍然误用介词，并错误地将它们与L1中的介词联系起来。介词的解释往往是不系统的，详尽的，但不相关的使用和句法规则的列表。一个更完整的介词形式和意义的观点是将CL和CxG的原则纳入语言学习理论和材料的发展。CL是一个理论框架，它提出形式和意义之间的关系不是任意的，而是有动机和体现的，换句话说，它来自我们的身体与我们周围的物理和社会文化现实之间的相互作用（约翰逊，1987; Lakoff，1987，Ibarretxe-Antuñano和Cadierno，2019）。作为一种基于用法的方法，合作语言还认为，使用语言的经验是什么让发言者建立一个语法的语言（Langacker，1987年;对于这项研究，我将使用一种来自CL框架的方法，CxG -一种基于语言是由“结构”组成的理论，即形式和意义的配对（Lakoff，1987; Goldberg，1995，2013）。构式是一种新颖的分析工具，它不仅可以用来描述介词结构的形式和意义，而且可以用来指导二语课堂教学，因为构式的概念整合了词汇、语法、话语和语用价值（Castañeda Castro，Cadierno & Ibarretxe-Antuñano，2019），提供一个整体的观点，促进学习复杂和看似不系统的结构的多重含义。

Guided by Cognitive Linguistics (CL) and Construction Grammar (CxG) approaches, my PhD project will investigate the formal and semantic features of an inventory of Spanish prepositional constructions (PC) in order to develop a pedagogical model for teaching prepositions to learners of Spanish as a second language (L2). Taking an interdisciplinary approach, combining usage-based and applied linguistics perspectives, this project seeks to answer the following research questions: 1) What are the current inventory of PC used by Spanish speakers and how can their meanings be described and categorised? 2) How can CL and CxG be used to create an effective pedagogical model that facilitates the learning of PC? 3) What effects would a linguistically informed pedagogical model have in the acquisition of PC by Spanish language learners in comparison to other teaching modalities?Prepositions are an area widely recognised as challenging for language learners. Their heterogeneity and seemingly arbitrary nature make them difficult to classify and learn, and a common source of errors during speech production. In the process of learning an L2, students tend to rely on their mother tongue (L1), sometimes creating erroneous equivalences between linguistic structures in their L1 and structures in the L2, in a process called "transfer" (Kellerman, 1979; Ortega, 2008). This phenomenon has been identified in adult English-speaking learners of Spanish by Brogan and Son (2015), who attest that, although learners are increasingly exposed to input and improve their skill level, they continue misusing prepositions and erroneously associating them with prepositions in their L1.One aspect that may hinder the acquisition of prepositions is the way their meanings are presented in educational materials. Prepositions are often explained in unsystematic ways, with exhaustive but unrelated lists of uses and syntactic rules. One approach towards a more integrated view of prepositional forms and meanings is to incorporate the tenets of CL and CxG into the development of theory and materials for language learning. CL is a theoretical framework which proposes that the relationship between forms and meanings is not arbitrary but motivated and embodied, in other words, it emerges from the interaction between our bodies and the physical and sociocultural reality around us (Johnson, 1987; Lakoff, 1987, Ibarretxe-Antuñano and Cadierno, 2019). As a usage-based approach, CL also posits that the experience of using the language is what allows the speakers to build a grammar of the language (Langacker, 1987; Tomasello, 2000).For this research, I will use an approach derived from the CL framework, CxG - a theory grounded in the idea that language is composed of 'constructions', that is, pairings of form and meaning (Lakoff, 1987; Goldberg, 1995, 2013). Constructions constitute an innovative analytical tool not only for the description of the forms and meanings of prepositional structures but also for their instruction in the L2 classroom, as the notion of construction integrates lexical, grammatical, discursive and pragmatic values (Castañeda Castro, Cadierno & Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2019), providing a holistic perspective that facilitates learning the multiple meanings of complex and seemingly unsystematic structures.