Applying semantic frames to effective vocabulary teaching in the EFL classroom

Abstract

This study intends to shed some light on the advantages Cognitive Semantics can provide to vocabulary teaching in EFL (English as a Foreign Language), by describing how our knowledge is organized and what cognitive mechanisms are used by our mind in order to organize it, namely cognitive domains and frames. If we want our students to use English properly and fluently, we need to make sure they comprehend (and not only learn by rote) the concepts they are taught. Regarding this, focusing on cognitive domains and frames can have a vital role, since they provide the right conceptual background to understand and use lexical concepts. Moreover, categories at the basic level provide the highest amount of information at the lowest processing effort. All in all, this paper suggests that introducing vocabulary in terms of frames and choosing the appropriate level of categorization depending of the proficiency level can lead to a better comprehension, and, consequently, an easier entrenchment of specific lexicon in the long-term memory than using traditional methods. Finally, we propose a task that implements a frame-based approach.