Flexible Deixis: A Way to Cognitive Flexibility—The Influence of Perception of Centrifugal Force of Deixis on Transferability of Learning

Abstract

In this article, deictic expressions are approached with a view to introduce a way for the promotion of cognitive flexibility of foreign language learners, proposing that such expressions can enhance the authenticity of language tasks whereby learners can see the realities from the eyes of different selves, and represent these realities in their proper multiplicity. More specifically the study investigated how far perception of EFL learners of Deictic Shift during the process of literary comprehension, correlates with the measure of cognitive flexibility, which is, in turn, the function of transfer of learning to limited, near and far situations or tasks. Then, authors, having considered Petraglia's definition of authentic learning as transferability, proposed that narrative activities with the focus on deixis can provide a ground for designing authentic learning task and environment which can weave the cognitive flexibility of language learners in developing multiple representations, multiple selves, and multiple realities.