More evidence that a usage-based, applied cognitive linguistics approach is effective for teaching the Spanish prepositions por and para

Abstract

Abstract While applying cognitive linguistics (CL) to language teaching has been proven effective for teaching polysemous prepositions in English, it has demonstrated less success with the difficult-to-acquire Spanish prepositions por and para. This points to the need for more practical research investigating if and how CL might be effective for this particular target, especially given that conventional instruction has been found to be lacking. The current study compared three instructional conditions in intact intermediate Spanish classes. The first was a traditional approach to teaching por and para that presented learners with lists of disconnected uses in one lesson (n = 32). The second was an applied CL approach that presented Principled Polysemy Networks gradually over time (n = 34), an incremental approach that is usage-based and is a best practice for cognitively demanding instruction. The third was a traditional approach that presented lists of disconnected uses but incrementally over time (n = 26). The usage-based CL approach was found to confer the most advantage for learners on a multiple-choice test, but not a fill-in-the-blank test. The findings are discussed in relation to their pedagogical applications, future directions for applied CL research, and limitations of the study.