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Article published In: Pedagogical Linguistics
Vol. 6:1 (2025) ► pp.53–77

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The types of cues that help you learn

Pedagogical implications of a computational simulation on learning the English tense/aspect system from exposure

ORCiD logo with link | University of Birmingham | University of York
ORCiD logo with link | University of Birmingham
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Birmingham.

Published online: 11 January 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.23003.rom
Abstract
Despite a considerable amount of research conducted on the development of tense/aspect (TA) usage in English by second language (L2) learners, nuances in uses of TAs remain elusive to many L2 learners of English: the grammatical accounts proposed appear difficult to apply as they are either too general or too specific and fail to provide learners with a conceptual understanding of the system. Merging insights from psychological models of learning, corpus-based, and cognitive linguistics approaches to second language acquisition we use the results of computational simulations of learning of the TA system conducted by Romain, L., Ez-Zizi, A., Milin, P., & Divjak, D. (2022). What makes the past perfect and the future progressive? Experiential coordinates for a learnable, context-based model of tense and aspect. Cognitive Linguistics, 33(2). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and propose an approach to TA teaching that focuses on the cues that have been identified as crucial for accurate TA use. Our pedagogical approach draws learners’ attention not so much to the cues themselves but to the type of cues that are the most reliable in the choice of different TA combinations. This approach allows teachers to equip learners with a long-term learning strategy that will help them focus on the most useful type of information, and thus gradually build up a bank of knowledge specific to each TA combination.
Article outline
  • 1.The role of frequency and association in learning
    • a.Construction learning: Frequency and association
    • b.TA learning: Aspect, tense, associations
  • 2.Associative computational learning
    • a.Rescorla-Wagner and its uses in learning
    • b.The model: Data and specifications
  • 3.Results and discussion of the learning simulations
    • a.TA combinations: Simple vs. complex
    • b.Cues: Which elements facilitate learning
  • 4.L2 teaching/learning of TA combinations: How to apply these findings in the classroom
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References
References (45)
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Cited by one other publication

Romain, Laurence
2025. Contingency and prototypicality. Pedagogical Linguistics DOI logo

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