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Article published In: Selected Papers from Constructionist Approaches to Language Pedagogy 4
Edited by Thorsten Piske and Thomas Herbst
[Pedagogical Linguistics 7:1] 2026
► pp. 1–16

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Pedagogical construction grammar — the fashion of the day?

 | FAU: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
ORCiD logo with link | FAU: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
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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 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Published online: 5 December 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.25020.her
Abstract
This paper provides a short introduction to Construction Grammar (CxG). It first very briefly outlines how linguistic theory has developed over time. Then it describes similarities and differences between the usage-based approach of CxG and Chomsky’s generative approach to the study of language. After that different types of constructions are described in order to explain the concept of constructions as ‘conventionalized form-meaning pairings’. Next, eight different reasons are discussed for why CxG may last and not share the fate of other linguistic models that only ‘survived’ for a more or less short period of time. In this context, important characteristics of different approaches to the description and analysis of language are described that can all be subsumed under the umbrella term ‘Construction Grammar’. Finally. this paper explains why CxG provides an ideal framework for foreign language teaching and learning and it provides a few concrete examples showing how a constructionist approach to language pedagogy could be used in the classroom to deal with different lexicogrammatical phenomena.
Article outline
  • 1.Linguistic fashions
  • 2.What is construction grammar?
  • 3.Why construction grammar may last: Eight reasons for optimism
  • 4.Teaching constructions without constructions
  • 5.Teaching constructions with constructions
  • 6.Pedagogical construction grammar
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (59)
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