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Article published In: Bringing Figurative Language into Real L2 Classrooms: The challenges of empirical testing
Edited by Ana M. Piquer-Píriz and Reyes Llopis-García
[Review of Cognitive Linguistics 22:2] 2024
► pp. 426–449

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Special issue article

Shortcomings and challenges in the intersection of L2 pedagogy and applied cognitive linguistics

A case study of the Spanish simple pasts

ORCiD logo with link | Columbia University
 | Columbia University
Published online: 17 October 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00204.llo
Abstract
This paper aims to explore the shortcomings and challenges of Applied Cognitive Linguistics (ACL) in L2 classrooms and research. It examines the main issues and presents a case study with three quasi-experimental classroom studies. These experiments taught the Spanish past simple tenses using approaches informed by Cognitive Linguistics and Communicative Language Teaching, plus a control group, through a pretest/posttest design. Results favored cognitive-pedagogical instruction, but only in one production task (Alonso-Aparicio, I., & Llopis-García, R. (2019). La didáctica de la oposición imperfecto/perfecto simple desde una perspectiva cognitiva. In I. Ibarretxe-Antuñano, T. Cadierno & A. Castañeda Castro (Eds.), Lingüística cognitiva y español LE/L2 (pp. 274–299). New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Subsequent studies replicated and extended the first, with further changes in instruction and assessment design, but found no significant differences between experimental groups in the posttest. The discussion highlights the steps taken to ensure study success, pointing out shortcomings in traditional assessment tests that favor notional-functional instruction. We suggest alternative testing tasks that consider cognitive-based approaches and new avenues for future research, aligning with Martín-Gascón, B., Llopis-García, R., & Alonso-Aparicio, I. (2023). Does L2 assessment make a difference? Testing the empirical validity of applied cognitive linguistics in the acquisition of the Spanish/L2 psych-verb construction. Language Teaching Research, 0(0), 1–25. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Issues in L2 classroom-based research
  • 3.Issues in ACL-based L2 empirical research
  • 4.A case study by way of three empirical studies
    • 4.1STUDY 1 (conducted in 2016; Alonso-Aparicio & Llopis-García, 2019)
      • Research questions and hypotheses
      • Research design
      • Participants
      • Procedure
      • Instructional materials
      • Data elicitation instruments
      • Results from the interpretation task
      • Results from the production task
    • 4.2STUDY 2 (conducted in 2017)
      • Research questions and hypotheses
      • Research design
      • Participants
      • Procedure
      • Instructional materials
      • Data elicitation instruments
      • Results from the interpretation task
      • Results from the production task
    • 4.3STUDY 3 (conducted in 2018)
      • Research questions and hypotheses
      • Research design
      • Participants
      • Procedure
      • Instructional materials
      • Data elicitation instruments
      • Results from the Interpretation task
      • Results from the Production task
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
References (42)
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