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Article published In:
AILA Review
Vol. 36:2 (2023) ► pp.135–162

Pedagogical construction grammar

The case of collocations and collostructions [1] 1 in foreign language instruction [2] 2

ORCID logo | University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

The concept of constructions has become increasingly important in theories of language acquisition and use during the last 20 years. Constructions are form-meaning pairings that are learned and stored as pieces of linguistic knowledge. Fillmore, Kay, and O’Conner (1988), and Goldberg (1995, 2006, 2019) were among the first linguists who paved the way for this alternative constructivist view on grammar. Since then, Construction Grammar (CxG) has become a widely accepted descriptive and processing model that is based on a large body of scientific research (e.g., Herbst, Schmid, & Faulhaber, 2014; Herbst, 2016; Hilpert, 2019; Hoffmann, 2022; Stefanowitsch, 2011). However, it is only recently that linguists have addressed the question of whether second/foreign language learners’ linguistic competence depends on constructions (e.g., Boas, 2022; De Knop & Gilquin, 2016). If CxG is widely recognized in the branch of first language acquisition, it is also indispensable to transfer this concept to Applied Linguistics to design suitable teaching materials and methods. Drawing upon the proposition “foreign language learning is construction learning” (Ellis, 2001; Herbst, 2016), this article aims to suggest a proposal for teaching English collocations following Herbst’s (2016) seven principles of Pedagogical Construction Grammar (PCxG). In particular, this article aims to suggest ways to apply these principles to developing supplementary teaching materials, activities, and tasks for teaching English collocations and collostructions.

Keywords: Pedagogical Construction Grammar, Applied Construction Grammar, collocations, Construction Grammar, foreign language pedagogy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of the literature
    • 2.1Collocations as constructions
    • 2.2Teaching collocations
    • 2.3Teaching constructions with Pedagogical Construction Grammar (PCxG)
  • 3.This study: Presenting and teaching collocations as constructions in the classroom
    • 3.1Principle 1: The basic principle of Pedagogical Construction Grammar if “it’s constructions all the way down” (Goldberg, 2006, p. 18) and language learning consists of the learning of constructions, then language teaching should consist of the teaching of constructions (Herbst, 2016, p. 41)
    • 3.2Principle 2: The principle of presenting constructions as form-meaning pairings Constructions should be introduced as form-meaning pairings and not indirectly (Herbst, 2016, p. 41)
    • 3.3Principle 3: The principle of one sense at a time: Lexical constructions should be presented in textbooks as units of lexical form and a single sense (Herbst, 2016, p. 42)
    • 3.4Principle 4: The principle of indicating chunks: In the vocabulary sections of textbooks, important collocations and phrases should be listed explicitly (Herbst, 2016, p. 42)
    • 3.5Principle 5: The principle of showing valency constructions: The most important (and most frequent) valency constructions should always be listed explicitly in the vocabulary sections of textbooks (Herbst, 2016, p. 43)
    • 3.6Principle 6: The principle of moderate and meaningful use of grammatical terminology: The use of grammatical terminology should be restricted to a useful minimum, i.e. to cases in which the use of terminology contributes to language learning. In particular, the terminology used should be employed consistently, be appropriate for the language in question, and not be based on the teaching traditions of another language (Herbst, 2016, p. 44)
    • 3.7Principle 7: The principle of authenticity: Teaching materials should be based on the analysis of corpora or on reference works based on corpus analysis and the frequency of constructions should be reflected in the design of teaching materials (Herbst, 2016, p. 44)
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Conflicts of interest
  • References
  • Dictionaries
  • Corpora
Published online: 15 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.22017.pak
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