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Construction Grammar across Borders
Edited by Tiago Timponi Torrent, Ely Edison da Silva Matos and Natália Sathler Sigiliano
[Benjamins Current Topics 122] 2022
► pp. 119–145

From construction grammar to embodied construction practice

| Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles

In recent years, foreign language pedagogy has recognized the need to focus on larger meaningful sequences of words and on communicative goals. Construction grammar (CxG) has a number of assets to address these issues. First, with the postulate of meaningful schematic templates, CxG makes it possible to establish a structured inventory of abstract constructions. In this chapter, this is illustrated by the inventory of German constructions with the preposition bis ‘up to, until’. Second, constructions, having a certain degree of schematicity, are particularly suitable to be practiced as whole sequences. Interactive activities based on ‘embodied teaching and learning’ can help foster the entrenchment of constructions.

Keywords: applications of construction grammar, foreign language teaching, foreign language learning, construction practice, embodiment, German preposition bis ‘up to/until’
Article outline
  • 1.The learning of patterns
  • 2.Assets of construction grammar for FLT/FLL
    • 2.1Syntactic variety of German constructions with bis
    • 2.2Semantic variety of German constructions with bis
    • 2.3Complex constructions with bis and directional adverbs
    • 2.4Morpho-syntactic description of German constructions with bis
  • 3.Pedagogical issues and teaching strategies
    • 3.1The learning of constructions – a challenging enterprise
    • 3.2Generalization and scaffolding
    • 3.3First studies on embodiment
    • 3.4Embodied construction practice
      • 3.4.1Interactive exercises with bodily engagement
      • 3.4.2Exercises with pictures
  • 4.Conclusions and future perspectives
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.122.05kno
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