Chapter 14
Construction grammar and foreign language learning (L3)
Target and non-target language patterns including the Spanish
verbs tener and
ser
This paper focuses on predicative constructions
with ser and
have-constructions with tener in written language
production of native German students studying Spanish as a third
language (L3). First, I establish a common ground between a
usage-based approach and construction grammar and then define
so-called ‘construction learning’ in the teaching of a foreign
language. Subsequently, the study investigates the use of
tener (‘to have’) and
ser (‘to be’), both
irregular high-frequency verbs, in the third person singular and the
constructional embedding of these two verbal forms in patterns like
[N es ADJ]
(Mi amigo es alto ‘my
friend is tall’) and [ART N tiene ART N ADJ]
(La chica tiene los ojos
azules ‘the girl has blue eyes’) by 12-
and 13-year-old and 15- and 16-year-old native German students. As a
text type, the ‘description of the person’ was chosen – a text type
which is already practiced in the first year of language learning
and is therefore suitable for comparative corpus-based studies of
different learner levels.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The lexis-grammar-couple in foreign language teaching
- 2.1The state of grammar in foreign language teaching
- 2.2Corpus linguistics and construction grammar
- 2.3Construction grammar and the usage-based approach
- 2.4Why can construction grammar research and foreign language
teaching benefit from each other?
- 2.5Interlanguage and multilingualism
- 3.Contrastive studies on foreign language acquisition
- 3.1The corpus
- 3.2First year of language learning
- 3.2.1Studies in grade 7
- 3.2.2Discussion of the results
- 3.2.2.1Task 1
- 3.2.2.2Task 2
- 3.3Fourth year of language learning
- 3.3.1Studies in grade 10
- 3.3.2Discussion of the results
- 3.3.2.1Task 3
- 3.3.2.2Task 4
- 3.4Constructional extensions
- 4.Conclusion and outlook
-
Notes
-
References