Teaching English tense-aspect combinations in indirect speech with a cognitive linguistic approach: An empirical study

This study investigated the effect of cognitive linguistics-based instruction (CLI) in classrooms where English tense-aspect forms in indirect speech were taught to Chinese EFL learners, compared to that of traditional instruction (TI). 40 non-English major freshmen at a similar English proficiency level, who scored either 10-to-12 points on English in the General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT) or 59-to-78 points on English in the Department Required Test (DRT) in 2017, were divided into the CLI group (N = 20) and the TI group (N = 20). In CLI, the cognitive notions of immediacy/non-immediacy for the present/past tenses and retrospective/prospective viewing direction for the perfect/future constructions were introduced. To familiarize learners with the previously-learned information, interpretation tasks were given. In TI, language facts were explicated through grammatical taxonomies, followed by interpretation tasks. To measure learners' learning outcomes, a pretest and a posttest were conducted one week before and one week after the teaching intervention, respectively. After the completion of the posttest, the TI group was briefly taught with CLI in search of the same learning rights. When all the participants had received CLI, a questionnaire was given to understand the students' viewpoints on TI and CLI. Results revealed that CLI significantly led to better outcomes than TI in tense-aspect selections for reported verbs in indirect quotes when reporting verbs were in the past tense. CLI might also be beneficial to tense-aspect selections when reported events were under hypothetical situations either at the sentence level or in longer texts. In addition, the majority of the EFL learners in this study seemed to prefer CLI to TI. Accordingly, this study suggests that EFL practitioners consider adopting CLI when teaching grammar as it unites diverse uses of a grammatical item and hence allows learners to learn grammar in a coherent and systematic way.

關鍵字

cognitive linguistics ； tense ； aspect ； indirect speech ； metaphoric mapping

並列摘要

本研究探討認知語言教學法對於台灣學生學習英文間接引述句中時態選用的影響，並與傳統教學法做比較。受試者為40位英文程度相當（2017年取得學測10至12級分或指考59至78級分的英文成績）之大一非英語系學生，平均分至認知語言教學組（N = 20）與傳統教學組（N = 20）。在認知組中，教師介紹立即性／非立即性以及回顧／前瞻方向的認知概念分別說明現在式／過去式以及完成／未來結構，並給予句子解釋任務做練習。在傳統組中，透過語法分類法解釋語言事實，並給予句子解釋任務。為了解學習成效，在教學介入的前後一週分別執行前測與後測。另考量學生公平學習權益，於後測完成後，也給予傳統組認知教學的學習機會。在所有受試者都接觸過認知教學後，透過問卷了解他們對認知語言教學法與傳統教學法的看法。研究結果顯示，認知組在英文間接引述句中引述動詞為過去式時，名詞子句內的動詞時態選用的學習成效顯著大於傳統組。當被報導的事件發生於假設情境時，無論是單句或篇章結構，認知教學都能幫助學習者做時態選用。此外，多數學習者偏好認知教學。本研究建議EFL教育者考量採用認知語言教學法做語法教學，因為它能統一單一語法成份的多種用法，允許學習者以完整並有系統的方式學習。

並列關鍵字

認知語言學；時式；時貌；間接引述；隱喻映射

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