Applied Cognitive Linguistics in Second Language Learning and Teaching

Published 2010.

This volume of the AILA Review focuses on the substantial contribution Cognitive Linguistics can make to language teaching. After almost three decades of empirical research into the motivated aspects of language, Cognitive Linguistic findings are gradually being applied to Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The volume covers the key areas of the research in the area. Framed by an introduction to the field and a conclusion evaluating the presented areas of research and identifying avenues for future research, the papers in this volume focus on those areas of Cognitive Linguistics that are most likely to be of particular relevance to SLA. These areas are: radial categories, prototypes and 'fuzzy boundaries'; encyclopaedic knowledge; construal; metaphor; metonymy; embodiment; and construction grammars. Some of the papers have a primarily theoretical focus whereas others describe empirical studies of the effectiveness of Cognitive Linguistics-inspired approaches to language teaching.