Applying cognitive linguistics to teaching pragmatics: experimental evidence

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02897
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Aoyama Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Masahiro Takimoto 青山学院大学, 理工学部, 教授 (30269964)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: メタファー / メトニミー / 概念メタファー / プライマリーメタファー / 抽象概念 / 空間概念 / 認知言語学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The cognitive linguistic approach applied the POLITENESS IS DISTANCE metaphor to teach different degrees of politeness. It involved a spatial concept projection through which participants understood degrees of politeness in terms of the spatially visualized concepts of NEAR-FAR and HIGH-LOW in an illustration. In contrast, the non-cognitive linguistic approach involved rote learning of target English biclausal mitigated requests in a list. The results demonstrated that the cognitive linguistic approach group outperformed the non-cognitive linguistic approach and control groups in a discourse completion test and an acceptability judgment test. They further suggested that the spatial concept-oriented approach using metaphors for awareness-raising is an effective mnemonic device for developing Japanese EFL learners’ pragmatic proficiency, as it helps the participants facilitate deep processing of form-meaning-context connections and ensures their long-term retention.

Free Research Field

応用認知言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

①　コンピュータ上に自然の言語習得過程に近い空間を構築し空間概念をわかりやすく示すことで、日本人英語学習者に「言語使用場面」にふさわしい丁寧度表現とその意味を自然に定着させることを可能にする。更に長期的指導効果を証明することができ、他の表現の指導に空間を利用した認知言語学的アプローチを利用を推奨できる。
②　抽象的領域の意味を具体的領域を介して理解し易くする認知言語学アプローチの効果が証明でき、具体的領域の空間概念を介して学ぶことで語用論的能力向上並びに長期的な記憶維持につながった本研究結果を学校英語教育に還元したい。