Vocabulary College and University Education Research-Oriented Presentation
Exploring systematicity of spatial phrasal verb constructions for L2 learners of English
This ongoing study investigates the systematicity and teachability of difficult spatial phrasal verb constructions (PVCs) for second language (L2) learners of English. Cognitive semantic research (e.g., Evans & Tyler, 2005; Mahpeykar, 2014; Shintani, Mori & Ohmori, 2016; Bong, 2019; Tyler, Jan, Mahpeykar, & Tullock, 2020) indicates that systematicity and teachability of PVCs have been a long-term focus of language teachers and applied linguistics, and continues to be of particular interest. For this current study, 41 1st-year university students in an English program in Japan completed a survey eliciting a range of difficult PVC usages. Analysis of the data reveals that correlations of participants’ first language (L1), linguistic complexity, PVC difficulty, prototypical and polysemous categorical properties demonstrate systematic features that can influence the teachability of English PVCs for L2 learners of English. The implications of this research on the systematicity of spatial PVCs could lead to enhanced teachability and thus may have an effect on L2 pedagogical practices.
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Robert Taferner is an Associate Professor at Hiroshima University. He is mainly interested in how languages conceptualize Space and Time. In particular, he conducts research that focuses on Spatial Prepositions (e.g., in, on, at, etc.) through crosslinguistic differences in Image Schema (e.g., Surface, Container) between languages through the Crosslinguistic Image Schema Differential (CISD) Hypothesis. By pursuing this research, he hopes to contribute to the learnability and teachability of prepositions for second language learners of English.