Abstract :
[en] Cognitive linguists are devoting much time and effort to the exploration of SLA, and the potential of a more figurative / embodied approach to pedagogical grammar has by now been documented (Roche & Suñer, 2016). Despite the increasing theoretical as well as empirical evidence, little is percolating to the actual classroom. We concur with Wirag et al. (2022) to point to the top-down way in which Applied Cognitive Linguistics has been approached so far. This research project hypothesizes that a more ecological approach to Cognitive Linguistics is needed to popularize the CL framework in language teaching. By ecological approach, we mean to consider the classroom as a complex system that is best approached holistically and dynamically (Hill et al., 2004; Meunier, 2022), with a special focus on teachers which remain “a blind spot in applied linguistics” (Whong, 2022). To test this hypothesis, elements of a Cognitive Grammar approach to the Count/Mass Distinction were incorporated into L2 learning materials and then presented to teachers. The idea was to see how participants assess the usability of a cognitive-pedagogical approach and how such usability correlates with their reported beliefs about pedagogical grammar. Usability refers to “the appropriateness to a purpose of any artifact” (Brooke, 1996, p. 4), which, in the case of cognitive-pedagogical teaching materials, refers to their perceived facilitative potential. The data was gathered through focus group discussions with pre-service teachers (n=11) of English and Dutch as foreign languages in lower secondary education and an online survey involving a broader array of language teachers (n=203). All the participants were from the French-speaking community of Belgium. While reinforcing the potential of Cognitive Linguistics for language teaching, our data also points to the necessity of adopting a more ecological approach to the implementation in Applied Cognitive Linguistics research. Honest engagement with contextual variables such as teacher beliefs and existing teaching practices is likely to facilitate adoption as insights from ACL can supplement, but not supplant, existing practices. Implications for future research in ACL are discussed.
