The constructional patterns of L2 German meteorological events
(2015) Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association — Vol. 3, n° X, p. 171-196 (2015)
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- Abstract
- Weather expressions are part of the relevant topics in foreign language (FL) teaching. Traditional teaching methodology focuses on fixed FL expressions like impersonal verbs discarding both the rich array of verbal and nominal constructions for typical weather states, as well as the learners’ needs for their production. Construction grammar may fill this gap in two respects, by focusing on weather expressions produced by learners of German as a second language (L2). This study describes: (1) the variation in the preferred L2 constructional patterns for weather forecasts in three samples of non-native speakers of German (French, Italian and Dutch); (2) an inventory of constructional and associated lexical deficits in German-L2, compared to the participants’ L1. Descriptive results lead to constructional recommendations for language pedagogy of L2 German. From a contrastive perspective, we explore the influence of L1 on L2- constructions, in order to show possible learner interferences. More specifically, we contrast the Dutch learners as representatives of a Germanic language, with the speakers of the Romance languages. Finally, we propose some guidelines for construction-based teaching as an alternative to the conventional lexical approach to meteorological expressions.
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De Knop, S., Sambre, P., & Mollica, F. (2015). The constructional patterns of L2 German meteorological events. Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association, 3(X), 171-196. https://doi.org/10.1515/gcla-2015-0010 (Original work published 2015)