Traditional ways of teaching German two-way prepositions to L2 learners have focused on one major distinction, using accusative (ACC) for destination and dative (DAT) for location (cf., Drosdowski 1984). However, this explanation does not always help learners decide which case to use accurately in the spatial realm because the standard rule applies to only a limited number of uses of two-way prepositions. In contrast, a Cognitive Grammar (CG) approach (Langacker 1987(Langacker , 1991Smith 1987Smith , 1993 gives clear, helpful and meaningful answers to this problem. In this study, we investigate how Smith's notion, change vs. no change, is an improvement on the conventional rule "destination" vs. "location". In the present study, two-way prepositions were introduced to a treatment group of second-year college German as a Foreign Language (GFL) students at an American university. The participants were taught using a CG explanation of two-way prepositions accompanied by written, oral, inductive and deductive activities as reinforcement. The control group received the textbook's explanation only. Afterwards, students completed a fill-in-the-blank test, in which they provided the correct article following a two-way preposition. They also described pictures using two-way prepositions with both the accusative and dative. Results show that the CG approach is more effective than the traditional one.
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