Embodiment in concept-based L2 grammar teaching: The case of German light verb constructions

Abstract

German light verb constructions are especially challenging for advanced L2 learners because of the abstract meaning of the different verbs and the high degree of lexico-grammatical variety. Acknowledging that language is a symbolic system representing humans’ perception of the world and is thus strongly linked to embodied experiences, this study explores the potential of bodily engagement in the form of multimedia animations for leveraging the learning of embodied concepts related to light verb constructions. To this end, thirty-nine French-speaking learners of German were divided into two groups: The first group worked with animations illustrating the embodied nature of light verb constructions and performed specific tasks that set out to trigger mental simulation of relevant embodied concepts; the second group was presented with form-based explanations and completed tasks focusing on the different categories of light verb constructions. The results show that the use of bodily engagement in the form of multimedia animations led to significantly better performance and contributed to some extent to changing students’ attitudes about how grammar can best be learned.

The effects of animated versus static metaphor with 3D images on EFL learners' acquisition of degrees of certainty

“…Recent metaphor awareness-raising approach studies have evaluated the efficacy of animated visualisation in teaching German grammar, such as motion verbs (Roche & Scheller, 2008), passive voice (Arnett et al, 2019), case systems (Gradel, 2016), modal verbs (Kanaplianik, 2016), and light verbs (Suñer & Roche, 2019); and in teaching English, such as vocabulary (Sato et al, 2021) and degrees of politeness (Takimoto, 2021). All studies compared the metaphor awareness-raising and non-metaphorical instructional approaches without a control group (Arnett et al, 2019;Gradel, 2016;Kanaplianik, 2016;Roche & Scheller, 2008;Sato et al, 2021;Suñer & Roche, 2019) The studies by Gradel (2016) and Suñer and Roche (2019) compared the animated metaphor awareness-raising approach and teacher-directed traditional teaching approach.…”

“…Recent metaphor awareness-raising approach studies have evaluated the efficacy of animated visualisation in teaching German grammar, such as motion verbs (Roche & Scheller, 2008), passive voice (Arnett et al, 2019), case systems (Gradel, 2016), modal verbs (Kanaplianik, 2016), and light verbs (Suñer & Roche, 2019); and in teaching English, such as vocabulary (Sato et al, 2021) and degrees of politeness (Takimoto, 2021). All studies compared the metaphor awareness-raising and non-metaphorical instructional approaches without a control group (Arnett et al, 2019;Gradel, 2016;Kanaplianik, 2016;Roche & Scheller, 2008;Sato et al, 2021;Suñer & Roche, 2019) The studies by Gradel (2016) and Suñer and Roche (2019) compared the animated metaphor awareness-raising approach and teacher-directed traditional teaching approach. Gradel (2016) explored the animated effects of the metaphor awareness-raising approach on learners of German as a foreign language studying case systems, through explicit instruction followed by interactive animation tasks, whereas Suñer and Roche (2019) analysed the animated effects of a metaphor awareness-raising approach on French learners of German studying light verbs, through explicit instruction followed by multimedia animations.…”

“…All studies compared the metaphor awareness-raising and non-metaphorical instructional approaches without a control group (Arnett et al, 2019;Gradel, 2016;Kanaplianik, 2016;Roche & Scheller, 2008;Sato et al, 2021;Suñer & Roche, 2019) The studies by Gradel (2016) and Suñer and Roche (2019) compared the animated metaphor awareness-raising approach and teacher-directed traditional teaching approach. Gradel (2016) explored the animated effects of the metaphor awareness-raising approach on learners of German as a foreign language studying case systems, through explicit instruction followed by interactive animation tasks, whereas Suñer and Roche (2019) analysed the animated effects of a metaphor awareness-raising approach on French learners of German studying light verbs, through explicit instruction followed by multimedia animations. They discovered that animated visualisation for the presentation of embodied concepts of grammar facilitate longterm memory retention, through a cloze test (Gradel, 2016) and gapfilling, reformulation, and writing tasks (Suñer & Roche, 2019).…”

“…The studies by Gradel (2016) and Suñer and Roche (2019) compared the animated metaphor awareness‐raising approach and teacher‐directed traditional teaching approach. Gradel (2016) explored the animated effects of the metaphor awareness‐raising approach on learners of German as a foreign language studying case systems, through explicit instruction followed by interactive animation tasks, whereas Suñer and Roche (2019) analysed the animated effects of a metaphor awareness‐raising approach on French learners of German studying light verbs, through explicit instruction followed by multimedia animations.…”

Morphosemantic Features of Membuat ‘Make’ in the Light Verb Constructions of Indonesian

“…It applied not only to inflective words, but also to agglutinative ones. Other LVCs studies revealed formal semanticsbased descriptions of semantic aspects (Cordeiro & Candito, 2019;Georgescu, 2013;Hrenek, 2019;Ong & Rahim, 2021;Srinivas & Legendre, 2022;Suñer & Roche, 2021). From this point of view, the central suggestion was to think of LVCs as semantic rather than morphological units.…”