Experiment on comparison of learning effectiveness between cognitive approach and corpus-based approach on second language grammar teaching in Hong Kong: teaching English prepositions “in”, “on” and “at”

Abstract

Cognitive linguistics and Corpus Linguistics are two new and important branches of linguistics. In recent years, both cognitive linguistics (Littlemore, 2009) and corpus linguistics (Farr, 2008) strategies have been used as approaches in second language teaching (SLT). Both approaches have been reported to successfully facilitate students’ learning progress (Gradel, 2016; Daskalovska, 2015). Therefore, this raises the question of whether a particular approach among the two marks a greater facilitation on second language acquisition. In order to obtain an answer, an experiment was carried out with comparison and contrasting of effectiveness between the two approaches in second language learning environment. English was chosen to be the tested second language and preposition ‘In’, ‘On’ and ‘At’ was the scope of learning for the experiment. Results show that both cognitive and corpus-based approaches mark greater effectiveness than traditional approach. Moreover, cognitive approach leads to an obviously better result than corpus-based approach, suggesting that cognitive approach in second language grammar teaching in Hong Kong provides the greatest benefit to learners among the three. Although there are various limitations, such as small sample size, patterns of results in different approaches can still be observed and considered as a reference for further researches. It is suggested that same experiment should be conducted in the future and more other investigations on second language grammar teaching should be carried out in order to obtain a more precise, accurate and objective conclusion.