This book presents a novel analysis of the learning of motion event descriptions by Anglophone students of Spanish. The author examines cross-linguistic differences between English and Spanish, focusing on the verbal patterns of motion events, to explore how learners overcome an entrenched first-language preference to move toward the lexicalization pattern of the additional language. His findings highlight the gradual nonlinear process Anglophones traverse to acquire and produce form-meaning mappings describing motion in Spanish. The author suggests that as motion event descriptions are not normally the focus of explicit instruction, students learn this concept primarily from exposure to Spanish. Given its interdisciplinary nature, this book will be of interest to researchers working in Hispanic linguistics, cognitive semantics, and Spanish language learning and teaching.
This book presents a novel analysis of the learning of motion event descriptions by Anglophone students of Spanish. The author examines cross-linguistic differences between English and Spanish, focusing on the verbal patterns of motion events, to explore how learners overcome an entrenched first-language preference to move toward the lexicalization pattern of the additional language. His findings highlight the gradual nonlinear process Anglophones traverse to acquire and produce form-meaning mappings describing motion in Spanish. The author suggests that as motion event descriptions are not normally the focus of explicit instruction, students learn this concept primarily from exposure to Spanish. Given its interdisciplinary nature, this book will be of interest to researchers working in Hispanic linguistics, cognitive semantics, and Spanish language learning and teaching.
Demonstrates how subtle aspects of Spanish can successfully be learned in the absence of direct teacher instruction Contributes to an under-researched area in cognitive semantics that crosses into the field of language teaching and learning Connects theoretical issues about the comprehension and expression of a conceptual category by Anglophone learners at three distinct levels of L2 proficiency
Samuel A. Navarro Ortega
Applied Hispanic Linguistics Hispanic linguists Implicit Learning L2 Cognitive Semantics Spanish language Experiential Second Language Learning