MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES BÙI PHÚ HƯNG TEACHING ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS: A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC APPROACH DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES BÙI PHÚ HƯNG TEACHING ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS: A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC APPROACH DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 14 01 11 SUPERVISORS: Assoc Prof Trương Viên, PhD Assoc Prof Nguyễn Ngọc Vũ, PhD HUE, 2019 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the PhD thesis submitted today entitled: “TEACHING ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS: A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC APPROACH” for the degree of Doctor of Education, is the result of my own research, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree at any other institution To the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by other people except where the reference is made in the thesis itself Hue, ……………………………, 2018 Author’s signature Bùi Phú Hưng i ABSTRACT The present study aimed to investigate the effects of applying cognitive linguistics (CL) to teaching the spatial and metaphorical senses of English prepositions above, among, at, behind, beside, between, in, in front of, on and under It made attempts to apply the basic concepts in cognitive linguistics, including embodiment theory, image schemas theory, conceptual metaphor theory and domain mapping theory Also, the integrated text and picture comprehension (ITPC) model was applied to frame the class activities A pretest-posttest betweengroup research design was adopted The results of the pretest and pre-questionnaire were used to select student participants who were then divided into two different groups: cognitive group and traditional group The findings revealed that the cognitive group (M=27.00) outperformed the traditional group (M=22.36) in the posttest in terms of both the spatial and metaphorical meanings The cognitive group participants also responded that they appreciated the CL-based teaching of the prepositions more than the pedagogical applications which their former teachers had previously applied in terms of both the spatial and metaphorical meanings Six out of 25 cognitive members responded that the teacher should have added something fun to make the class more interested in the lesson Most of the participants believed that CL-based teaching was appropriate and admitted that CL-based teaching had more positive effects on their knowledge of the spatial meanings than that of the metaphorical meanings The findings suggest that future studies and practices in ELT which would like to apply cognitive linguistics in EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom could include songs or games in the post-teaching stage to make the class more interesting Future research could also apply cognitive linguistics to teaching other prepositions in other contexts and employ a delayed posttest to measure EFL students’ retention of knowledge ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To conduct this doctoral thesis, I received much guidance and assistance from my supervisors, the academic panel at Hue University of Foreign Languages – Hue University, friends and students First of all, my great sincere thanks would go to my supervisors, Assoc Prof Dr Truong Vien at Hue University and Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Ngoc Vu at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education They constantly motivated me to complete this thesis punctually and gave me great advice on how to conduct this doctoral thesis I really appreciated their supervision with theoretical background in cognitive linguistics I also owe thanks to Assoc Prof Dr Tran Van Phuoc, Assoc Prof Dr Le Pham Hoai Huong, Assoc Prof Dr Pham Thi Hong Nhung, Dr Ton Nu Nhu Huong, Dr Truong Bach Le and other academic panelists at University of Foreign Languages – Hue University for their advice on every single stage of conducting this doctoral dissertation I am very grateful to all the teachers and student participants for their assistance with participating in this study Without them, there would have been no chance for this PhD thesis to be completed My appreciation is extended to my family and friends for their support They recommended large resources of materials and shared my cheers and stress from this thesis iii ABBREVIATIONS CL: cognitive linguistics CG: cognitive group EFL: English as a foreign language ELT: English language teaching GPA: grade point average ITPC model: integrated text picture comprehension model L1: first language or native language L2: second language LM: landmark OALD: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary SD: standard deviation SLA: second language acquisition T: total score TG: traditional group TR: trajectory iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABBREVIATIONS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Research Objectives 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Research Scope 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Organization of the Thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Approaches in English Language Teaching 2.1.1 Contemporary Perspectives in English Language Teaching and Learning 2.1.1.1 Interventionist Approach……………………………………………… …7 2.1.1.2 Non-Interventionist Approach………………………………………………9 2.1.1.3 Integration of Interventionism and Non-Interventionism in EFL Context 10 2.1.2 The Place of CL in ELT 10 2.2 Theoretical Framework 13 2.2.1 CL’s Views of English Prepositions 13 2.2.1.1 Spatial Configurations of English Prepositions 13 2.2.1.2 The Domain-Mapping Theory 15 2.2.1.3 Conceptual Metaphors of English Prepositions 16 2.2.2 Image Schema Theory 19 2.2.2.1 Foundations of Image Schemas 19 2.2.2.2 Demonstrating the Senses of Prepositions with Image Schemas 21 v 2.2.2.3 The Image Schemas Applied in this Study 22 2.2.2.4 Incorporating CL into Teaching P 3,00 2,96 3,04 3,24 3,36 SD ,458 ,476 ,577 ,539 ,611 ,572 ,611 ,500 ,539 ,611 ,436 ,490 Std Error ,092 ,095 ,115 ,108 ,122 ,114 ,122 ,100 ,108 ,122 ,087 ,098 12 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper - ,10705 ,14705 ,14705 ,10705 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances P3.1 P3.2 P3.3 P3.4 P3.5 P3.6 Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed F ,366 ,010 ,016 1,265 ,358 3,282 Sig ,548 ,922 ,901 ,266 ,552 ,076 t-test for Equality of Means t -,303 df 48 Sig (2tailed) ,763 -,303 47,930 ,763 -,040 ,132 -,306 ,226 ,253 48 ,801 ,040 ,158 -,277 ,357 ,253 47,769 ,801 ,040 ,158 -,278 ,358 ,239 48 ,812 ,040 ,167 -,296 ,376 ,239 47,788 ,812 ,040 ,167 -,296 ,376 ,253 48 ,801 ,040 ,158 -,277 ,357 ,253 46,192 ,801 ,040 ,158 -,278 ,358 -,491 48 ,626 -,080 ,163 -,408 ,248 -,491 47,254 ,626 -,080 ,163 -,408 ,248 -,915 48 ,365 -,120 ,131 -,384 ,144 -,915 47,360 ,365 -,120 ,131 -,384 ,144 13 Mean Diff -,040 SD Error Diff ,132 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper -,306 ,226 Group Statistics Group (PART 4) P4 CG TG N 25 25 Mean 3,0533 3,0200 SD ,22423 ,24683 SD Error Mean ,04485 ,04937 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances P4 F ,054 Equal variances assumed Sig ,817 Equal variances not assumed t-test for Equality of Means t ,500 df 48 Sig (2tailed) ,620 ,500 47,564 ,620 SD ,436 ,542 ,577 ,493 ,572 ,572 ,500 ,572 ,611 ,572 ,408 ,473 SD Error ,087 ,108 ,115 ,099 ,114 ,114 ,100 ,114 ,122 ,114 ,082 ,095 Group Statistics Group P4.1 CG TG P4.2 CG TG P4.3 CG TG P4.4 CG TG P4.5 CG TG P4.6 CG TG N 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 Mean 3,24 3,28 3,00 2,92 2,92 2,92 3,00 2,92 2,96 2,92 3,20 3,16 14 Mean Difference ,03333 Std Error Difference ,06669 ,03333 ,06669 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper - ,16743 ,10076 ,10080 ,16746 ... basic concepts in cognitive linguistics, including embodiment theory, image schemas theory, conceptual metaphor theory and domain mapping theory Also, the integrated text and picture comprehension... 10 2.2 Theoretical Framework 13 2.2.1 CL’s Views of English Prepositions 13 2.2.1.1 Spatial Configurations of English Prepositions 13 2.2.1.2 The Domain-Mapping Theory... great advice on how to conduct this doctoral thesis I really appreciated their supervision with theoretical background in cognitive linguistics I also owe thanks to Assoc Prof Dr Tran Van Phuoc,