CONCEPT-BASED TEACHING AND LEARNING: A CASE OF SPATIAL CONCEPT IN TEACHING ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS IN PHAN CHU TRINH HIGH SCHOOL

Tóm tắt

Prepositions are regarded as a small but challenging lexical unit in English because prepositions are difficult for language users to understand and use correctly due to cultural differences in linguistic cognition. The present graduation project has a purpose of investigating the frequencies and causes of the written errors in using spatial prepositions of place “in, on, at” from cognitive perspective. The theory of cognitive linguistics and second language teaching methods are used to carry out this study. This study attempts to find out the causes of errors and after that give suggestions for lessons applied from cognitive linguistics. The quantitative approach and the qualitative approach are adopted. One hundred students at Phan Chu Trinh High School took part in two types of tests including multiple choice tests and written test in order to find out the kinds of errors and their causes. The results show that the students at Phan Chu Trinh High School misunderstand the usage between prepositions “in”, “on”, “at”. There are differences because of the distinguishing features in perception of space, the culture, topography and sky orientation. The findings recommend that future research could also apply the concept of cognitive linguistics to teaching spatial prepositions in other contexts.