کاربرد خلاق رویکرد شناختی در تسهیل آموزش زبان انگلیسی برای کودکان فارسی‌زبان در سطح متوسط

Regarding the necessity of selecting efficient language learning strategies and methods for teaching English to Persian-speakers, the Langacker’s cognitive grammar theory has been used as a creative method in teaching. The present study aims to evaluate the creative usage of cognitive grammar in education to simplify the process, provide better learning, and develop creativity and linguistic capabilities. For this purpose, the following questions have been addressed: 1. What is the increasing number of words used by both control and test groups, after passing the “creative course of the learning style of describing a word in a sentence” through the “specificity” attribute in meaningful contextual textures? 2. How can we use the “syntagmatic combinations” attribute to facilitate the teaching of “complex linguistic units” construction in the sentences? In this regard, following the creative training of participants with a cognitive approach, 46 Farsi speakers were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by using SPSS software. By using the creative courses of learning style and describing the word using Langacker’s cognitive grammar, together with quasi-cognitive charts for simplifying the education process, learners were able to create linguistic well-form sentences. The research results demonstrates that after completing the creative course of the learning style of describing a word in a sentence, the test group could expand 98% of the words from the total number of textbook words and include them in their texts; while the control group, who hadn’t gone through the creative course, managed to collocate only 44% of the total words. The outcomes illustrate the high effect of the approach in facilitating English teaching for Persian-speaking children.

1. Introduction

The present article seeks to introduce one of the easy teaching methods from Langkaker's grammatical point of view. In this research, “how to expand vocabulary”, “specificity”, “mixed structures” and “synchronization relations of nominal groups” are investigated and presented in the form of tables and statistical charts. By examining the present study from a cognitive perspective, we can examine the application of some key concepts of this grammar in teaching and simplifying second language learning, based on Langaker's grammatical theory. Hypotheses in the present study are as follows: Hypothesis 1: after passing the creative course the test group, can describe more words in a sentence and in texts by using the characteristic feature; Hypothesis 2: creative diagrams, similar to cognitive diagrams in syntagmatic combinations, can be used to simplify teaching the construction of complex linguistic units and adaptation of expressions. The present study aims to evaluate the creative usage of cognitive grammar in education, which simplifies the process, provides better learning, and develops creativity and linguistic capabilities. In addition to performing qualitative and quantitative analysis via statistical softwares provided on the basis of the narrative texts of language learners, by the usage of Langaker's cognitive theory in the field of cognitive grammar, the present study provides a creative way to facilitate language learning for Persian-speaking children at the intermediate level and to test the research hypotheses. Accordingly, the study presents a solution for the learners’ educational problems to facilitate the content through innovative methods in effective teaching.

Research Question(s)

In this research, the following questions were addressed: 1. After passing the “creative course of the learning style of describing a word in a sentence” what is the increasing number of words used by the control and test groups through the “specificity” attribute in meaningful contextual texture? 2. How can we use the “syntagmatic combinations” attribute to facilitate the teaching of “complex linguistic units” construction in the sentences?



2. Literature Review

So far, various research has been conducted on fostering creativity in teaching and learning. However, to the best of our knowledge, most research has not mentioned the creative usage of cognitive grammar in education. The position of cognitive sciences in education to provide opportunities for the growth of creativity and language capabilities is low. Training that accompanied by a cognitive approach will be effective and efficient. Torrance (1968) studied the factors of creativity and mentioned intelligence, family and personality traits of individuals. In a study, Ronald and Standler (2005) cited the efforts of parents and other educators as a key factor in fostering creativity. Gardner (2002) showed that educators and mentors could play an important role in motivating creative learners. Still, noteworthy is that the researches present explanations of theories, while the matter isn’t used for practical teaching English for Persian- speaking children.



3. Methodology

The present research is of applied and theoretical type in terms of purpose. The unit of observation is by collecting data, linguistic narratives, from children. Language learners, as the community of the case study in this research, were aged 10 to 12 years. This research was considered as a survey research based on the time of collection and performed experimentally on the control and test groups for 4 months. After creative training with a cognitive approach, 46 Farsi speakers were described qualitatively and quantitatively by using SPSS software. As a result, by using the creative courses of learning style and describing the word using Langacker’s cognitive grammar, learners were able to create linguistic well-formed sentences.

4. Results

The following diagrams summarize the results for the control and test groups:



Control group figure 1

Chart of the amount of words used by the control group during surveys and assessments





Test group figure 2

Chart of the amount of words used by the test group during surveys and assessments



Also, a comparison has been made within the charts of the percentage of new words used in both total and each word in the control and test groups, shown below. As seen, figure 3 illustrates the expansion of 98% of textbook vocabulary by language learners in the creative cognition teaching.



Figure 3

Vocabulary expansion and demonstration of the effectiveness of the creative cognitive method in teaching