ENG420 Language, Cognition, and Education
Course Aims This course introduces the fundamentals of cognitive linguistics and their potential applications in second and foreign language education. Cognitive linguistics is the interdisciplinary study of language as an integral component of human cognition, which incorporates a range of mental processes including categorization and embodiment. This course first presents cognitive approaches to semantics and grammar that reconcile the segregated formal and functional traditions in the study of language and language teaching. The second half of the course discusses how concepts of cognitive linguistics can be applied to contemporary language teaching and learning that emphasizes the learners’ understanding of linguistic forms and their associated communicative functions.