CFP: Constructionist Approaches to Language Pedagogy

Thu May 16 06:23:07 UTC 2013

CALL FOR PAPERS

International Conference:
Constructionist Approaches to Language Pedagogy (CALP 2013)

8-9 November 2013
Universite Saint-Louis
in Brussels

**Please note that the deadline for submission has been extended to June 2, 2013**

Aims and scope

The notion of Construction Grammar (CxG) covers a wide range of grammatical theoretical models, all of them sharing the central tenet that constructions are the basic units of language. The interest for constructionist approaches of language started with Fillmore, Kay & O’Connor’s (1988) seminal paper on let alone and received its first book-length treatment in Goldberg’s (1995) ‘Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure’. In this book, Goldberg describes constructions as conventionalized form-meaning pairs characterized by non-compositionality. In her later book ‘Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language’ (2006) the property of non-compositionality no longer constitutes a necessary condition to speak of constructions, as long as these structures are entrenched, i.e. characterized by frequency. In the last few years CxG has gradually grown into a powerful descriptive and processing model which is now well-accepted in the scientific world, as attested by the organization of several scientific meetings focussing on different issues related to CxG, as well as the publication of collective volumes describing the new insights and advantages of the constructionist model (see among others Fried & Östman 2004, Östman & Fried 2005, Fischer & Stefanowitsch 2007, Stefanowitsch & Fischer 2008, Lasch & Ziem 2011, and Bouveret & Legallois 2012).

Current research within the framework of CxG has mainly adopted a theoretical or descriptive approach, focussing on the principles of CxG, comparing it with other linguistic theories (e.g. valency theory, cf. Herbst & Stefanowitsch 2011 or Welke 2011), describing specific constructions (e.g. the well-known caused-motion construction or the ditransitive construction, to name just a few) or illustrating some of the CxG principles at work in constructions in different languages (e.g. Boas 2010 or De Knop, Mollica & Kuhn forthc. 2013). The applied perspective, on the other hand, that is the question of how applied areas like translation studies or language teaching or acquisition can benefit from a CxG-based approach, has been largely neglected up to now. Notable exceptions include Liang (2002, quoted in Goldberg 2006), Gries & Wulff (2005, 2009) and Valenzuela Manzanares & Rojo Lopez (2008), who investigate the existence of constructions among foreign learners of English, and Wee (2007) and Holme (2010), who are interested in the use of CxG in the classroom (see also the special section of the 2009 Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics entitled "Constructing a Second Language", as well as Ellis forthc. 2013 for an overview article on the links between CxG and second language acquisition). These studies have demonstrated the potential of using CxG for applied purposes and have provided interesting insights into the learning and teaching of constructions. However, they have only scratched the surface of constructionist applications, and many aspects of applied construction grammar still remain to be explored.

The aim of this conference is to bring together researchers applying CxG (and CxG-inspired approaches) to language pedagogy, which we understand here in a broad sense as covering foreign language teaching, but also foreign language learning and second language acquisition. We welcome submissions dealing with issues such as the following:

- How can the basic principles of CxG, e.g. non-modularity, form-meaning pairing or entrenchment, be applied to foreign language teaching, foreign language learning or second language acquisition?
- Do certain CxG theories (e.g. CxG a la Goldberg, Radical Construction Grammar, Fluid Construction Grammar) lend themselves better to pedagogical applications than others?
- Do foreign language learners (necessarily) have constructions? If so, are these constructions acquired in the same way by foreign language learners and native speakers, or by foreign language learners from different mother tongue backgrounds?
- Are constructions transferred from L1 to L2 (and if so, under what circumstances and following which processes)? Are certain constructions more prone to transfer than others?
- Does CxG offer strategies to facilitate the acquisition of a foreign or second language? In particular, does it help when learners are confronted with constructions that are not present in their L1?
- What is the added value of CxG in foreign language teaching? Is a teaching methodology based on constructions more efficient than other methodologies, including traditional language teaching, verb-centred approaches like projectionist theories, or more phraseology-oriented methodologies?

We particularly welcome submissions dealing with languages other than English, and also encourage abstracts that consider CxG in relation to closely related theories relying on the existence of constructions such as valency theory or Pattern Grammar. We are also interested in papers that seek to explore the methodological issues linked with the use of CxG for applied purposes (e.g. corpus-based and/or experimental approach, implicit and/or explicit teaching).

References
Boas, Hans (2010), Contrastive Studies in Construction Grammar. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Bouveret, Myriam & Dominique Legallois (2012), Constructions in French. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Constructing a Second Language (2009), special section of Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 7: 111-290.
De Knop, Sabine, Fabio Mollica & Julia Kuhn (forthc. 2013), Konstruktionsgrammatik und Romanische Sprachen. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Ellis, Nick (forthc. 2013), Construction Grammar and Second Language Acquisition. In Thomas Hoffmann & Graeme Trousdale (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Construction Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fillmore, Charles J., Paul Kay & Mary Catherine O’Connor (1988), Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions: The case of let alone. Language 64(3): 501-538.
Fischer, Kerstin & Anatol Stefanowitsch (2007), Konstruktionsgrammatik: Von der Anwendung zur Theorie. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.
Fried, Mirjam & Jan-Ola Östman (2004), Construction Grammar in a Cross-Language Perspective. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Goldberg, Adele E. (1995), Constructions. A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.
Goldberg, Adele E. (2006), Constructions at Work. The Nature of Generalization in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gries, Stefan Th. & Stefanie Wulff (2005), Do foreign language learners also have constructions? Evidence from priming, sorting, and corpora. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3: 182-200.
Gries, Stefan Th. & Stefanie Wulff (2009), Psycholinguistic and corpus-linguistic evidence for L2 constructions. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 7: 163-186.
Herbst, Thomas & Anatol Stefanowitsch (eds.) (2011), Argument Structure – Valency and/or Constructions? Special issue of Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 59.
Holme, Randal (2010a), A construction grammar for the classroom. IRAL 48: 355-377.
Holme, Randal (2010b), Construction grammars: Towards a pedagogical model. AILA Review 23: 115-133.
Lasch, Alexander & Alexander Ziem (eds.) (2011), Konstruktionsgrammatik III. Aktuelle Fragen und Lösungsansaetze. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.
Liang, John (2002), How do Chinese EFL learners construct sentence meaning: Verb-centered or construction-based? M.A. thesis, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
Östman, Jan-Ola & Mirjam Fried (2005), Construction Grammars: Cognitive Grounding and Theoretical Extensions. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Stefanowitsch, Anatol & Kerstin Fischer (2008), Konstruktionsgrammatik II: Von der Konstruktion zur Grammatik. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.
Valenzuela Manzanares, Javier & Ana Maria Rojo Lopez (2008), What can language learners tell us about constructions? In Sabine De Knop & Teun De Rycker (eds.), Cognitive Approaches to Pedagogical Grammar: A Volume in Honour of Rene Dirven, 197-230. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wee, Lionel (2007), Construction grammar and English language teaching. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching 3(1): 20-32.
Welke, Klaus (2011), Valenzgrammatik des Deutschen: Eine Einführung. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Keynote speakers
Adele Goldberg (Princeton University)
Thomas Herbst (Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Francisco Jose Ruiz de Mendoza Ibanez (Universidad de La Rioja)
Dominique Willems (Universiteit Gent)

Important dates
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 2 June 2013
Notification of acceptance: end of July 2013
Conference: 8 and 9 November 2013

Venue
Universite Saint-Louis
Rue du Marais 119
1000 Brussels
Belgium

In association with
Seminaire des Sciences du Langage (SeSLa) of the Universite Saint-Louis in Brussel
Institute for Language and Communication (IL&C), Universite catholique de Louvain

Organizing committee
Sabine De Knop (Universite Saint-Louis, Bruxelles) (chair)
Gaetanelle Gilquin (Universite catholique de Louvain & FNRS) (chair)
Sylvie De Cock (Universite Saint-Louis & Universite catholique de Louvain)
Françoise Gallez (Universite Saint-Louis & Institut Libre Marie Haps)
Samantha Laporte (Universite catholique de Louvain)
Dominique Longree (Universite de Liege & Universite Saint-Louis)
Fanny Meunier (Universite catholique de Louvain)
Fabio Mollica (Universita degli Studi di Milano)

Scientific committee
Geert Brone (Lessius Hogeschool & KU Leuven)
Bert Cappelle (Universite de Lille III)
Timothy Colleman (Universiteit Gent)
Adele Goldberg (Princeton University)
Stefan Th. Gries (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Thomas Herbst (Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet Erlangen-Nurnberg)
Martin Hilpert (Universite de Neufchatel)
Thomas Hoffmann (Universitaet Osnabrück)
Laura Janda (Universitetet i Tromsø)
Alexander Lasch (Technische Universitaet Dresden)
Fanny Meunier (Universite catholique de Louvain)
Fabio Mollica (Universita degli Studi di Milano)
Martin Pütz (Universitaet Landau)
Francisco Jose Ruiz de Mendoza Ibanez (Universidad de La Rioja)
Paul Sambre (Lessius Hogeschool & KU Leuven)
Doris Schonefeld (Universitaet Leipzig)
Graeme Trousdale (University of Edinburgh)
Lieven Vandelanotte (Universite de Namur)
Dominique Willems (Universiteit Gent)
Stefanie Wulff (University of Florida)
Alexander Ziem (Universitaet Dusseldorf)

Abstract submission
Submissions are welcome for 20-minute oral presentations and posters. Abstracts of no more than 500 words (+ references) can be sent by email to calp2013.fusl at gmail.com<mailto:calp2013.fusl at gmail.com> until 2 June 2013. Please include the following information in the main body of your email: author’s name, affiliation, email address, presentation title and preferred mode of presentation (oral presentation or poster). Notification of acceptance will be sent by the end of July 2013.
Abstract layout:
Word document of up to 500 words, single-spaced, font size 12, Times New Roman, 2.5 cm margins on all sides. All figures and tables must fit within the page margins.

Contact: Sabine De Knop, calp2013.fusl at gmail.com<mailto:calp2013.fusl at gmail.com>

Website: http://www.fusl.ac.be/calp2013/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/edling/attachments/20130516/7f0b0742/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
Edling mailing list
Edling at bunner.geol.lu.se
http://bunner.geol.lu.se/mailman/listinfo/edling