Conceptual change in language teaching and learning: Why and how lexical concepts drive meaning construction differently across languages

Abstract

Teaching and learning based on conceptual change, henceforth TaLCC, have increasingly gained momentum in education. This development stems from recent findings that TaLCC facilitate learner's deep reasoning and profound understanding of complex problems. One explanation for this is TaLCC's scaffolding of self-regulated learning, which, as argued by Self-Determination Theory (e.g. Deci and Ryan 1985), facilitates learner motivation and learning performance. In this paper I adapt the basic assumptions of TaLCC to language teaching and learning. The focus of this paper is on word meaning and vocabulary learning. On the basis of Evans' (e.g. 2006) Lexical Concepts and Cognitive Models Theory I explicate word meaning via so-called cognitive model profiles. I outline a method for language learners to construct cognitive model profiles from a word's co-textual environment explicating and contrasting lexico-semantic regularities and idiosyncrasies of translation equivalents in the learner's L1 and the target language. © 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.