Perception of do-constructions in interrogatives sentences in English by beginners: an investigation of Cognitive Linguistics approach

Abstract

This investigation is an attempt to show the degree of effectiveness of handling rods associated with ‘noticing’ techniques, when teaching some interrogative structures in English 2 in the context of formal instruction. The focus of the work was on the building of structures with do, did and does in the present and past simple. It is suggested that the hands-on activities with the plastic and colourful blocks enable learners to ‘actually’ see the auxiliaries, raising their awareness, a first step in mapping them out for future use. Samples of a group of adolescent learners’ written production are analysed and their improvement shown. The data include questions with do-constructions contrasted with questions with the modal can, as well as their combination with some wh-question words. This work is also an attempt to place this instance of pedagogical practice within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics where learning a language is a meaningful and collaborative enterprise, and where those involved in it need to learn to tackle the linguistic symbols and to organise them appropriately in chunks. The investigation shows that it is possible to use the principles proposed by the Cognitive Linguistics, which advocates pedagogical practices that helps learners to gradually build and entrench new language chunks in their Interlanguage, to inform and guide a communicative approach to teaching English.