Constructions in the Classroom: Examples of a Phraseodidactic Approach for the Teaching of L2 French

Abstract: Language learners and language teachers alike have long recognized the fact that there is more to learning a second language than simply learning grammar and vocabulary words. Such an approach misses the fact that there are certain sequences that are preferred by the native speaker, despite the very large number of possible formulations in any given language. Many terms have been used to refer to these preferred sequences, including formulaic language and phraseological units. However, these sequences occupy a more or less important position depending on one's theoretical underpinnings. In the current article, insights from an approach to language informed by construction grammar will be used in order to make suggestions concerning the teaching of constructions. The article will end with two specific and concrete pedagogical interventions for the teaching of French as a foreign language.Keywords: Phraseodidactics, Phraseology, Didactics, Construction GrammarIntroductionIn a recent publication, Wray (2013) observed that "[f]or as long as language learning is construed or practiced as the assemblage of single words using repeatable rules, formulaic language, under this definition, will be inherently troublesome to learners. " (p. 317). The troublesomeness referred to by Wray concerns the fact that formulaic language cannot be successfully accounted for by a strict grammar + lexicon approach to language. Although this type of modular approach allows for the generation of an infinite number of grammatical phrases, it is incapable of explaining (and, thus, allowing the language learner to understand) why, for example, absolument sur is much more common - and, thus, presumably preferred - in native French than the similar (and also entirely grammatical) string completement sur (Edmonds, 2013). As has been stressed more and more in the didactic and second language (L2) acquisition literature, there is much more to speaking a language than to producing grammatical sequences; one must know which of the myriad grammatical sequences that exist are in fact preferred by native speakers (NS) in a given context to express a given meaning. This problem of native-like selection (Pawley and Syder, 1983), which is daunting for language learners and language teachers alike, pleads for the need to give more attention in the language classroom to those sequences that are in fact preferred by NSs. In other words, formulaic sequences need to play a more important role in language teaching.This idea has given rise to much research into how learners acquire formulaic sequences and into how language teachers may best address this aspect of linguistic competence in the classroom. For English as a foreign language, Lewis' (1993) Lexical Approach has arguably been the most influential teaching method to date (Wray, 2000). For other languages, the idea of a phraseodidactic approach to language teaching has also been gaining ground (for an overview, see Gonzalez-Rey, 2010). According to Gonzalez-Rey, a phraseodidactic approach aims to allow learners to acquire an active phraseological competence in their L2. By placing formulaic language (which is also referred to as phraseological units) at the heart of an approach to language teaching, such authors attempt to offer an alternative to the conspicuous absence of phraseologically oriented activities in the language classroom. However, many of these approaches have simply suggested that formulaic language should be learned as lexicalized blocks, resulting in the replacement of word lists with formula lists. This type of pedagogical proposal is based, if only implicitly, on the assumption that formulaic language is stored and retrieved whole from memory, effectively functioning, from a psycholinguistic point of view, as a single word. Although there is indeed evidence to show that formulaic language is processed more quickly than matched non-formulaic sequences (Swinney and Cutler, 1979; Conklin and Schmitt, 2012), recent developments in largely usage-based approaches to linguistics may also provide a solid theoretical grounding for new reflections on phraseodidactics. …