Concept-based Language Instruction: Usage-based Linguistics and Sociocultural Theory in Teaching Japanese

This volume showcases how concept-based language instruction (C-BLI) can be effectively integrated into foreign language instruction. C-BLI is grounded in the relationship between theory, research, and practice, incorporating visual aids called SCOBAs (schemas for a complete orientating basis of action) designed to teach accurate scientific concepts. SCOBAs materialize L2 usage-based linguistic and cultural concepts to create tools that promote conceptual understanding and internalization. Three overview chapters lay out the book’s sociocultural theoretic foundations, the role of mediation, usage-based linguistics, and the concept of subjective construal; internalization and its role in re-mediating the mind for L2 learning; and L2 pragmatics teaching and assessment. Subsequent chapters enact praxis via classroom research on C-BLI. Each study focuses on a difficult-to-acquire area of Japanese pragmatics and/or grammar, incorporating SCOBAs that teach core concepts; instruction moves from SCOBA-mediated interactive lecture to internalization tasks involving languaging to language practice. Each chapter concludes with a section for critical reflection to inform future research and materials design. With its focus on research-teaching connections via praxis elucidating the power of linking concept-based language instruction with usage-based linguistics, this book will interest students and scholars of second language acquisition, language teaching and learning, applied linguistics, Japanese, and Asian languages. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.