AConstructivistViewofTeaching

MaXiaohui

【Abstract】Language is a dynamically evolving system. A word in its long development will little increasingly extend from a simplex meaning to a number of meanings，resulting in what is generally referred to as lexical polysemy. How to learn these words effectively？ In this paper，a constructivist view of teaching and corpus were used to present how to teaching preposition effectively.

【Key Words】preposition； constructive； corpus

English prepositions are widely used in language communication. English prepositions have simple forms，but they have various meanings and their usages are complex. According to the survey about some students learning situation of preposition on，the article concludes the problems on students study in English.

Meaning is not a thing，which involves what is meaningful to us. Nothing is meaningful in itself. （Fauconnier，[1] 46）Meaningfulness stems from the experience of functioning as a being of a certain sort in an environment of a certain sort. For this reason，we must obtain the simplified experience to explain the language well. Language does not reflect reality，it constructs it.

Table 1 the Chi-Square Calculator of AT in BNC and SWECCL

Corpus provides research data with this thesis. Based on BNC and SWECCL，this paper focuses on the study of the use and distribution of the preposition “at”，the semantic meanings of this preposition could be classified into 7 categories. Firstly，we statistic the relevant data in BNC and SWECCL to get the entire differences of use frequency of preposition at. And then，we statistic the data of each semantic meaning and discuss the differences of use frequency in detail. Opening AntCons software，retrieve in/ on/ at with in the corpus，get the related frequency of the three words. Select 200 concordances randomly of each words in each corpus. Abandon a few sentences for lack of contexts. Make data processing and analysis based on Chi-Square Calculator in order to discuss and analyze the usage of prepositions AT. Among them，non-spatial metaphoric meanings are more frequent than that of spatial meaning.Table 1 represents the standard frequency of AT in BNC and SWECCL. On the one hand，It shows that Chinese college students use more preposition AT ，ON，IN than native speakers. Chi-Square test （P<0.01） indicated that there are very significant differences in two sets of data. On the other hand，Chinese college students use non-spatial metaphoric meanings is less than spatial meanings. For instance，CAUSE and CONDITION are both of abstract meanings of prepositions AT.

Traditionally，linguists have studied polysemy from lexical and syntactic level. Learning is inherently a social activity as learners participate in communities of practice，in which novices are inducted into specific ways of thinking and talking about the world. Such communities supply their own ‘discourses or forms of language usage so that others can share common interests，identify each other，and distinguish their community from others. Hence，when teaching young learners，we should not expect them to use this to sorting out the rules of the language. It is more significant at this stage to provide experiences in the target language which are related to aspects of the students own world.

It lay stress on the fact that there are no two teachers and no two teaching situations are ever the same. Teachers need to become more self-aware with attention to their beliefs and the ways in which they make sense of the world，particularly with regard to their opinions about education and how those views themselves come to be shapes. Teachers also need to be realize that they themselves are being construed by their learners and that their words，their actions and their interactions form part of every individual learners own construction of knowledge.

References：

[1]Gilles Fauconnier.Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language.Cambridge University，1994.

[2]Lakoff，G.Women，Fire and Dangerous Things：What Categories Reveal about the Mind.Chicago：University of Chicago Press.1987.

[3]藍純（Lan，Chun）.從認知角度看漢語的空間隱喻[J].外語教學與研究.1999.

[4]束定芳（Shu，Dingfang）.認知語言學研究方法[M].上海：上海外語教育出版社.2013.

[5]束定芳（Shu，Dingfang）.認知語言學研究方法，研究現狀，目標與內容[J].西華大學學報（哲學社會科學版）.2013.

作者簡介：

馬曉惠（1988-），女（漢族），沈陽人，沈陽師范大學碩士研究生，主要從事語言學研究。