Pedagogical potential of Cognitive Grammar descriptions for the pluperfect in Spanish. Language users’ judgements and corpus searches as pre-experimental validation criteria

Abstract

This paper deals with three validation criteria applicable to measuring the pedagogical potential of Cognitive Grammar descriptions: (1) learner corpus searches, (2) native- speaker corpus searches, and (3) language users’ judgements. Second/foreign language grammar studies usually focus on the validation of grammatical conceptualizations with learners, sometimes overlooking the paramount need to test them against users’ judgements and corpus searches. This, in turn, can be a potential source of statistically non-significant research results which can hinder the attempted efficacy of those pedagogical artefacts. The specific linguistic item addressed in this paper is the Spanish pluperfect. This tense rarely poses great pedagogical challenges in form or use alike. However, it is somewhat elusive in learners' output, being frequently avoided or replaced by other verb tenses. This paper explores the steps taken within the research project IMAGINE in relation to this tense. First, learner corpus searches are carried out to identify usage error. Second, grammatical descriptions are developed within the Cognitive Grammar framework and built upon both a temporal and an epistemic perspective, with graphic representations and discursive contextualization extensively employed. Finally, the testing of some aspects of these pedagogical conceptualizations are conducted by means of corpus searches (Sketch Engine) and language users’ judgements.