A Cognitive Grammar Approach to Teaching Negative Suffixes in English as a Foreign Language

The present paper sheds new light on teaching the English negative suffixes -free and-less to Kurdish EFL students. To do so, the study weighs two pedagogical models in theirinstruction: traditional and modern. The traditional pedagogical model is form-focused,therefore it is of limited value for the development of language acquisition. The modernpedagogical model, inspired by Cognitive Grammar, is meaning-oriented, emphasizingsemantic aspects of grammatical structures, and improving critical thinking skills. Thestudy highlights the usefulness of Cognitive Grammar principles in grammar instruction.In Cognitive Grammar, the form of an expression is a reflection of its conceptual organization,which represents the specific construal imposed on its content. Based on this, anegative suffix is argued to have not only a morphological function but also a meaning ofits own which conditions its behaviour. The practical aim is to implement the construaltheory in the teaching of the negative suffixes -free and -less in an online-based classroom.In conclusion, the paper moderately supports teaching through a cognitive meaning-basedapproach.