Mental Model Theory and Its Application in Teaching of English Tense and Aspect

Mental Model Theory claims that the human cognitive system simulates the mechanisms of the external world, predicts the development of events, makes plans, and solves problems by constructing mental models. Humans build models based on information provided in communication to reason. Inaccurate reasoning may occur when individuals lack sufficient information and fail to construct all possible models. This theory challenges the dominant behaviorist paradigm and contests the rule-based Mental Logic Theory, and has become one of the core concepts in cognitive psychology since its proposal, exerting extensive influence on psychology, linguistics, and even educational domains, and thereby, offering a novel psycholinguistic perspective for language instruction. This article, first reviews the origins, development, core tenets, and fundamental characteristics of Mental Model Theory. It then makes a comparative analysis of learning outcomes between the pilot class and conventional instructional class, and is dedicated to applying research findings on mental models to the instruction of English tense and aspect, with the aim of overcoming the negative influence of language transfer among Chinese learners and exploring effective approaches to teaching and learning English tense and aspect.