Improving the Applicability of Cognitive Linguistics: A Research-Informed, Classroom-Oriented Perspective

This position paper explores the potential of Cognitive Linguistics (CL) in second and foreign language education from a research-informed, classroom-oriented perspective. Rather than evaluating CL through linguistic theory or experimental data alone, the paper draws on teachers’ and learners’ practical experiences with CL, as reported in available literature as much as experienced by the authors in their own classrooms, to reimagine what could help with the dissemination of CL. The discussion centers on the notion of “particularizability,” that is, how an innovation can be made usable for a specific teacher or learner cohort within a specific context and how adopting this perspective is likely to improve the dissemination of CL. The discussion begins by documenting the gradual shift in cognitive–pedagogical research toward a research-informed, classroom-oriented perspective in which teachers, learners, and researchers collaborate to enhance the ecological validity of CL insights. The paper then proposes Design-Based Research as a powerful methodology for co-developing and iteratively refining CL-based teaching interventions that are contextually responsive and pedagogically relevant.