In the empirical studies with respect to L2 acquisition of English prepositions, many of the task designs utilized judgment tasks (cf. Coventry, Carmichael, and Garrod 1994, Lin 2009), structured exercises (Hsu 2005), and completion tasks (cf. Coventry, Carmichael, and Garrod 1994, Lin 2004, Hsu 2005, and Lin 2009) to evaluate learners’ competence and performance. However, few of them noticed the variability problem with the use of elicitation procedures. Given this, the present study drew on two experimental tasks to collect data, one comprehension task and one production task. The two tasks were implemented to investigate the subjects’ competence and performance of English preposition. In order to lower the variability problem and compare the learners’ performances across the two tasks at the same time, test questions in both comprehension and production tasks were designed with contextual cues.
Becker and Carroll (1997) mentioned Klein’s (1991b) idea of the interrelation between expression and meaning in language acquisition by emphasizing that language users have
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cognitive prerequisites for processing the target language input. There are various types of knowledge a learner needs to require in order to process spatial expressions. In addition to knowledge of the forms and the meanings of spatial prepositions, knowledge of the conditions of use of a form is also vital in language learning. In particular, contextual knowledge referring to interpretations which rely on positions of the speaker and the addressee of the utterance is crucial. Besides, non-linguistic knowledge about the world which pertains to the shape, size, and function of entities or the typical type of object-configurations is of importance as well. It can obviously be assumed that these types of knowledge altogether are to be reflected in the acquisition process. Hence, contextual information was provided and designed in two tasks.
In this way, the task design of the present study was based on the classification discussed in Section 2.3. Both comprehension and production tasks were devoted to the four geometric types (i.e., point, line, surface, and volume) of English preposition focusing on two types of spatial information (i.e., contact, non-contact) and two types of meanings (i.e., literal, metaphorical) with four fillers including in each task. The following sections introduce the details of the two tasks.
3.2.1 The Comprehension Task
A grammaticality judgment task (i.e., the GJ Task) with multiple choices was employed.
The GJ Task of the present study focuses on how the subjects comprehend English prepositions which are exploited in literal context and metaphorical context. For the sentences in literal context, the four geometric types (i.e., point, line, surface, and volume) with spatial information (i.e., contact and non-contact) were examined to see how the subjects’ conceptualize spatial representations through English spatial prepositions with the contextual cues. For sentences in metaphorical contexts, the same four geometric types were presented with conversations between two speakers to see if the subjects can comprehend the
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spatial prepositions exploited in metaphorical context. Therefore, two parts of the grammaticality judgment task in multiple choice formats contained 40 sentences in total in which 20 questions in literal context and 20 questions in metaphorical context. Both of them were given with contextual cues, as Table 3-2 shows below.
Table 3-2 Test Items Designed for the Grammaticality Judgment Task Geometric
There were four choices for each sentence in literal context. The subjects were instructed to choose the appropriate one according to literal or metaphorical contexts. Table 3-3 presents an example of the test sentences in literal context which is used in Part I of the GJ Task.
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Table 3-3 A Test Sample for Part I of the GJ Task A: Where can I make a phone call?
B: There’s a telephone box __ the crossroads.
(A) over (B) at (C) to (D) for Answer: (B)
The correct answer is (B), where the location of Figure is considered a point and the spatial information of contact between Figure and Ground is specified with the preposition at. Table 3-4 presents an example of the test sentences in metaphorical context which is used in Part II of the GJ Task.
Table 3-4 A Test Sample for Part II of the GJ Task
A: Do you think the president can solve the crisis this time?
B: Don’t worry. The president always has enough advisors ___ his elbow.
(A) at (B) on (C) in (D) for Answer: (A)
The subjects were asked to answer the question according to the provided contextual cues for each sentence in metaphorical context, as shown in Table 3-4. Option (A) is the correct answer where at his elbow metaphorically denotes ‘something or someone is very near and convenient’.
3.2.2 Production Task
In addition to examining the subjects’ comprehension on the usage of spatial prepositions and its metaphorical extension used in non-literal context, a production task was employed in the present study. In the previous studies, how abstract senses were specified in
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the metaphorical usage of English prepositions had been rarely explicated. Hence, a sentence completion task (i.e., the SC task) was targeted on the similar classification for the comprehension task to investigate how the subjects’ conceptual mappings proceeded with respect to their spatial understanding, as shown in Table 3-5:
Table 3-5 Test Items Designed for the Sentence Completion Task Geometric
In this sentence completion task, the subjects were asked to fill the appropriate English prepositions in blanks according to the contexts given in literal or metaphorical contexts.
Thus, the total questions of two parts (i.e., literal context and metaphorical context) were 40 including 8 fillers. Table 3-6 presents an example of the test sentences in literal context used in Part I of the SC Task.
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Table 3-6 A Test Sample for Part I of the SC Task
A: Will you go to see the demonstration flight this Saturday?
B: Sure. It’s going to be exciting to watch the jet plane taxiing ___ the runway.
Answer: on
The preposition on is the correct answer. Even though the spatial relation between the Figure and the Ground is literally expressed by the preposition on, the direction of the jet plane and the runway denote a linear and horizontal feature. Hence, such description is categorized into the geometric type of line. Table 3-7 presents an example of the test sentences in metaphorical context used in Part II of the SC Task.
Table 3-7 A Test Sample for Part II of the SC Task A: What’s the sound?
B: It’s Lilly. She’s singing ___ top of her lungs upstairs.
Answer: at
The subjects were asked to produce the appropriate preposition according to the provided context in each sentence. As shown in Table 3-7, the preposition at is the correct answer in the context where the Ground is categorized as the geometric type of point without spatial information of contact between the Figure and the Ground in the real world.