FRAME SEMANTICS AND AN EFL CONTEXT IN BRAZIL: AN ESSAY ON THE CASE FOR EPISTEMOLOGICAL GAINS OF AN APPLIED COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS ENTERPRISE

Abstract

The essay discusses the place of Fillmorean scholarly work within Cognitive Linguistics and focuses on Scenes-and-Frames Semantics therein. After a bird’s eye view of the importance of the Frame concept in our research trajectory, we sum up its relevance to Applied Cognitive Linguistics: it is a tool suitable to verifying if the differences in depth and granularity for the mental lexicon English L1 or near-native proficient speakers and Brazilian advanced EFL college learners reveal can account for difficulties the latter group may face in interpreting a theater play script by Edward Albee. Methodologically, an ongoing experimental investigation backs up the theoretical discussion and hints at pedagogical insights: we need to render the instruction of lexical items in EFL environment more in tune with the encyclopedic knowledge structure as shared by competent English speakers, thus making the teaching/learning of vocabulary at university more efficient and psychologically grounded.