The Relationship Between Cognitive Linguistic Approach and Right-Hemisphere of the Brain in Developing EFL Learners' Pragmatic Proficiency

Abstract

The present study explored how the metaphor awareness-raising approach affects the involvement of the right hemisphere in developing EFL learners’ knowledge regarding the different degrees of politeness embedded within different request expressions. The study results show that the metaphor awareness-raising group performed significantly better than the control group with regard to acceptability judgment and speaking tests at post-test. These data revealed that the metaphor awareness-raising approach could promote L2 learning because it aided input enhancement and concept projection; through these aspects, the participants were able to comprehend an abstract concept: the degree of politeness in terms of the spatial concept of distance. Accordingly, the proximal-distal metaphor enabled the study participants to connect the newly spatio-visualized concept of distance to the different politeness degrees attached to different request expressions; furthermore, they could recall them with the left side of the mouth being wider than the right. This supported certain findings from previous studies that indicated the possible involvement of the brain's right hemisphere in metaphor processing.