Concept-based Language Instruction

Mayumi AjiokaConcept-based Language Instruction: Usage-based Linguistics and Sociocultural Theory in Teaching Japanese challenges the conventional rule-based approach to teaching Japanese grammar and pragmatics by proposing that grammar and pragmatics should be understood not as collections of rules to be memorized, but as components of a meaningmotivated conceptual system.Rather than emphasizing the mastery of isolated grammatical forms, the volume advocates concept-based language instruction (C-BLI), an approach that supports learners' meaning-making through conceptual understanding.Central to this perspective is the recognition that Japanese conceptualizes experience differently from languages such as English.This conceptual orientation is illustrated through the distinction between objective construal and subjective construal (p.8), a foundational concept that underlies many of the grammatical and pragmatic phenomena discussed throughout the volume.The volume's theoretical framework integrates usage-based linguistics and Vygotskian sociocultural theory.The authors note that their shared focus on meaning-making makes usage-based linguistics "a natural partner" (p.12) for sociocultural theory.Within concept-based language instruction, the two perspectives play complementary roles.