L2 German Learners' Perceptions and Use of an Online Semantic Frame‐Based Dictionary (original) (raw)

To know a word receptively and productively, second language (L2) learners must have knowledge of a word’s form, meaning, and use, including grammatical functions and collocational patterns (Nation, 2001). Frame semantics (Fillmore, 1982) provides a useful model to help L2 learners deepen their lexical knowledge. A functional and construction grammar developed to explain form-function pairings, the model views “frame” as a meaningful linguistic structuring device evoked by sets of related lexical items. These diverse lexical units exist along a continuum, theorized in Construction Grammar, from individual to multi-word to abstract schematic constructions. Building on recent studies that explore frame semantics’ potential for L2 vocabulary acquisition (e.g., Atzler, 2011; Boas, 2013; Boas, 2016), this study investigates how beginning and intermediate L2 learners of German (n=65) perceive and report interacting with a frame-based dictionary, the German Frame-Semantic Online Lexicon (G...