A cognitive approach to teaching deictic motion verbs to German and Italian students of Spanish

In this study we compare two instruction approaches (cognitive and traditional) to the teaching of Spanish deictic motion verbs -ir, venir, llevar and traer- to German and Italian learners. We also analyse whether the students' first language (Italian or German) influences the results of the cognitive methodology we applied. The Cognitive Instruction combined the basic principles of Cognitive Grammar with those of Processing Instruction for activities in which students practice both comprehension and production. We carried out a survey of 274 university students who were learning Spanish (Level B1) at universities in Italy and Germany. Students carried out a test prior to receiving the instruction and three tests subsequently, one immediately afterwards, the second a week later and the third, a month later. The cognitive methodology proved to be beneficial and positive. The students who received cognitive instruction made better form-meaning connections and showed higher performances in the use of deictic motion verbs than those who received traditional instruction. The learners' L1 did not appear to influence the results of the groups that received the cognitive method of instruction.