Chapter 2. L2 developmental education and systemic theoretical instruction

One of the difficult problems for language learners to master in English is verb+noun collocations, particularly with regard to verbs such as make and do. Using the educational framework informed by sociocultural psychology referred to as systemic theoretical instruction (STI), this chapter describes one aspect of a larger classroom study carried out in a Taiwanese college which addressed particularly problematic verb+noun collocations. This chapter deals with two of the five verbs addressed in the study: make and do. Instruction consisted of two major components: one focused on the meanings of the relevant collocations as derived from cognitive linguistic research; the other, involved students verbally and visually explaining their understandings of the meanings of the verb+noun collocations as a way of internalizing the appropriate meanings, as called for in STI. Student development is traced through their verbalizations and schematic drawings of the meanings of the verb+noun collocations.