Swedish as Second Language
Research in Swedish as a second language focuses on learning materials intended for second language speakers and deals with the presentation of spatial relations in different types of learning materials, both traditional and digital.
Spatial relations are a basic cognitive category and their linguistic expression is a central part of the vocabulary. According to cognitive linguistics, our thinking is closely linked to physical reality and dependent on human biological life. However, different languages conceptualize a spatial situation in different ways and this can cause problems when learning other languages, not only with the prototypical spatial meanings of words but also with their non-spatial extensions. In teaching materials, spatial relations are usually illustrated by means of different types of pictures, but the question is whether a picture really "says more than a thousand words" for learners with a different language background or whether one needs to know the language in order to interpret and understand what the picture illustrates. Analysis of spatial expressions using cognitive linguistics can provide answers to these questions.