The Directionality of Possessive ('s) and (of) Constructions in the English Language and its Cognitive Effect on Students’ Learning

Abstract

Students are often accused of their slow learning, but throughout all this time, we have overlooked an important point: the design of the curriculum materials, which may be the reason behind mental burden and learning problems .To study this phenomenon, we adopted one of the linguistic cases of possessive constructions: the Saxon genitive ('s) which curricula emphasize on and clarify it and the of-construction which neglecting . This omission, despite the form's real-world existence, causes significant confusion and confusion for learners meeting it. . While often semantically they corresponding, these assemblies are differ in their linear directionality, which may impose varying levels of mental effort and need diverse conceptual scanning processes. The study focuses on a sample of 30 2nd intermediate female students. Using an adapted subjective rating scale based on Kirschner et al. (2012), The teacher measured time and effort through observation and calculated the time has been required to comprehend the two sentences in the form by using a wristwatch .students showed perceived mental effort and directional sense for target sentences that expose to it. Results showed a statistically significant difference in effort of comprehening the content of sentences, in one hand the s-genitive shows the vast majority of students (80%) found it required "very little effort" and take (3-5 seconds)," with only (20%_) reporting "very much effort" and take (7-10 seconds) to comprehend the content of target sentence. on other hand the of-construction, the ratio was nearly inverted, with (63% )reporting "very much effort" and take (7-10 seconds)and only (37% )reporting "very little effort" with (3-5 seconds). Directionality judgments were inconsistent across both structures, students took varies time to identify their sense of directionality of sentences . The findings propose that linear directionality and constructional familiarity significantly affect cognitive burden during language comprehension. The study comes concludes with and recommendations for curriculum design informed by cognitive linguistics principles to optimize instructional efficiency.